Director & Chief Scientist, Language Technology Center

Johns Hopkins University; Baltimore (MD); On-site; USD 250,000 - 400,000; Full time

Job summary

The Chronicle Of Higher Education, Inc. seeks a Director and Chief Scientific Officer for the Human Language Technology Center of Excellence at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. The ideal candidate is an experienced researcher with a doctorate in an HLT-related field, proven leadership skills, and the ability to manage a collaborative environment. Responsibilities include leading research activities, recruiting staff, and engaging with government sponsors. A competitive salary between $250,000 - $400,000 is offered along with comprehensive benefits.

Qualifications

• Proven leadership directing applied and theoretical efforts and managing research organizations.
• Has a current or recent TS/SCI clearance with full-scope polygraph.

Responsibilities

• Lead the research activities of the HLTCOE.
• Set strategic directions and identify, recruit, and mentor research staff.
• Work collaboratively with HLTCOE researchers to extend technical accomplishments.

Skills

Extensive experience in a related and relevant role

Excellent communication skills for broad-ranging audiences

Strong networking skills

Ability to recognize, recruit, and mentor high quality researchers and staff

Ability to instill and maintain a highly collaborative work environment

Experienced in building consensus through engagement

Education

Doctorate in an HLT-related field

Tools

TS/SCI clearance

Job description

Johns Hopkins, founded in 1876, is America's first researchuniversity and home to nine world-class academic divisions workingtogether as one university.

Salary : $250,000 - $400,000 per year

Johns Hopkins University: Academic Centers: Human LanguageTechnology Center of Excellence

Description

The Johns Hopkins University [JHU] Human Language Technology Centerof Excellence [HLTCOE] is a world-class research organization thataddresses a unique set of exciting challenge problems to advancethe state of the art in human language technologies.

The JHU HLTCOE seeks a highly respected, peer-recognized, leadingresearcher to serve as its Director and Chief Scientific Officer.Reporting to the School of Engineering’s vice dean for research,the director is charged with leading the research activities of theHLTCOE to ensure it both maintains its leadership position andaligns with the needs of its government sponsor. This includesworking collaboratively with HLTCOE researchers to extend theirsignificant record of technical accomplishments, setting strategicdirections, and identifying, recruiting, and mentoring new researchstaff.

HLTCOE researchers develop advanced algorithms for analyzingspeech, text, and multimodal data in multiple languages, extractinguseful information from massive amounts of text and speech over awide range of languages and genres, striving to advance the stateof the art in HLT in speech and text. Current problems focus onimprovements in speech-to-text, automatic speaker and languageidentification, machine translation, multilingual and multimodalinformation retrieval and retrieval-augmented generation, entityextraction, and related topics.

Established in 2007, the HLTCOE is an integral component of JHU’swide-ranging research leadership in Data Science and ArtificialIntelligence [DSAI]. Notably, the HLTCOE collaborates closely withthe JHU Center for Language and Speech Processing, and is connectedto the larger DSAI community including the Center for ImagingScience, the Mathematical Institute for Data Science, and theLaboratory for Computational Sensing and Robotics, to name but afew.

Qualifications

• Extensive experience in a related and relevant role
• Doctorate in an HLT-related field
• Proven leadership directing applied and theoretical efforts andmanaging research organizations
• Excellent communication skills for broad-ranging audiences
• Strong networking skills
• Ability to recognize, recruit, and mentor high qualityresearchers and staff
• Ability to instill and maintain a highly collaborative workenvironment that values employees
• Experienced in building consensus through engagement
• Has a current or recent TS/SCI clearance with full-scopepolygraph (will consider candidates with a current or recent TSclearance)

Application Instructions

We are open to applicants from a variety of career trajectoriesincluding government, industry, and academia. Depending on theirbackground, applicants may be appointed either in our ResearchScientist track or as a professor in a relevant department.

Applications should be submitted to INTERFOLIO. For fullconsideration, applicants should submit their curriculum vitae anda cover letter that discusses background, qualifications, andinterest in the position by June 30, 2026.

