Postdoctoral Fellow – Conversational AI Agents

AlzForum Foundation Inc.; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 65,000 - 80,000; Full time

Job summary

The NeuroAI Lab at UCSF led by Prof. Pedro Pinheiro-Chagas and the UCSF Brain Health Registry invite applications for a postdoctoral position focused on designing and developing conversational AI agents for neurology and healthcare.

The fellow will lead voice-based AI systems for scalable clinical assessments, cognitive screening, patient monitoring, and care delivery, including AI-administered interviews such as the CDR, in collaboration with leading researchers.

Qualifications

• Ph.D. in computer science, computational/cognitive neuroscience, biomedical engineering, biostatistics, data science, or related discipline.
• Expertise in machine learning with deep learning and generative AI, particularly with Python.
• Experience in NLP and LLMs with conversational AI agents.
• Experience with clinical, cognitive, or health-related datasets; neurodegenerative data desirable.
• Track record of scientific publications and strong scientific writing skills.

Responsibilities

• Architect end-to-end conversational AI workflows.
• Benchmark with real and simulated users.
• Develop automated scoring and analysis pipelines.
• Maintain security and regulatory compliance within HIPAA-compliant platforms.
• Advance AI alignment to ensure clinical intent and patient well-being.
• Disseminate research through conferences and publications.

Skills

Machine learning

Deep learning

Generative AI

Python

NLP

LLMs

Conversational AI

Clinical data

Education

Ph.D. in a relevant field

Job description

Postdoctoral Fellow – Conversational AI Agents

Posted 10 Jul 2026

Employer

University of California, San Francisco

Location

The NeuroAI Lab at UCSF led by Prof. Pedro Pinheiro-Chagas and the UCSF Brain Health Registry led by Prof. Rachel Nosheny invite applications for a postdoctoral position focused on designing and developing conversational AI agents for neurology and healthcare. The successful candidate will join a multidisciplinary team at the intersection of cutting-edge AI and cognitive neuroscience, with the aim to advance discovery, diagnosis, and care of neurodegenerative diseases. The fellow will lead the development of voice-based conversational AI systems for scalable clinical assessments, cognitive screening, patient monitoring, and care delivery. Current projects include AI-administered clinical interviews such as the Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR) — a crucial tool for assessing the severity and progression of dementia — in collaboration with Michael W. Weiner, M.D., with additional applications spanning clinical data collection, symptom tracking, and patient-facing health interactions across neurology.

The fellow will design and build generative AI systems featuring advanced agentic pipelines, speech-to-speech conversational interfaces, leveraging prompt engineering and alignment techniques to optimize reliability, transparency, and safety across clinical applications. Key responsibilities include: architecting end-to-end conversational AI workflows, rigorous benchmarking with real and simulated users, developing automated scoring and analysis pipelines, and maintaining security and regulatory compliance within HIPAA-compliant platforms. The candidate will advance AI alignment by ensuring model outputs robustly serve clinical intent and patient well-being, actively minimizing risks such as hallucinations and potential adverse events through continuous evaluation, testing, and iterative system refinement. The fellow will also disseminate research through conferences and publications, contributing to both the AI and clinical neuroscience fields.

Requirements

• Ph.D. in computer science, computational/cognitive neuroscience, biomedical engineering, biostatistics, data science, or a related discipline
• Expertise in machine learning, with a strong foundation in deep learning and generative AI, particularly with Python
• Experience in NLP and LLMs (direct experience with conversational AI agents is highly desirable)
• Experience working with clinical, cognitive, or health-related datasets (direct experience with neurodegenerative disease data is highly desirable)
• Track record of scientific publication and strong scientific writing skills

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with or willingness to learn agentic frameworks for advanced AI workflows
• Knowledge of data security, privacy, and regulatory standards for clinical applications (e.g., HIPAA compliance)
• Ability to work independently and collaboratively within multidisciplinary teams, demonstrating adaptability in a fast-paced research environment