Description
The University of Virginia School of Data Science is seeking exceptional candidates for an open-rank tenured or tenure-track faculty position in Natural Language Processing (NLP), with particular emphasis on Large Language Models (LLMs). This search prioritizes faculty making foundational and methodological contributions that improve the understanding or capabilities of language models. We seek a scholar with deep technical expertise in advancing language models, including their architectures,…
learning objectives, data and training methods, adaptation and post-training, reasoning, evaluation, and efficient implementation. We especially welcome candidates who connect language model research with other areas of data science and with important domains across the University. A successful candidate will join a collaborative faculty community committed to research excellence, innovative teaching, interdisciplinary partnership, and the responsible advancement of data science and AI. Faculty have the opportunity to shape a rapidly evolving field while leveraging the strengths of one of the nation's leading public research universities, with exceptional opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration and scholarly impact.
Qualifications
We welcome candidates whose scholarship advances NLP and language modeling through foundational and methodological research. Areas of interest include, but are not limited to:
- Foundations, training, and efficiency of language models, including architectures, learning objectives, data curation, pretraining and post-training, scaling, long-context modeling and memory, continual learning, and efficient training and inference.
- Reasoning, knowledge, and agentic AI, including reasoning and planning, tool use, retrieval-augmented and knowledge-grounded generation, symbolic methods, autonomous and multi-agent systems, and human-agent collaboration.
- Multimodal and grounded language intelligence, including vision-language, speech- and audio-language, video-language, cross-modal learning, and world models.
- Multilingual and human-centered NLP, including low-resource methods, language diversity, linguistic and cognitive foundations, dialogue and interactive systems, and accessible and inclusive language technologies.
- Language models integrated with data science and domain discovery, including methods that connect language with structured, temporal, scientific, or multimodal data in areas such as science, engineering, health, education, social sciences, and public policy.
These areas are illustrative, and candidates are not expected to work across all of them. We are most interested in applicants with intellectual depth, original contributions, and a compelling long-term vision for advancing NLP and language model research.
Candidates must have earned, or be on track to earn, a PhD in Data Science, Computer Science, Computational Linguistics, Linguistics, Information Science, Statistics, Electrical or Computer Engineering, or a closely related field by August 2027 or appointment start date. A commitment to advancing the University's mission is essential for all candidates (https://provost.virginia.edu/faculty-handbook/mission-statement-university-virginia).
When applying, candidates should detail their research expertise and interests, their instructional experience, preferred teaching domain, and other scholarly interests. Candidates should have a strong publication record in leading peer-reviewed NLP, computational linguistics, and AI venues. Examples include ACL, EMNLP, NAACL, NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, TACL, Computational Linguistics, as well as other comparably selective venues appropriate to the work. Candidates for senior ranks (associate and full with tenure) must have a demonstrated record of excellence in research, teaching, and advising, in data science and/or closely related fields, and must have established a national/international reputation for contribution to the field in methodology, application, and impact. Candidates for assistant rank (tenure-track) must demonstrate the potential for excellence in methodological development and scientific impact in data science or a related field and have prior experience in educational-related activities.
Application Instructions
Complete an application online and attach:
- A current Curriculum Vitae or Resume.
- A Cover Letter that addresses your experience and qualifications for this position and your interest in data science.
- A research statement that describes your past research endeavors and contributions, as well as your future research goals (1-3 pages).
- A teaching statement that describes your teaching and mentoring experiences, and how they align with the UVA's mission statement (https://provost.virginia.edu/faculty-handbook/mission-statement-university-virginia). This statement should focus on your past or planned educational activities and how you see data science education evolving over the next decade (1-3 pages).
- Three reference letters or detailed contact information for three references.
- If available, reviews & course evaluations from up to 3 educational courses, seminars, and/or short courses.
Review of applicants will begin on or around December 1st, 2026, and the positions will remain open until filled. Rank will be commensurate with academic and industry experience. Appointments are available on 9-month contracts.
About the School
Founded in 2019, the School of Data Science at the University of Virginia (UVA) - the first of its kind in the nation - advances discovery, innovation, and societal impact through collaborative, open, and responsible data science research and education. The School brings together expertise across business, computation, engineering, humanities, law, mathematics, social sciences, statistics, and law to address complex, real world challenges. Its academic offerings include a B.S. in Data Science, an undergraduate minor, residential and online M.S. in Data Science programs, and a Ph.D. in Data Science, all designed to prepare students for a rapidly evolving data driven world. UVA researchers have access to the Afton and Rivanna high-performance computing systems, which provide tens of thousands of CPU cores, more than eight petabytes of storage, and NVIDIA A100, H200, and B200 GPUs. SDS also acquired additional H200 and B200 clusters to support its faculty's research and education.
