AI Safety Research Associate (Computational Linguistics/Computer Science)

Nanyang Technological University; Singapore; On-site; SGD 90,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

NTU Singapore invites applications for a research position hosted by AI Singapore (AISG) under the VP (Artificial Intelligence & Digital Economy) Office. The role focuses on safety and alignment for LLMs in the medical domain, along with developing guardrails and regional language capabilities for SEA languages.

The successful candidate will contribute to auditable reporting, publish in top-tier venues, and collaborate with NTU and AISG partners to advance Singapore's AI capabilities.

Qualifications

• Master's degree or equivalent practical experience in a relevant field.
• Experience with safety alignment in LLMs, model evaluation for safety/robustness, and publications in safety research.
• Strong knowledge of Python and NLP concepts.

Responsibilities

• Co-design and co-implement safety and alignment strategies for LLMs in the medical domain.
• Co-develop guardrails and safeguard models.
• Analyze failure modes specific to SEA languages and contexts.
• Support development of regional language capabilities for SEA-LION.
• Identify culturally grounded safety risks and ensure generalisation beyond English-centric assumptions for SEA languages and code-mixed text.
• Design leaderboards and visualisations for auditable reporting of results.
• Co-author top-tier publications (ACL, EMNLP, NeurIPS, ICLR, etc.).

Skills

Python programming

NLP concepts

LLM inference frameworks

Generative AI/LLMs

Leaderboard design & visualization

Communication skills

Education

Master's degree in Computational Linguistics/Computer Science or equivalent

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.

Hiring Institution

NTU A research-intensive public university, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) has 33,000 undergraduate and postgraduate students in the Engineering, Business, Science, Humanities, Arts, & Social Sciences, and Graduate colleges. It also has a medical school, the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, established jointly with Imperial College London. NTU is also home to world-class autonomous institutes – the National Institute of Education, S Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Earth Observatory of Singapore, and Singapore Centre for Environmental Life Sciences Engineering – and various leading research centres such as the Nanyang Environment & Water Research Institute (NEWRI) and Energy Research Institute @ NTU (ERI@N). Ranked amongst the world’s top universities by QS, NTU has also been named the world’s top young university for the past seven years. The University’s main campus is frequently listed among the Top 15 most beautiful university campuses in the world and has 57 Green Mark-certified (equivalent to LEED-certified) buildings, of which 95% are certified Green Mark Platinum. Apart from its main campus, NTU also has a campus in Novena, Singapore’s healthcare district. Under the NTU Smart Campus vision, the University harnesses the power of digital technology and tech-enabled solutions to support better learning and living experiences, the discovery of new knowledge, and the sustainability of resources.

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