Postdoctoral Researcher in Speech and Language Technology

Aalto University; Kuhmo; Hybrid; EUR 43,000 - 51,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid work model

International collaboration

Open science and publishing

Job summary

Aalto University in Espoo, Finland, is hiring a Postdoctoral Researcher in Speech and Language Technology to advance content-based audio watermarking for AI-generated audio. The role focuses on robustness, evaluation, and integration with deep generative models, in collaboration with international experts.

The project supports open-source software, reproducible research outputs, and high-performance computing, with a starting monthly salary of 4220 €.

Qualifications

• PhD in speech/audio processing, ML, signal processing, or related field.
• Strong experience with deep learning and generative models.
• Proficiency in Python and ML frameworks.
• Willingness to publish in peer‑reviewed venues and contribute to open science.

Responsibilities

• Develop deep content-based audio watermarking methods for speech and audio.
• Design detection and perceptual quality measures for embedded watermarks.
• Explore audio content detection, music information retrieval, and audio fingerprinting.
• Integrate watermarking into diffusion models and neural audio codecs.
• Study embedding of watermark data in long-term speech content such as semantics and prosody.
• Develop robustness evaluation tools and realistic attack scenarios for audio watermarks.
• Publish in leading journals and conferences and release open-source software.

Skills

Deep learning

Generative models

Python

Communication skills

Education

Doctoral degree or near completion

Tools

PyTorch

TensorFlow

Job description

Aalto University is where science and art meet technology and business. We shape a sustainable future by making research breakthroughs in and across our disciplines, sparking the game changers of tomorrow and creating novel solutions to major global challenges.

Our community is made up of 16 000 students and 5 200 employees, including 446 professors. Our campus is in Espoo, Greater Helsinki, Finland. Diversity is part of who we are, and we actively work to ensure our community’s diversity and inclusiveness. This is why we warmly encourage qualified candidates from all backgrounds to join our community.

The research will be carried out at the Department of Information and Communications Engineering, DICE, at Aalto University, Finland. The project environment offers excellent infrastructure for deep learning, speech, and audio research, including Aalto University’s large-scale scientific computing cluster with CPU and GPU nodes, access to CSC’s national computing infrastructure including LUMI, and the Aalto Acoustics Lab with anechoic chambers, listening rooms, and audio measurement equipment.

We are now looking for a Postdoctoral Researcher in Speech and Language Technology

Are you interested in transparency, content provenance, and traceability for AI-generated speech, music, and audio? We are looking for a Postdoctoral Researcher to join the funded project COWAMA: Content-based watermarking for AI-generated audio, led by Assistant Professor Lauri Juvela.

Generative AI can now create increasingly realistic speech and music, raising urgent questions about misinformation, copyright, ownership, attribution, and accountability. The EU AI Act requires generative AI systems to label generated content, but external metadata is easy to remove, so additional layers of technical disclosure and detection are necessary. This project develops watermarking methods and software for speech and audio generative models, focusing on robustness and suitability for open-source use.

Your role and goals

As a Postdoctoral Researcher, you will take primary responsibility for developing deep content-based watermarks for audio and work jointly with a doctoral researcher on robustness, evaluation, and generalization.

Your work will include:

• Developing new content-based audio watermarking methods for generated speech, music, and audio.

• Designing detection and perceptual quality measures for cases where generated audio may deviate from the reference content but should remain perceptually acceptable.

• Exploring methods such as audio content detection, music information retrieval, audio fingerprinting, alignment search, feature matching in self-supervised audio representations, and reference-free audio quality prediction.

• Integrating watermarking capabilities into deep audio generative models, including extensions of collaborative watermarking to diffusion models and audio language models based on neural audio codecs.

• Studying whether watermark information can be embedded in long‑term content, such as speech semantics, duration, prosody, or emphasis, rather than only in local signal‑level features.

• Developing robustness evaluation methods, differentiable augmentation tools, and realistic attack scenarios for audio watermarks.

• Publishing research in leading journals and conferences in speech, audio, and machine learning, and contributing to open‑source releases of software, trained models, and reproducible research outputs.

The research methods will include experiment design, software implementation, running deep learning experiments on high‑performance computing infrastructure, and evaluation using objective metrics and subjective listening tests.

