"Postdoctoral Research Associate"

Job Details

Department: Computer Science - 318400

Posting Open Date: 01/17/2025

Application Deadline: 01/17/2026

Open Until Filled: No

Position Type: Postdoctoral Scholar

Position Title: Postdoctoral Research Associate

Vacancy ID: PDS004438

Full-time/Part-time: Full-Time Temporary

Hours per week: 40

FTE: 1

Work Location: Chapel Hill, NC

Position Location: North Carolina, US

Hiring Range: 75,000

Proposed Start Date: 04/01/2025

Estimated Duration of Appointment: 12 Months

Be a Tar Heel!: A global higher education leader in innovative teaching, research and public service, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill consistently ranks as one of the nation’s top public universities and is among is the top ten research universities in the nation for federal research expenditures as well as for federally funded social and behavioral sciences research and development. Here at Carolina, our highly skilled postdocs play a vital role in our research enterprise and towards our overall commitment to research excellence. Across many disciplines, postdocs contribute to the intellectual vitality of the University. They provide innovative ideas and perspectives, foster a stimulating research environment and advance knowledge within their fields. Postdocs are crucial members of our scientific research workforce, contributors to our research outputs and an important reason why Carolina is one of the leading public research institutions in the country. UNC-Chapel Hill offers postdocs comprehensive medical and vision coverage, paid leave, and benefits and services that support professional development and a healthy work/life balance. Chapel Hill regularly ranks as one of the best college towns and best places to live in the United States, a reputation guided by the diverse social, cultural, recreation and professional opportunities that span the campus and community.

Primary Purpose of Organizational Unit: The Department of Computer Science is one of 16 science departments and curricula in the College of Arts and Sciences. It is a major teaching department with more than 30 tenured/tenure track faculty, nine research faculty, and 28 adjunct faculty, who serve more than a thousand undergraduate students and hundreds of graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. Our driving research ideal is collaboration-as it has been since the founding of our department in 1964. We believe that computer science’s greatest purpose is in working with other scientists to solve problems in their own disciplines. Therefore, we actively seek opportunities to generate new research with our colleagues and with scientists in other departments across campus, including in science, medicine, and the humanities. Numerous computer science faculty members have adjunct or joint appointments in other departments, lead large interdisciplinary research groups, and collaborate with colleagues from multiple universities across the Research Triangle, the United States, and even the world.

Position Summary: A postdoctoral researcher position is available at UNC under Prof. Mohit Bansal in the UNC-NLP Lab. The focus of this NLP+ML postdoc position will include, but is not limited to, multimodal+embodied semantics, human-like language generation and Q&A/dialogue, and interpretable and generalizable deep learning. The duties of the postdoctoral scholar will include aiding the research of graduate students on NLP+ML projects and leading research directions complementary to theirs that fall within the scope of the lab. The postdoctoral research scholar will have some freedom to create a research agenda, as well as opportunities to advise graduate and undergraduate students in the lab, collaborate with other AI faculty (vision/robotics/ML) in the department and teach courses if they choose to do so.

Minimum Education and Experience Requirements: Applicants should have (or expect to receive before the start of the position) a PhD in Computer Science or EE/ECE on a topic in machine learning applied to natural language processing, computer vision, or a related area.

Required Qualifications, Competencies, and Experience: Strong publication record in NLP, ML, or related areas. Strong programming skills, including TensorFlow and/or PyTorch. Demonstrated strong communication, teamwork, and leadership skills.

Preferred Qualifications, Competencies, and Experience: Applicants should have (or expect to receive before the start of the position) a PhD in Computer Science or EE/ECE on a topic in machine learning applied to natural language processing, computer vision, or a related area. Strong publication record in NLP, ML, or related areas. Strong programming skills, including TensorFlow and/or PyTorch. Demonstrated strong communication, teamwork, and leadership skills.

Special Instructions: For information on UNC Postdoctoral Benefits and Services click here.