Research Associate, Electrical & Software Engineering

University of Calgary; Calgary; Hybrid; CAD 65,000 - 85,000; Full time

Job summary

University of Calgary's Electrical & Software Engineering invites applications for a Research Associate. This 6-month, full-time fixed-term role supports a wearable edge-AI system for prehospital emergency care.

The role involves model development, validation, data management, and close collaboration with clinical collaborators and STARS Air Ambulance, with occasional travel to field sites and a 35-hour work week.

Qualifications

• Graduate degree (Master's or PhD) in electrical or software engineering, computer science, biomedical engineering, or a related field; an equivalent combination of education, training, and experience will be considered.
• Minimum of two years of experience developing and evaluating ML/DL models, including CV/NLP work.
• Proficiency in Python and modern DL frameworks (e.g., PyTorch, TensorFlow).
• Strong organizational, communication (verbal and written), and interpersonal skills.

Responsibilities

• Model development and integration of audio and video functions into a single synchronized pipeline for a wearable edge device.
• Validation and evaluation of the integrated system against prehospital scenarios using standard metrics.
• Data and experiment management, including handling sensitive health information and reproducibility.
• Collaboration with research team, clinicians, and end-user partner to refine requirements and inform integration decisions.

Skills

Python

ML & DL

Communication

Teamwork

Education

Master's or PhD in electrical or software engineering, CS, or related field

Tools

PyTorch

TensorFlow

Job description

Description

Electrical & Software Engineering in the Schulich School of Engineering invites applications for a Research Associate. This Full-time Fixed Term position is for approximately 6 months (based on length of grant funding), with the possibility of extension.

The Department of Electrical and Software Engineering, in the Schulich School of Engineering, conducts research and trains highly qualified personnel across engineering fields, including machine learning, computer vision, healthcare and edge computing.

This position reports to the faculty supervisor (Principal Investigator) and works as an individual contributor within a research team; it has no direct reports. The work supports a defined, term-limited research project that develops a wearable, multi-modal edge-AI system for prehospital emergency care. It requires close collaboration with internal and external stakeholders, including clinical collaborators and an operational end‑user partner (STARS Air Ambulance). The position works 35 hours per week and is part of Support Staff (AUPE). Work is primarily laboratory‑and computer-based; occasional travel to partner or field‑testing sites may be required.

Summary of Key Responsibilities (job functions include but are not limited to):

MODEL DEVELOPMENT AND INTEGRATION

• Develop, adapt, and integrate the audio (speech‑to‑text, treatment and medication extraction) and video (patient tracking, body‑region parsing, injury recognition) functions into a single synchronized pipeline on a compact edge device.


• Build the timing and association layer that aligns audio and video events to a shared timeline for the same patient.


• Optimize models to run within the size, weight, and power limits of a wearable platform, and generate confidence scores for outputs.

VALIDATION AND EVALUATION

• Design and run evaluations of the integrated system against representative prehospital scenarios, measuring the accuracy of fused outputs using standard performance metrics.


• Assess performance across patient subgroups (e.g., skin tone, body type, age, sex) to support fair and reliable results.


• Document validation protocols, findings, and limitations.

DATA AND EXPERIMENT MANAGEMENT

• Prepare, curate, and manage datasets for training and validation, handling sensitive and health‑related information in accordance with privacy requirements.


• Maintain reproducible experiment tracking, code, and records.

COLLABORATION AND KNOWLEDGE DISSEMINATION

• Collaborate with the research team, clinical collaborators, and the operational end‑user partner (STARS Air Ambulance) to refine requirements and inform integration decisions.


• Contribute to technical reports, presentations, and peer‑reviewed publications, and present results to the team and project partners.

GENERAL

• Contribute to project planning, milestone reporting, and continuous improvement.


• Perform other related duties as assigned.

Qualifications / Requirements

Required:

• Graduate degree (Master's or PhD) in electrical or software engineering, computer science, biomedical engineering, or a related field; an equivalent combination of education, training, and experience will be considered.


• Minimum of two years of experience either during graduate studies or in industry developing and evaluating machine learning and deep learning models, including work in computer vision and/or speech and natural language processing.


• Demonstrated experience training, optimizing, and benchmarking models using standard performance metrics (e.g., precision, recall, ROC‑AUC).


• Proficiency in Python and modern deep learning frameworks (e.g., PyTorch, TensorFlow).


• Strong organizational, communication (verbal and written), and interpersonal skills.


• Ability to work both independently and collaboratively within a multidisciplinary team.


• Ability to document methods and results clearly for technical and non‑technical audiences.

Good to have

• Experience deploying or optimizing models for resource‑constrained or edge hardware (e.g., NVIDIA Jetson) is an asset.


• Experience with multi‑modal data and sensor fusion is an asset.


• Experience working with clinical, healthcare, or other sensitive data, or in a regulated environment, is an asset.


• Knowledge of privacy and data‑handling requirements for health or personal information is an asset.

Application Deadline

September 2, 2026

We would like to thank all applicants in advance for submitting their resumes. Please note, only those candidates chosen to continue on through the selection process will be contacted.

This position is part of the AUPE bargaining unit, and falls under the Technical Job Family, Phase 1.

For a listing of all management and staff opportunities at the University of Calgary, view our Management and Staff Careers website.

About the University of Calgary

UCalgary is Canada's entrepreneurial university, located in Canada's most enterprising city. It is a top research university and one of the highest‑ranked universities of its age. Founded in 1966, its 36,000 students experience an innovative learning environment, made rich by research, hands‑on experiences and entrepreneurial thinking. It is Canada's leader in the creation of start‑ups Start something today at the University of Calgary. For more information, visit ucalgary.ca.

The University of Calgary has launched an institution‑wide Indigenous Strategy ii' taa'poh'to'p committing to creating a rich, vibrant, and culturally competent campus that welcomes and supports Indigenous Peoples, encourages Indigenous community partnerships, is inclusive of Indigenous perspectives in all that we do.

The university's commitment to the Indigenous Strategy is evident through the oversight of 18 Elders serving on the Circle of Advisors and the many unit‑based circles working towards implementation of the strategy including the Faculty Advisory Circle and teams such as the Office of Indigenous Engagement, the Writing Symbols Lodge, and the Indigenous Research Support Team. Many Indigenous‑based events and processes are impacting curriculum, programming and polices at the University of Calgary.

As an equitable and inclusive employer, the University of Calgary recognizes that a diverse staff/faculty benefits and enriches the work, learning and research experiences of the entire campus and greater community. We are committed to removing barriers that have been historically encountered by some people in our society. We strive to recruit individuals who will further enhance our diversity and will support their academic and professional success while they are here. In particular, we encourage members of the designated groups (women, Indigenous peoples, persons with disabilities, members of visible/racialized minorities, and diverse sexual orientation and gender identities) to apply. To ensure a fair and equitable assessment, we offer accommodation at any stage during the recruitment process to applicants with disabilities. Questions regarding [diversity] EDI at UCalgary can be sent to the Office of Institutional Commitments ([e-mail]) and requests for accommodations can be sent to People & Culture ([e-mail]).

Do you have most but not all the qualifications? Research show that women, racialized and visible minorities, and persons with disabilities are less likely to apply for jobs unless they meet every single qualification. At UCalgary we are committed to achieving equitable, diverse, inclusive and accessible employment practices and workplaces and encourage you to apply if you believe you are right for this role.

We encourage all qualified applicants to apply, however preference will be given to Canadian citizens and permanent residents of Canada.