Job description

Position as postdoctoral research fellow is available in the Language Technology Group of the Department of Informatics (IFI), University of Oslo, Norway.

The fellowship period is 4 years. 25% of the position will be dedicated to teaching activities. Starting date no later than 01.02.2020.

No one can be appointed for more than one Postdoctoral Research Fellowship at the University of Oslo.

We seek a highly motivated researcher with a strong track record in NLP. The ideal candidate should be able to demonstrate broad knowledge of neural architectures as applied to core NLP tasks, preferably with a focus on various types of semantic processing of text. Implementation experience and programming skills will also be given weight. The position presupposes a PhD degree or equivalent in Natural Language Processing, or in Computer Science with a clearly NLP-based thesis.

The successful candidate will be invited to participate in the definition of the scientific profile for this position, jointly with one or more post-doctoral 'supervisors' from the LTG permanent staff. The project will be expected to both be compatible with and complement current research at LTG, preferably creating points of contact with others in the group. Current prominent research activities at LTG include sentiment analysis (for Norwegian and English), detection and analysis of negation and hedges (for English and Norwegian), parsing into graph-structured representation of meaning, multi-lingual probing of linguistic knowledge in neural architectures, and in techniques for model adaptation to low-resource domains and languages.

A one-year equivalent of the position will be dedicated to teaching and related activities. The language technology group is responsible for several MSc- and BSc-level classes on various aspects of natural language processing, machine learning and programming. Teaching experience and pedagogical skills will be given weight in the evaluation, in particular of machine learning approaches to NLP.

For more information about the Language Technology Group (LTG) at IFI, see:

http://www.mn.uio.no/ifi/english/research/groups/ltg/

Qualification requirements

The Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences has a strategic ambition of being a leading research faculty. Candidates for this fellowship will be selected in accordance with this, and expected to be in the upper segment of their class with respect to academic credentials.

• The candidate must have a PhD or other corresponding education equivalent to a Norwegian doctoral degree in Natural Language Processing. Doctoral dissertation must be submitted for evaluation by the closing date. Only applicants with an approved doctoral thesis and public defence are eligible for appointment.
• The successful candidate has comprehensive knowledge of contemporary neural techniques and architectures in NLP, including for example (contextualized) embeddings, convolutional and recurrent networks, neural language modeling, and transfer and multi-task learning. Both a theoretical understanding of these approaches and practical experience (for example using frameworks like Keras, DyNet, PyTorch, or TensorFlow) are desirable.
• Fluent oral and written communication skills in English.

The main purpose of a postdoctoral fellowship is to provide the candidates with enhanced skills to pursue a scientific top position within or beyond academia. To promote a strategic career path, all postdoctoral research fellows are required to submit a professional development plan no later than one month after commencement of the postdoctoral period.

We offer

• salary NOK 523 200 – 605 500 per annum depending on qualifications in position as Postdoctoral Research Fellow (position code 1352)
• a professionally stimulating working environment
• vibrant international academic environment
• postdoctoral development programmes
• attractive welfare benefits and a generous pension agreement, in addition to Oslo’s family-friendly environment with its rich opportunities for culture and outdoor activities

How to apply

The application with attachments must be delivered in our electronic recruiting system using the “Apply for this job” button, and must include:

• Application letter
• Statement of research purpose
• CV (summarizing education, positions and academic work – scientific publications)
• Copies of educational certificates, transcript of records and letters of recommendation
• The most relevant and important publications and academic work that the applicant wishes to be considered by the evaluation committee (maximum 5)
• Names and contact details of 2-3 references (name, relation to candidate, e-mail and telephone number)

Foreign applicants are advised to attach an explanation of their University’s grading system. Please remember that all documents should be in English or a Scandinavian language.

Interviews with the best qualified candidates will be arranged.

Formal regulations

The main purpose of post-doctoral research fellowships is to qualify researchers for work in top academic positions within their disciplines.

Please see the guidelines and regulations for appointments to Postdoctoral fellowships at the University of Oslo.

According to the Norwegian Freedom and Information Act (Offentleglova) information about the applicant may be included in the public applicant list, also in cases where the applicant has requested non-disclosure.

The University of Oslo has an agreement for all employees, aiming to secure rights to research results etc.

The University of Oslo aims to achieve a balanced gender composition in the workforce and to recruit people with ethnic minority backgrounds. Thus, we invite applications from all interested individuals regardless of gender or ethnicity but would like to specifically encourage female candidates to apply.

Contact information

For further information, please contact:

• Associate professor Lilja Øvrelid, e-mail: liljao@ifi.uio.no

For technical questions regarding the recruitment system, please contact HR Adviser Torunn Standal Guttormsen, phone: +47 22854272, e-mail: t.s.guttormsen@mn.uio.no

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