Postdoctoral Research Associate (PDRA) in Computational Linguistics

University of York - Department of Language and Linguistic Science

Location: York, Hybrid/On-site

Salary: £37,649 to £42,254 per annum

Hours: Full Time

Contract Type: Fixed-Term/Contract

Placed On: 26th September 2025

Closes: 19th October 2025

Job Ref: 14384

Based at University of York campus (with some remote working options available)

The Department of Language and Linguistic Science is seeking a Postdoctoral Research Associate (PDRA) in Computational Linguistics for a fixed term of two years to work on “Developing Y-ACCDIST’s robustness for use on Levantine Arabic dialects” - a subproject of the Common European Language Indication and Analysis (CELIA) project (led by the Immigration and Naturalisation Service of the Netherlands Ministry of Asylum and Migration and co-funded by the European Union), awarded to Project Lead Dr George Brown of Lancaster University with Co-Investigator Professor Sam Hellmuth at the University of York.

The Department is a leading centre in the UK for teaching and research in theoretical, experimental and empirical linguistics. In the most recent 2021 Research Excellence Framework, we ranked 1st overall in the UK in the Modern Languages and Linguistics unit of assessment for the quality of our research, impact and research environment.

We are looking for someone who can support development of a robust workflow for automatic speech recognition (ASR) in audio recordings of dialectal Arabic speech, to generate transcripts for use in training and testing of a system to provide semi-automatic language indications for Arabic language variants.

The ideal role holder will have experience of development and/or use of ASR workflows for dialectal Arabic speech, as well as the technical expertise to develop, document and evaluate aspects of this type of workflow. The role holder will also have a high level of proficiency in Arabic, ideally including one or more Levantine Arabic dialects, as well as an excellent command of English. Key duties and responsibilities will include:

• To support development, documentation and evaluation of a workflow for semi-automatic language indications for Arabic language variants, in an end-use context requiring gold-standard training data.
• To conduct individual and collaborative research.
• To develop and initiate collaborative working internally and externally
• To undertake appropriate organisational and administrative activities connected to the project.

Skills, Experience & Qualification needed

• PhD in Linguistics or Computer Science or another related field, or equivalent experience
• Knowledge of the linguistic and computational underpinnings of speech technology
• Ability to develop solutions for an ASR workflow in appropriate coding languages e.g. Python
• High level proficiency in English and Arabic, ideally including one or more Levantine Arabic dialects
• A strong background of knowledge of speech technology and/or natural language processing applications for Arabic, and proven familiarity with the challenges of research in this area is desirable
• Experience of working with different systems for orthographic representation or transcription of dialectal Arabic is desirable

Interview date: To be confirmed

For informal enquiries: please contact Professor Sam Hellmuth on sam.hellmuth@york.ac.uk.