NUFFIELD/Swiss National Science Foundation Research Engineer

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 (Nuffield College, Oxford) and Dr Sonja Vogt (HEC, University of Lausanne) on the "Talking to Machines" research project funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation. The project is developing a platform that harnesses artificial intelligence to dramatically increase the scale and precision of global experimental trials.

The Project Engineer position is based at Nuffield College, working closely with the team of scholars in Oxford, the University of Lausanne, and collaborating institutions and partners worldwide. The core duties of the role include: leading the development, release, and maintenance of the project’s open-source Python platform; building and operating infrastructure that supports large agent runs at reasonable cost; building pipelines to turn public social media traces and survey, administrative, and census data into persona representations that condition LLM agents; designing and running evaluations to gauge the validity of synthetic results; developing LLM-guided adaptive experimental designs to enable the implementation of optimal treatments on-the-fly; implementing representation learning and text-as-data pipelines, employing learned representations of complex data for downstream (econometric) models; working closely with team members (data scientists, software engineers, and faculty) to adapt code used for data wrangling, machine learning, and optimisation to the specific needs of projects; and contributing to the workshops and conference programme through which the platform reaches the wider research community.

The successful candidate will hold an advanced degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Statistics or a related field. They should possess excellent Python programming skills and strong software engineering practice; demonstrated experience of building applications on top of LLMS, of running large volumes of LLM inference at scale, and of building and deploying cloud-based infrastructure; and proven capacity to manage work across several projects simultaneously, to learn new skills quickly, and to work well within collaborative and cross-functional teams. Strong  communication skills for engaging with technical and non-technical collaborators are essential. Experience of fine-tuning open-weight models using parameter efficient methods, knowledge of a deep learning framework (PyTorch, JAX/FLAX or Tensorflow 2.0) and the Hugging Face ecosystem; experience of LLM observability and cost tracking; and familiarity with experimental and causal methods would be an advantage.

The post is full-time (35 hours per week) and fixed-term for two years, and available from 1 November 2026 or as soon as possible thereafter. The salary offered is £59,133 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.

Further information about the position is available from:  https://umbraco.nuffield.ox.ac.uk/media/wn0fn13x/nuff-snrf_research_engineer_jd-final-17926.pdf

What We Offer

Beyond the salary, the post comes with a package that is difficult to find in industry:

• Research standing. Membership of the research community at Nuffield College — one of the world’s leading social science institutions — with the opportunity to co-author peer-reviewed publications and present at international workshops and conferences.
• Open-source visibility. The platform is released in the open; your work is public, citable, and portable.
• Generous leave. 41 days of paid leave per annum, inclusive of public holidays and College closure days.
• Pension. Membership of the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS), with a substantial employer contribution.
• College life. Free lunch, coffee, and tea while on duty; membership of the College’s healthcare plan (single membership paid by the College); an Employee Assistance Programme; and a discounted travel-to-work scheme.
• Development. The College supports relevant training and career development, with financial support where appropriate.

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:

i)    a curriculum vitae;

ii)   a two-page description of your engineering and research experience and how it meets the requirements of the position, examples of your experience working in highly collaborative environments, and your motivation for building software for social impact. Optional: we also welcome links to work samples, repositories, and portfolios of past projects.

iii)  You are also asked to arrange for two references to be submitted directly to the Interfolio platform by your referees in time for the closing date for applications. This can be done during your online application, when you will be asked to provide your referees’ names and email addresses. Interfolio will then send automated email reference requests to your referees, with an invitation to upload their confidential reference directly to the Interfolio platform.

APPLY

If you have any technical difficulties submitting your online application, please contact Interfolio at Interfolio-support@elsevier.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.elsevier.com/legal/privacy-policy. Information submitted via hard-copy is not processed through Interfolio.

The deadline for receipt of applications is Sunday 18^th October 2026. Applications will be reviewed as they are received, and candidates may be invited for interview in advance of the closing date; early application is strongly encouraged.

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.