Assistant Professor of Natural Language Processing

Uva; Amsterdam; On-site; EUR 55,000 - 75,000; Full time

Job summary

University of Amsterdam is seeking an Assistant Professor in Natural Language Processing to advance research on large reasoning models, AI alignment, and AI for science. The candidate will collaborate with ILLC groups on reasoning, planning and verification, and may supervise students while contributing to interdisciplinary education.

The role emphasizes a strong research track record, independence, and ability to work across linguistics, computer science, mathematics and philosophy.

Qualifications

• PhD in a relevant field such as NLP, AI, computer science or mathematics.
• Excellent research skills with publications in international journals or conferences.
• Able to develop an independent line of research in their area of expertise.
• Strong affinity with multidisciplinary environment and interdisciplinary collaboration.
• Proven skills in academic education in the above fields.
• Possesses UTQ/BKO or willing to acquire within two years.
• Experience with supervision of BSc/MSc/PhD students preferred.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills.

Responsibilities

• Conduct research on natural language processing and related areas such as large language models and AI for science.
• Collaborate with groups at the ILLC on reasoning, planning, verification, and AI for mathematics.
• Contribute to education and supervision within the ILLC and collaborate across disciplines.

Skills

PhD in NLP/AI/CS/Math

Excellent research record

Independent research line

Interdisciplinary collaboration

Teaching qualification (UTQ/BKO)

Supervision of students

Excellent communication

Education

PhD in NLP/AI/CS/Math

Job description

Join Us!

The NLP-group of the Institute for Logic, Language and Computation (ILLC) at the University of Amsterdam is looking for an Assistant Professor to work on large reasoning models, AI alignment and AI for science and research.

This is what you will do

The Institute for Logic, Language and Computation (ILLC) of the University of Amsterdam is looking for a new Assistant Professor in Natural Language Processing, to complement its existing expertise. The ILLC does world‑class, curiosity‑driven research and serves as a rallying point for information scientists across traditional research fields, ranging from AI, computer science and mathematics to linguistics, cognitive science and philosophy. ILLC’s scientific mission is to study the formal properties of information, viz. the fundamental structure and properties of processes of encoding, transmitting and comprehending information. The institute has been home to leading research groups in Computational Linguistics/Natural Language Processing since its founding in 1991, and has in that time made pioneering contributions to statistical NLP, deep learning for NLP, and evaluation and interpretability of language models.

We seek candidates conducting research on natural language processing. The areas of particular interest include large language model (LLM) development (pre‑training and post‑training), large reasoning models, AI alignment and AI for science and research. An ideal candidate would be able to collaborate with other groups at the ILLC, conducting research on reasoning, planning, verification algorithms and AI for mathematics.

What we ask of you

• A PhD in a relevant field such as NLP, AI, computer science or mathematics;
• Excellent research skills, evidenced by a track record of publications in renowned international journals or conference venues in any of the above mentioned fields, and contributed and/or invited talks at international conferences/workshops;
• Able to develop an independent line of research in her/his area of expertise;
• Has a strong affinity with the ILLC’s multidisciplinary environment and likes to participate in interdisciplinary collaboration;
• Proven skills in academic education in any of the above fields;
• Possesses the Dutch Basic Teaching Qualification (UTQ/BKO), or is willing to acquire this within the first two years;
• Ideally, has some experience with (co-)supervision of BSc, MSc and/or PhD students;
• Excellent oral and written communication skills.

This is what we offer you

We offer a temporary employment contract for 38 hours per week for a period of 18 months. The preferred starting date is as soon as possible. A permanent contract follows in case of a positive performance assessment.

The gross monthly salary, based on 38 hours per week and dependent on relevant experience, ranges between € 4,925 to € 6,682 (scale 11). This does not include 8% holiday allowance and 8,3% year‑end allowance. The UFO profile Assistant Professor is applicable. A favourable tax agreement, the ’30% ruling’, may apply to non‑Dutch applicants. The Collective Labour Agreement of Universities of the Netherlands is applicable.

Curious about our extensive secondary benefits package? You can read more about it here.

You will work in this team

The Faculty of Science has a student body of around 8,000, as well as 1,800 members of staff working in education, research or support services. Researchers and students at the Faculty of Science are fascinated by every aspect of how the world works, be it elementary particles, the birth of the universe or the functioning of the brain.

The Institute for Logic, Language and Computation is home to a thriving community of scholars, including philosophers, logicians, mathematicians, computer scientists, linguists, musicologists, and cognitive scientists, who share a fascination with the interdisciplinary study of information. At the ILLC we combine the problem solving skills from the sciences with the holistic and reflective view of the humanities to discover the principles that regulate information processing and find answers to some of the hardest challenges of our time.

Want to know more about our organisation? Read more about working at the University of Amsterdam.

Contact

If you have any questions or do you require additional information? Please contact:

• Dr. W.H. Zuidema ([e-mail])

We value diversity; women and other members of underrepresented groups are especially encouraged to apply, even if they do not meet all listed criteria.

A knowledge security check can be part of the selection procedure.
(for details: national knowledge security guidelines)