NUFFIELD/Swiss National Research Foundation Research Engineer
Application Deadline: Friday 15 December 2023
Salary: £55,270 per annum
Nuffield College and the Faculty of Business and Economics (HEC) at the University of Lausanne seek to recruit a Research Engineer to work with Professor Ray Duch (Director of the Nuffield CESS) and Dr Sonja Vogt on the “Talking to Machines” research project, funded by the Swiss National Research Foundation. The project will focus on understanding how machines can play an important role in the dynamic design of experiments and includes the design of video experimental treatments aimed at global populations.
The Nuffield/Swiss National Research Foundation Research Engineer position is based at Nuffield College, and will involve collaboration with team members at the University of Lausanne, and other collaborating institutions throughout the world. The post is fixed-term for 4 years. The core duties of the role include: developing Generative (Multimodal) Models with specific application to the video treatments; developing Recommender Systems/Reinforcement Learning/Bandits that will enable the implementation of optimal treatments on-the-fly aspect of the project; implementing Representation Learning/Text-as-Data for the eventual analysis, employing learned representations of complex data, to be used for downstream (econometric) models; working closely with other team members to adapt code used for data wrangling, machine learning and optimization to specific contexts based on the needs of projects.
Successful candidates for the post should have a PhD (completed or close to completion) in Computer Science, Statistics, Economics or a related field. They should also possess excellent Python programming skills; strong knowledge of a deep learning framework (PyTorch, JAX/FLAX or Tensorflow 2.0), and experience/familiarity with the HuggingFace tools and libraries; experience incorporating ML-based workflows into recommender systems, and building and deploying a cloud-based infrastructure. They should demonstrate commitment to and alignment with the goals of the “Talking to Machines” project; ability to manage work across many different projects simultaneously, and to work well within collaborative and cross-functional team settings, and strong communication skills with both technical and non-technical partner organizations. For a full list of the essential and desirable selection criteria please see here:
The post is full-time (35 hours per week) and available from January 2024, or as soon as possible thereafter. The salary offered is £55,270 per annum. The Research Engineer will be employed by and primarily affiliated with Nuffield College where the successful candidate will receive supervision from and report to Professor Ray Duch.
The deadline for receipt of completed applications is Friday 15th December 2023. Applications will be reviewed as they are received and candidates may be invited for interview in advance of the closing date.
How to apply:
We invite you to apply online for this position by clicking on the “Apply” link below. This will take you to the Interfolio Web Recruitment System where you will need to register for an account (if you have not done so previously) and log in before completing an online application. For the online application you will be asked to complete an application form and a recruitment monitoring form, and to upload the following documents:
- A curriculum vitae including the names postal and e-mail addresses of two referees;;
- A two-page description of your research training and experience and how these meet the requirements of the position, examples of your data science experience working in highly collaborative environments, and your motivation for working in data science for social impact. Optional: We also welcome attachments showcasing work samples and portfolios of past projects;
- Please ask at least two referees to send references directly to the HR Officer (vacancies@nuffield.ox.ac.uk), also to arrive by 15th December 2023.
If you have any technical difficulties submitting your online application, please contact Interfolio at help@interfolio.com. For other queries, please contact the HR Department, vacancies@nuffield.ox.ac.uk. If, for your convenience, you wish to submit a hard-copy application, please contact the Nuffield College HR Department at vacancies@nuffield.ox.ac.uk. Interfolio is a US-based service which processes data on servers based outside the EEA. The Interfolio privacy policy can be viewed here www.interfolio.com/privacy-policy/. Information submitted via hard-copy is not processed through Interfolio.
Nuffield College promotes excellence in education and research, and is an equal opportunities employer committed to equality and valuing diversity. Applications are particularly welcome from women, from disabled people, and from black and minority ethnic candidates, who are currently under-represented in posts in the College.