Senior Researcher

The University of Edinburgh; Nottingham; On-site; GBP 51,000 - 63,000; Full time

Job summary

The University of Edinburgh’s School of Informatics seeks a Senior Researcher to develop AI for Science methods specialised to quantum computing. You will join the Quantum Software Lab and collaborate with Professor Elham Kashefi and UK quantum computing researchers.

You will lead the design and evaluation of AI-assisted scientific software, shape research questions, publish findings, and help run evaluation studies while coordinating with project partners.

Qualifications

• PhD or equivalent research experience in computer science, AI, quantum information, math, physics or related field.
• Evidence of independent research and ability to design, implement and evaluate substantial computational work.
• Clear writing and sound software practice are essential.
• Experience in agentic AI, ML, formal methods, knowledge representation, scientific computing, open research infrastructure or research software engineering would be useful.
• Experience of quantum computing is welcome.

Responsibilities

• Lead the design and implementation of research software and experimental studies.
• Define evaluation methods for AI-assisted scientific work, including failure analysis and comparison with expert judgement.
• Collaborate with quantum researchers to turn broad questions into computable investigations.
• Publish and present research findings and release software artefacts where appropriate.
• Coordinate technical work with project partners and support junior researchers.
• Contribute to future research proposals and wider lab development.

Skills

Independent research

Software design

Evaluation methods

Clear writing

Education

PhD or equivalent research experience

Job description

Full-time: 35 hours per week

Fixed-term: six-month contract

The Opportunity:

Help us redefine what’s possible. Be part of something bigger.

The School of Informatics is seeking a Senior Researcher to develop AI for Science methods specialised to quantum computing. You will join the Quantum Software Lab and work with Professor Elham Kashefi, colleagues across the University of Edinburgh, and researchers in the UK quantum-computing community.

The central research question is how AI systems can take part in scientific work while remaining open to inspection and expert judgement. The remit includes systems that help researchers find and formulate hypotheses, connect scientific literature to software and experiments, use specialist tools, assess evidence, and record how a conclusion was reached. Relevant methods may come from agentic AI, neuro-symbolic systems, formal methods, language models, knowledge representation, data infrastructure or scientific software engineering. The post-holder will have scope to shape the methods and research questions pursued.

The immediate setting is a UK programme on AI-enabled quantum science. Work already under way at Edinburgh includes AI Pathfinder, which searches for useful connections across the quantum software and hardware literature, and an agent harness for research, verification and review. These are starting points rather than limits on the role. You may also work on evaluation, reproducibility, provenance, human oversight, integration with scientific models and tools, quantum computing hardware, or new approaches that arise from collaboration with quantum researchers.

You will:

• Lead the design and implementation of research software and experimental studies.
• Define evaluation methods for AI-assisted scientific work, including failure analysis and comparison with expert judgement.
• Work with quantum researchers to turn broad questions into assessable computational investigations.
• Publish and present the resulting research and release software or research artefacts where appropriate.
• Coordinate technical work with project partners and support junior researchers.
• Contribute to future research proposals and the wider development of the Quantum Software Lab.

You will have a PhD, or equivalent research experience, in computer science, artificial intelligence, quantum information, mathematics, physics or a related field. You will have evidence of independent research and the ability to design, implement and evaluate substantial computational work. That evidence may span theoretical computer science, systems and software engineering, data and knowledge systems, or computational work in fields such as biology and medicine. We value candidates who can move between theory and implementation, learn the language of a new field, and transfer methods across disciplinary boundaries. Clear writing and sound software practice are essential.

Experience in one or more of agentic AI, machine learning, formal methods, knowledge representation, scientific computing, open research infrastructure or research software engineering would be useful. Experience of quantum computing is welcome. We also encourage applications from researchers with an unusual or varied disciplinary path who can show how their work transfers to quantum science.

Apply Before: 12/11/2026, 23:59

£51,258 to £62,994 per annum, pro-rata if part-time