Research Engineer in AI for Media and Language - Hiring in process/Finished, not possible to apply

The Department of Computer Science is looking for a research engineer to contribute to the Wallenberg's research arena for Media and Language. The employment is full-time with entry on May 1st or by agreement with a possible prohibition period.

The Department of Computing Science

Umeå University is one of Sweden’s largest institutions of higher education with over 34,000 students and 4,000 faculty and staff. We are characterised by world-leading research in several scientific fields and a multitude of educations ranked highly in international comparison. Umeå University is also the site of the pioneering discovery of the CRISPR-Cas9 genetic scissors – a revolution in genetic engineering that has been awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

At Umeå University, everything is nearby. Our cohesive campus environment makes it easy to meet, collaborate and exchange knowledge, which promotes a dynamic and open culture where we rejoice in each other's successes.

The Department of Computing Science is a dynamic institution with approximately 120 employees from more than 20 different countries. We provide education and research in a broad spectrum of the computer science field.

About the position

The purpose of the Wallenberg research arena for Media and Language (WARA Media and Language) is to build a world-class research community around Artificial Intelligence for Media and Language that cuts across scientific disciplines and industry segments. The main task of the advertised positions is to set up and maintain a distributed environment for collaborative projects in machine learning (ML). The work involves collecting and processing data, setting up and configuring development environments, and providing services for benchmarking, i.e., standardized performance measurement of new algorithms. To meet these needs, we are now looking for a research engineer. The employment is permanent and fulltime with a possible prohibition period.

The main responsibilities of the announced positions are to:

• Contribute to the design, implementation and maintenance of the WARA Machine Learning platform, which provides services like data hosting, data sharing, data annotation, resource management and many more for the research community within WASP.
• Contribute to the implementation and evaluation of the annual GENEA and VOT challenges, which focuses on natural modeling of human body language & co-speech gestures and on the short term & long term trackers in the field of visual object tracking.
• Contribute to the implementation of the student project for the annual WASP summer school on multimodal modelling of human communication. Support the PhD students taking part in the summer school as they work on the above-mentioned project task in teams.

The project offers the opportunity to:

• Interaction and exchange with ML experts from industry and academia in WARA Media and Language, and so build a professional network in a rapidly growing field.
• Possibility to publish scientific articles as main or co-author.
• Possibility to influence the development of AI in the area of ​​Media and Language.
• Access to infrastructures connected to the WARA Common computing center, HPC2N’s Kebnekaise and Berzelius supercomputer.

Main tasks

As a Research Engineer in WARA Media and Language (WARA M&L), your primary duties are to design, implement and host a Machine Learning platform for the research community within WARA M&L. The platform will be supported by the resources provided from WARA Common, a sister arena within WASP and HPC2N (high performance computing cluster). The work covers all aspects of the platform construction: Interviews with partners from academia and industry, elaboration of needs, design and implementation of the system, management of data sets, hosting and sharing of data, providing data annotation services, benchmarking machine learning challenges and user support.

The work also involves providing technical support for the annual GENEA challenge and Online VOT benchmark. Apart from benchmarking challenges, you will also be working on the annual WASP Summer school event, where you will be implementing and developing student projects on multimodal modelling of human communication.

Qualifications

You need:

• A bachelor’s degree or higher in computer science or related field
• Experience in Machine Learning, both practical and theoretical knowledge
• Experience in Software development
• Experience in Linux-based system administration
• Experience in programming, including shell & script
• Programming knowledge in Python
• Basic knowledge of virtualization, networks, and computer security
• Experience of working with containers such as Docker, Singularity, GitHub, or CI/CD

We also require the following soft skills:

• Excellent communication skills in written and spoken English
• The ability to concretise and solve open and complex problems

Experience in/of any of the following is considered a merit:

• Familiarity with front-end, back-end, JS frameworks, and database technology
• Scientific research
• Technical support
• Teaching and didactics
• Experience in any of Unity, Blender or Unreal Engine
• Experience in K8S, Docker Registry, Docker-Swarm, MLOps/AIOps frameworks

Application

A complete application must contain:

• A personal motivation letter describing why you are suitable for the advertised position
• Curriculum Vitae (CV)
• Other relevant information, such as documentation of software development experience, or publication list.
• Contact information to two persons willing to give references

The application must be submitted via the Varbi e-recruitment system no later than 2022-04-24. Further information can be obtained from Johanna Björklund, 070 603 94 59, e-mail johanna.bjorklund@umu.se.