To ask general questions, request a preliminary discussion, or tonominate candidates, please contact Ed Scheinerman, interimdirector: [e-mail]

This is a full-time position located in Baltimore, Maryland.Starting date to be negotiated on availability. Johns Hopkins is anequal opportunity/affirmative action employer.

Equal Employment Opportunity Statement

Salary Range
The referenced salary range represents the minimum and maximumsalaries for this position and is based on Johns HopkinsUniversity's good faith belief at the time of posting. Not allcandidates will be eligible for the upper end of the salary range.The actual compensation offered to the selected candidate may varyand will ultimately depend on multiple factors, which may includethe successful candidate's geographic location, skills, workexperience, internal equity, market conditions, education/trainingand other factors, as reasonably determined by theUniversity.

Total Rewards
Johns Hopkins offers a total rewards package that supports ouremployees' health, life, career and retirement. More informationcan be found here: https://hr.jhu.edu/benefits-worklife/.

Equal Opportunity Employer
The Johns Hopkins University is committed to equal opportunity forits faculty, staff, and students. To that end, the university doesnot discriminate on the basis of sex, gender, marital status,pregnancy, race, color, ethnicity, national origin, age,disability, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity orexpression, veteran status or other legally protectedcharacteristics. The University is committed to providing qualifiedindividuals access to all academic and employment programs,benefits and activities on the basis of demonstrated ability,performance and merit without regard to personal factors ordemographic characteristics that are irrelevant to the programinvolved.

Pre-Employment Information
If you are interested in applying for employment with Johns HopkinsUniversity and require special assistance or accommodation duringany part of the pre-employment process, please contact the HRBusiness Services Office at [e-mail] . ForTTY users, call via Maryland Relay or dial 711. For moreinformation about workplace accommodations at Johns HopkinsUniversity for disabilities, medical conditions (including medicalconditions related to pregnancy or childbirth), accessibility, orreligious reasons, please visit accessibility.jhu.edu .

Background Checks
After receiving a conditional offer, the successful candidate(s)for this position will be subject to a pre-employment backgroundcheck including education verification. When deciding whether acandidate’s conviction history is job-disqualifying, the Universityconsiders the nature and gravity of the offense, the time that haspassed since the conviction, and the nature of the job beingsought.

EEO is the Law
https://www.eeoc.gov/employees-job-applicants

Vaccine Requirements
Johns Hopkins University strongly encourages, but no longerrequires, at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. This changedoes not apply to the School of Medicine (SOM). SOM hires must befully vaccinated with an FDA COVID-19 vaccination and provide proofof vaccination status. We still require all faculty, staff, andstudents to receive the seasonalflu vaccine .

Exceptions to the seasonal flu vaccine or COVID-19 vaccine (forSOM) requirement(s) may be provided to individuals with sincerelyheld religious beliefs or medical conditions that preclude themfrom receiving the vaccine. Requests for an exception must besubmitted to the JHU vaccination registry. For additionalinformation, applicants for SOM positions should visit https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/coronavirus/covid-19-vaccine/and all other JHU applicants should visit https://covidinfo.jhu.edu/health-safety/covid-vaccination-information/.

The following additional vaccine requirements may apply,depending upon your campus. Please contact the hiring departmentfor more information.

The pre-employment physical for positions in clinical areas,laboratories, working with research subjects, or involvingcommunity contact requires documentation of immune status againstRubella (German measles), Rubeola (Measles), Mumps, Varicella(chickenpox), Hepatitis B and documentation of having received theTdap (Tetanus, diphtheria, pertussis) vaccination. This may includedocumentation of having two (2) MMR vaccines; two (2) Varicellavaccines; or antibody status to these diseases from laboratorytesting. Blood tests for immunities to these diseases areordinarily included in the pre-employment physical exam except forthose candidates who provide results of blood tests or immunizationdocumentation from their own health care providers. Anyvaccinations required for these diseases will be given at no costin our Occupational Health office.