Research Associate - Bovi-Analytics Lab

Research Associate - Bovi-Analytics Lab

The College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS) is a pioneer of purpose-driven science and Cornell University's second largest college. We work across disciplines to tackle the challenges of our time through world-renowned research, education, and outreach. The questions we probe and the answers we seek focus on three overlapping concerns: We believe that achieving next-generation scientific breakthroughs requires an understanding of the world's complex, interlocking systems. We believe that access to nutritious food and a healthy environment is a fundamental human right. We believe that ensuring a prosperous global future depends on the ability to support local people and communities everywhere. By working in and across multiple scientific areas, CALS can address challenges and opportunities of the greatest relevance, here in New York, across the nation, and around the world.

The Bovi-Analytics Lab is at the forefront of digital innovation in the dairy industry, integrating artificial intelligence, advanced analytics, and software engineering to enhance dairy cattle management and farm operations. Our mission is to translate cutting-edge computational research into practical, scalable solutions for modern dairy farms. We develop machine learning models, decision-support tools, and digital platforms that improve production efficiency, herd health monitoring, labor optimization, and sustainability outcomes.

We are seeking a highly motivated and collaborative Research Associate with expertise in digital agriculture, applied machine learning, and interdisciplinary research. The successful candidate will collaborate closely with Dr. Miel Hostens, Associate Professor of Digital Dairy Management and Data Analytics. This position bridges advanced research and real-world deployment. The Research Associate will lead and contribute to interdisciplinary research projects, develop externally funded proposals, mentor students and junior researchers, and help operationalize AI-driven systems for the dairy industry.

Position Function

Under the direction of Dr. Miel Hostens, the ideal candidate will primarily be responsible to:

• Lead interdisciplinary research collaborations involving animal scientists, veterinarians, computer scientists, engineers, and industry partners.
• Conduct independent and collaborative scientific research in areas of GenAI and privacy preserving modeling in dairy science, ensuring methodological rigor, reproducibility, and high-impact scholarly output.
• Lead the design, architecture, and deployment of advanced AI systems, including machine learning, federated modeling frameworks, multi-agent systems, and AI pipelines for dairy farming applications.
• Develop, co-lead, and contribute to competitive grant proposals (federal, state, foundation, and industry sources), including large multi-investigator submissions, and contribute to sponsored project reporting and compliance requirements.
• Architect and maintain cloud-based ML environments (e.g., Azure, AWS, Databricks) including governance, role-based access control (RBAC), MLOps best practices, reproducible workflows, and CI/CD automation.
• Lead dissemination of scholarly outputs, publish in high-impact peer-reviewed journals, and present at national and international scientific conferences.
• Mentor graduate students, postdoctoral scholars, and other junior researchers in AI model development, reproducible research practices, and scholarly dissemination.
• Support laboratory operations and strategic growth, including project planning, research coordination, hiring and interviewing lab personnel, and maintaining collaborative research infrastructure.
• Contribute to outreach and dissemination efforts translating AI research into stakeholder-facing solutions for dairy sector.

Anticipated Division of Time

• Research & Development - 35%
• Funding Activities - 30%
• Technical Leadership & Consultation - 15%
• Publication & Dissemination - 15%
• Lab Management & Collaboration Coordination - 5%

Required Skills and Qualifications

• Ph.D. in Computer Science, Data Science, Animal Science (with computational emphasis), or a closely related field.
• Experience working in interdisciplinary research environments.
• Demonstrated deep understanding of dairy farm systems and operational management.
• Demonstrated ability to independently lead complex technical projects and collaborate across disciplines.
• Demonstrated expertise in machine learning, deep learning, statistical modeling, and AI system design applied to biological or agricultural systems.
• Experience architecting scalable AI pipelines, including model evaluation, deployment, and lifecycle management (MLOps).
• Experience with cloud-based ML platforms (e.g., Azure, AWS, Databricks) and version-controlled collaborative development environments (e.g., GitHub).
• Strong programming proficiency in Python; experience with ML frameworks such as PyTorch, TensorFlow, or equivalent.
• Publication records in peer-reviewed journals.
• Demonstrated ability to communicate complex technical findings to both scientific and applied audiences.
• Proven success mentoring undergraduate or graduate students.

Preferred Skills and Qualifications

• One or more years of postdoctoral research experience.
• Track record of contributing to or securing competitive external grant funding.
• Experience deploying AI/ML models in production or near-production environments.
• Project management experience: Project Management Professional (PMP) certification is a plus.
• Experience with generative AI systems and/or advanced GenAI certifications.
• International research collaboration experience and multilingual ability are helpful.

Salary

Commensurate with experience. Hiring range for this title is $80,000 - $85,000.

Appointment: This is a full-time, 1-year term, with possibility of renewal up to 3 years pending funding, available work and successful performance. This appointment can be fully remote. There may be occasions where the RA will be expected to return to the Ithaca campus for 3-5 days quarterly. The Research Associate should be prepared and available to come to the Ithaca campus. Should this occur, advanced notice will be provided to make necessary arrangements; however, advance notice cannot be guaranteed. The Research Associate will be responsible for their travel related expenses including meal, lodging, and transportation costs to and from Ithaca, unless applicable law requires otherwise.

Supervision

Primary supervisor is Dr. Miel Hostens, Robert and Anne Everett Associate Professor of Digital Dairy Management and Data Analytics, Animal Science

Supervision Exercised: Supervision of undergraduate student employees and research students for projects leading to senior theses and peer-reviewed publications.

To apply

Qualified candidates should submit a short cover letter, curriculum vitae, and contact information for three references via the website.

Applications will be reviewed as received, continuing until a suitable applicant is identified.