Postdoctoral Researcher in Language Technology or Digital Humanities

University of Helsinki / General; Finland; On-site; EUR 45,000 - 46,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Conference travel funding

Access to CSC computing resources

Job summary

The University of Helsinki invites applications for a fixed-term post-doctoral researcher position in the Multimodality Research Group, Department of Languages. The 28-month appointment starts January 2027 and focuses on building multimodal corpora, with methods using computer vision and large language models, and human-in-the-loop evaluation.

The appointee will contribute to publishing results, work within a multidisciplinary team spanning humanities, CS and engineering, reside in the Helsinki

Qualifications

• PhD in language technology, digital humanities or related field.
• Experience applying computational methods to large multimodal data.
• Strong programming skills and ML libraries; ability to work independently.
• Experience building annotated datasets and managing large data is an advantage.

Responsibilities

• Contribute to building large multimodal corpora with multiple annotation layers.
• Develop approaches using computer vision and large language models; use human-in-the-loop evaluation.
• Publish results in lead- and co-authored papers within the project scope.

Skills

Programming

ML libraries

Annotated datasets

HPC

Multidisciplinary collaboration

English proficiency

Education

Doctoral degree in language technology or related field

Job description

Organisation/Company UNIVERSITY OF HELSINKI Research Field Language sciences Literature Researcher Profile Recognised Researcher (R2) Established Researcher (R3) Application Deadline 20 Nov 2026 - 00:00 (UTC) Country Finland Type of Contract Other Job Status Full-time Is the job funded through the EU Research Framework Programme? Not funded by a EU programme Is the Job related to staff position within a Research Infrastructure? No

Offer Description

The Faculty of Humanities at the University of Helsinki invites applications for the position of

for a fixed-term period of 28 months, starting in January 2027.

This position is based at the Multimodality Research Group in the Department of Languages and funded by an ERC Consolidator Grant awarded to Professor Tuomo Hiippala . The project develops novel methods and corpora for studying multimodality, or how humans communicate using combinations of multiple modes of expression. These methods and corpora are used to develop empirically founded theories of multimodal communication in the domain of everyday cultural artefacts. The data studied in the project includes, for example, school textbooks, news broadcasts, diagrams and instruction manuals.

RESPONSIBILITIES

The post-doctoral researcher will contribute towards meeting the goals of the research project by participating in building several large multimodal corpora that target diverse page-based and audiovisual media, which are described using multiple layers of cross-referenced annotations. The appointee is expected to develop approaches that use computer vision, large language models and other computational methods to annotate the research data, and to evaluate and complement the resulting annotations using human-in-the-loop approaches. In addition to conducting research, the post-doctoral researcher is expected to report the results in lead- and co-authored publications submitted to suitable venues.

QUALIFICATIONS

The appointee must hold a doctoral degree in language technology, digital humanities or a related field, and demonstrate a keen interest in the study of multimodal communication. Previous experience of applying computational methods to large volumes of multimodal data is essential. The appointee must have solid skills in programming and working with libraries for using machine learning models. Experience in building annotated datasets or corpora is considered an advantage: the same applies to managing large volumes of data and high-performance computing. The appointee must be able to work independently and as a part of a multidisciplinary research group consisting of researchers with diverse backgrounds, which span the humanities, computer science and engineering. Strong teamwork skills and an excellent command of written and spoken English are also required.

The appointee is expected to reside in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area while employed by the University of Helsinki.

WHAT WE OFFER

The University of Helsinki is Finland’s oldest and largest academic institution, an international scholarly community of 40,000 students and researchers. In international university rankings, the University of Helsinki is usually within the top 100 universities in the world. The University of Helsinki is seeking solutions to global challenges and engendering new thinking for the benefit of humanity.

The University of Helsinki’s Faculty of Humanities is Finland’s oldest and largest unit of teaching and research in the arts in terms of the organisation and selection of its disciplines. The faculty is also a significant international community of research, education and culture. The Faculty of Humanities studies and teaches languages and literature spoken in Europe and the rest of the world, in total almost 40 languages. It also develops general theories of linguistics, translation and literary studies.

The successful candidate will become a part of vibrant research community at the Faculty of Humanities. The four-year position offers an excellent opportunity to conduct pioneering research on the multimodality of human communication in a multidisciplinary environment. The project provides generous funding for conference travel and networking. The project also offers access to state-of-the-art computing resources provided free-of-charge by the CSC – the IT Center for Science.

The starting salary for the position ranges from 4005 to 4140 euro per month, depending on experience and qualifications. The appointee is also expected to contribute to teaching, which is limited to 10% of annual working time. Standard Finnish pension benefits and occupational health care are provided for university employees. The employment contract will include a probationary period of six months.

The University of Helsinki provides its staff with occupational health and fitness services, professional development opportunities, as well as a first-class research and teaching environment and the conditions necessary for international cooperation. Read more about staff benefits on our website .

FURTHER INFORMATION

For further information about the position and the research project, please contact Professor Tuomo Hiippala ( [e-mail] ).