For questions about the application process please contact Jennifer Kirkham, Manager for Faculty Affairs at the School of Data Science, at sdsfacultyaffairs@virginia.edu. For more information about the School of Data Science, see Faculty Jobs — School of Data Science.
The selected candidate will be required to complete a background check at time of offer per University Policy.
For more information about UVA and the Charlottesville community please see http://www.virginia.edu/life/charlottesville and https://embarkcva.com/.
UVA is in beautiful Charlottesville with easy access to the Blue Ridge Mountains, the eastern shore and the nation's Capital. Charlottesville is consistently ranked as one of the best places to live in the U.S. (e.g., see liveability.com) with access to outdoor activities, vibrant culture, and excellent schools and restaurants.
For more information on the benefits available to faculty at UVA, visit https://provost.virginia.edu/subsite/faculty-development and hr.virginia.edu/benefits.
Organization
In 1819, the University of Virginia established a new model for intellectual exchange and cross-disciplinary collaboration in higher education. Two hundred years later, as a major research institution, we continue to challenge conventions, lead with ingenuity and advance knowledge for the common good.
What began as an innovative idea has become one of the nation's leading public research universities, with over 21,000 undergraduate, graduate and professional students. UVA also has over 3,000 full-time faculty offering more than 400 degrees.
Each of the University's eleven schools has its own distinctive mission, working together to garner consistently high rankings—including #2 Best Value Public College (Princeton Review, 2016), #3 Public University in the Nation (U.S. News & World Report, 2016), and #3 Best Value Among Public Colleges (Kiplinger's, 2016).
As we invest in and strengthen our research capabilities, UVA seeks new faculty ready to uncover new insights, rewrite old rules and collaborate on intellectual discoveries.
Research Collaborations That Cross Disciplines
As an R1 institution, the University's research centers, consortia and laboratories are on the leading edge of discovery and technology, offering collaborative spaces for students and faculty to solve global problems.
Our professors are recognized members of major national scholarly and professional organizations, including the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Our faculty's engagement in interdisciplinary research is being facilitated by new research institutes specializing in everything from big data to brain functioning, and by cluster hires across schools.
Nationally Ranked Health System
UVA is also home to a nationally renowned academic medical center and the UVA Health System, which serves a three-part mission to treat patients, conduct translational research and train medical practitioners in a wide variety of disciplines.
Established as the nation's 10th medical school in 1825, the institution has since grown to include a 612-bed hospital and a Level I trauma center, nationally recognized cancer and heart centers, a Children's Hospital, and primary and specialty clinics throughout Central Virginia.
The UVA Medical Center is consistently ranked among the nation's best hospitals by the U.S. News & World Report magazine and has been named among the top 25 percent in seven specialties.
Inspiring Students, Inspired Teaching
The vast majority of UVA students come from the top 10% of their high school class, as well as from all 50 states, over 142 countries and a variety of socioeconomic backgrounds. Despite their diversity, all UVA students share a love of learning and a drive to achieve.
One of the reasons students choose Virginia is our unique residential culture. At UVA, the community of students, faculty and staff personifies the Jeffersonian idea that living and learning are connected. The Academical Village was constructed to support a unique residential experience, with faculty living in the Pavilions, students occupying Lawn rooms and the world-famous Rotunda at its heart. The University's residential culture continues to support this experience today—strengthened by students, faculty and staff rich in backgrounds, ideas and perspectives. Our unique culture is also paying dividends in innovation: UVA's faculty have generated more than 130 patents since 2010.
Perhaps most importantly, faculty come to UVA knowing that instruction is as important as research, and they pride themselves on their many teaching awards. Our best professors look for ways to encourage, mentor and develop tomorrow's leaders inside and outside the classroom.
Life in Charlottesville
Living in Charlottesville you'll find sophisticated restaurants, world-renowned wineries and breweries, cosmopolitan arts and music, friendly urban and suburban neighborhoods and a Piedmont landscape that has lured adventurous souls for centuries. No wonder the U.S. National Bureau of Economic Research named Charlottesville the "happiest city in America" in 2014.
In addition to UVA and its health system, several major employers have facilities in Charlottesville, including State Farm, Northrop Grumman, the U.S. Department of Defense, GE and others. Charlottesville is also becoming a center for innovative start-up businesses. The University also actively helps spouses and partners of faculty members build their networks and pursue employment opportunities with a wide variety of area employers.
The University of Virginia is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All interested persons are encouraged to apply including veterans and individuals with disabilities.
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