PostDoc Position at EPFL on Multimodal Foundation Models in Collaboration with Novartis

École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne, EPFL; Lausanne; On-site; CHF 90,000 - 110,000; Full time

Job summary

EPFL, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, invites applications for a postdoctoral position in multimodal foundation models, conducted in collaboration with Novartis. The AIMM Lab seeks a researcher with expertise in large-scale AI development and a biology background.

The role focuses on core architecture design, pretraining at scale, and integration into agentic interfaces, with dedicated access to CSCS and the Swiss AI Initiative, and opportunities for publication.

Qualifications

• PhD in ML, CS, computational biology or closely related field (completed or near completion).
• Demonstrated experience in large-scale AI development, including pretraining, fine-tuning, or scaling on substantial compute.
• Solid biological background; familiarity with multiple biological data modalities is expected.
• Strong publication record at top-tier ML conferences and/or life science journals.
• Excellent communication skills and enthusiasm for interdisciplinary research.

Responsibilities

• Multimodal model development: pretraining at scale and integration into interfaces.
• Collaborate closely with Novartis AI teams and EPFL AIMM Lab.
• Advance research directions across multimodal data modalities and translational applications.

Skills

Large-scale AI development

Interdisciplinary collaboration

Education

PhD in machine learning, computer science or computational biology

Job description

Select how often (in days) to receive an alert:

EPFL, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, is one of the most dynamic university campuses in Europe and ranks among the top 20 universities worldwide. The EPFL employs more than 6,500 people supporting the three main missions of the institutions: education, research and innovation. The EPFL campus offers an exceptional working environment at the heart of a community of more than 18,500 people, including over 14,000 students and 4,000 researchers from more than 120 different countries.

PostDoc Position at EPFL on Multimodal Foundation Models in Collaboration with Novartis

General

The Artificial Intelligence in Molecular Medicine (AIMM) Lab, led by Prof. Charlotte Bunne at EPFL, sits at the interface of computer science and the life sciences, affiliated with both the School of Computer and Communication Sciences and the School of Life Sciences, as well as the EPFL AI Center. As part of an industry collaboration with Novartis, the lab is opening a postdoctoral position on multimodal model development.

We are recruitinga postdoctoral researcher with strong expertise in large-scale AI development and a background in biology. Working in close collaboration with Novartis, the position focuses on the development of multimodal biological foundation models: from core architecture design and pretraining at scale to integration into agentic interfaces. The role comes with dedicated access to the Swiss National Supercomputing Centre (CSCS) and the Swiss AI Initiative.

Research directions include

• Multimodal model development: novel pretraining objectives, tokenization, and scalable architectures that integrate diverse biological data modalities.
• Multimodal representation learning: aligning and fusing information across modalities to capture biological systems at multiple scales.
• Agentic interfaces: integrating multimodal foundation models into reasoning and decision-support systems.
• Translational applications: bridging multimodal foundation model research towards impact in early drug discovery through public and Novartis-internal datasets.

We are looking for candidates with

• A PhD in machine learning, computer science, computational biology, or a closely related field (completed or near completion).
• Demonstrated experience in large-scale AI development, including pretraining, fine-tuning, or scaling on substantial compute.
• A solid biological background; familiarity with multiple biological data modalities is expected.
• A strong publication record at top-tier ML conferences and/or life science journals.
• Excellent communication skills and enthusiasm for interdisciplinary research.

We offer

• Dedicated compute allocation on CSCS and the Swiss AI Initiative.
• Direct collaboration with the AI for Research team and core disease area teams at Novartis Biomedical Research.
• Mentorship toward an independent academic or industry research career.
• An international, collaborative environment at one of Europe's leading technical universities.

Information

Activity rate: 100%.
Contract: one year, with the plan of a one year renewal.
Location: Lausanne, Switzerland
Start date: ideally Fall 2026, with later start dates possible by arrangement.