Your network and team

You will be supervised by Assistant Professor Lauri Juvela, who leads the Speech Synthesis research group at Aalto University. The group works on deep generative models for speech and audio, speech synthesis, differentiable signal processing, deepfake detection, and watermarking.

In addition to the Aalto speech groups and the Doctoral Researcher in the project, you will work with an international collaboration network including Prof. Junichi Yamagishi at the National Institute of Informatics in Japan, Prof. Xavier Serra at Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Spain, Prof. Gustav Eje Henter at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden.

The collaboration network has a strong background in speech and audio synthesis, deep generative models, and deepfake detection, positioning the project to make an impact in watermarking and source tracing for AI‑generated audio.

Your experience and ambitions

We are looking for a motivated researcher with a strong interest in generative AI, speech, music, and audio technologies. To succeed in this role, you should have:

• A doctoral degree, or close to completing a doctoral degree, in speech or audio processing, machine learning, signal processing, computer science, or a related field.

• Strong experience with deep learning and generative models.

• Programming skills suitable for modern machine learning research, preferably including Python and deep learning frameworks.

• Interest in one or more of the following areas: speech synthesis, music generation, neural audio codecs, diffusion models, audio language models, watermarking, deepfake detection, audio quality assessment, or audio representation learning.

• Ability to conduct independent research and publish in high‑quality peer‑reviewed venues.

• Motivation to work in an open‑science‑oriented project with open‑source software and reproducible research outputs.

• Good collaboration and communication skills in an international research environment.

• Fluency in English is required. Finnish language is not required.

Doctoral- and master’s‑level supervision experience is considered an advantage.

What we offer

• A meaningful and timely research topic at the intersection of generative AI, audio technology, transparency, and digital trust. The project addresses the need for best practices and standards for navigating AI‑generated content, with a focus on transparent, open, and distributed academic solutions.

• The chance to work on methods that improve transparency and security in AI‑generated speech and audio through watermarking, source tracing, and deepfake detection.

• Access to excellent computing and research infrastructure, including Aalto’s CPU/GPU clusters, CSC and LUMI, FIN‑CLARIN language resources, and the Aalto Acoustics Lab.

• An international collaboration network with leading researchers and organizations in speech synthesis, music technology, deepfake detection, and audio generation.

• Strong support for open science, including open‑access publishing and open‑source release of software, models, and datasets.

• Great possibilities for competence development and learning. Aalto offers a wide range of professional development opportunities, staff training, and development projects based on your interests and needs.

• A culture guided by responsibility, courage, and collaboration, where equality and inclusion support curiosity, innovation, collaboration, and wellbeing.

Our vast array of professional development opportunities means you will grow and learn, having the chance to participate actively in staff training and development projects based on your interests and needs. The starting salary for Postdoctoral Researcher 4220 €/month. The salary will increase based on performance. The position is fixed‑term and will be for 2 years. Project funding has been awarded for 4 years, and the contract may be extended for another 2 years. The position starts in January 2027 or as mutually agreed.

We value work‑life balance and well‑being in all aspects of life. We work in a hybrid model, with the primary workplace located at the Otaniemi Campus in Espoo, Finland. Life on the revitalized campus is vibrant, featuring stunning architecture, tranquil nature, and a variety of cafes, restaurants, and services, all complemented by excellent public transportation connections.

About Finland

Finland is a great place for living with or without family – it is a safe, politically stable and well‑organized Nordic society. Finland is consistently ranked high in quality of life and was listed again as the happiest country in the world: World Happiness Report 2025

For more information about living in Finland: Aalto Careers for International Staff.

More about Aalto University:

Aalto.fi
youtube.com/user/aaltouniversity
linkedin.com/school/aalto-university/
www.facebook.com/aaltouniversity
instagram.com/aaltouniversity

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We will go through applications, and we may invite suitable candidates to interview already during the application period. You will hear from us by the 15th of November. We aim to have a transparent and equal recruitment process, so feel free to ask us for feedback.

Want to know more about us and your future colleagues. You can watch these videos:

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Read more about working at Aalto: https://www.aalto.fi/en/careers-at-aalto and check out our new virtual campus experience: https://virtualtour.aalto.fi

For more information about the role, please contact Professor Lauri Juvela ([e-mail]; [phone]). For questions about the application process, please contact HR Advisor Johanna Haapalainen at [e-mail].