AI Safety Research Associate (Computational Linguistics/Computer Science)

Nanyang Technological University Singapore; Singapore; On-site; SGD 120,000 - 170,000; Full time

Job summary

NTU in Singapore is seeking a research-focused professional to co-design safety and alignment strategies for LLMs in the medical domain. The role sits within AI Singapore's national programme, hosted by NTU under the VP (Artificial Intelligence & Digital Economy) office.

You will co-develop guardrails, analyse failure modes in SEA languages, contribute to regional language capabilities for SEA-LION, and help publish in top venues while collaborating across a national AI ecosystem.

Qualifications

• Master degree in Computational Linguistics, CS, or equivalent practical experience.
• Experience in safety alignment for LLMs and robustness evaluation.
• Track record of publications in safety research.
• Strong Python and NLP fundamentals.
• Experience with LLM inference frameworks (Ollama, vLLM).
• Experience with Generative AI/LLMs (Llama, Gemma, Qwen).
• Ability to design leaderboards and visualisations.
• Good communication skills for collaboration.

Responsibilities

• Co-design safety and alignment strategies for LLMs in the medical domain.
• Co-develop guardrails and safeguard models.
• Analyse failure modes in SEA languages and cultural contexts.
• Support development of SEA language capabilities for SEA-LION.
• Identify safety risks and ensure models generalise beyond English-centric contexts.
• Design leaderboards and visualisations for auditable reporting of results.
• Co-author top-tier publications (ACL, EMNLP, NeurIPS, ICLR).

Skills

Safety alignment in LLMs

Model evaluation (safety/robustness)

Publications in safety research

Python

NLP concepts

LLM inference frameworks

Generative AI/LLMs

Leaderboard design

Visualisations

Communication skills

Education

Master degree in Computational Linguistics

Master degree in Computer Science

Equivalent practical experience

Tools

Ollama

vLLM

Llama

Gemma

Qwen

Job description

AI Singapore (AISG) is a national AI programme launched by the National Research Foundation (NRF), Singapore, to build and anchor deep national capabilities in AI. AISG is supported through a government-wide partnership including the NRF, Ministry of Digital Development and Information (MDDI), Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA), Economic Development Board (EDB) and Enterprise Singapore (ESG). We bring together research institutions and the vibrant ecosystem of AI start-ups and companies to support impactful research, develop talent, and power Singapore’s AI efforts.

This position will be hosted at the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) under VP (Artificial Intelligence & Digital Economy)’s office and we welcome you to join our community.

Key Responsibilities:

• Co-designing and co-implementing safety and alignment strategies for LLMs in the medical domain
• Co-developing guardrails and safeguard models
• Assist in analysing failure modes specific to Southeast Asian languages and cultural contexts
• Supporting development of regional language capabilities to extend utility of SEA‑LION for the region
• Assist in identifying culturally grounded safety risks and ensure our safety systems generalise robustly beyond English‑centric assumptions for SEA languages and code‑mixed text
• Assist in designing leaderboards and relevant visualisations for auditable reporting of results
• Co-authoring top‑tier publications (e.g., ACL, EMNLP, NeurIPS, ICLR, etc.) to contribute novel, auditable, and reproducible findings

Job Requirements:

• Preferably a Master Degree in Computational Linguistics, Computer Science, or have equivalent practical experience.
• Required experience includes safety alignment in LLMs, model evaluation for safety or robustness, and a track record of publications in the safety research area.
• Strong knowledge of Python and NLP concepts is a must.
• Experience with LLM Inference frameworks (i.e., Ollama or vLLM) is a must.
• Experience with Generative AI and LLMs (i.e., Llama, Gemma, Qwen, etc) is a must, along with competence in designing leaderboards and visualisations.
• Good communication skills for our collaborative environment.

We regret to inform that only shortlisted candidates will be notified.

Hiring Institution: NTU