Research Engineer in AI and Machine Learning

Umeå University, Faculty of Science and Technology

Umeå University is one of Sweden’s largest higher education institutions with over 37,000 students and about 4,700 employees. The University offers a diversity of high-quality education and world-leading research in several fields. Notably, the groundbreaking discovery of the CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing tool, which was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, was made here. At Umeå University, everything is close. Our cohesive campuses make it easy to meet, work together and exchange knowledge, which promotes a dynamic and open culture.

The ongoing societal transformation and large green investments in northern Sweden create enormous opportunities and complex challenges. For Umeå University, conducting research about – and in the middle of – a society in transition is key. We also take pride in delivering education to enable regions to expand quickly and sustainably. In fact, the future is made here.

Are you interested in learning more? Read about Umeå university as a workplace

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

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 on a permanent basis with entry on April 1st or by agreement.

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 position 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 with a suitable skillset.

The main responsibilities of the announced position are to:

Contribute to the design, implementation and and in some cases also maintenance of prototypes and demonstrators of AI solutions generating and analysing media content.
Contribute to the implementation and evaluation of various AI benchmarks, e.g., GENEA which focuses on natural modeling of human body language and co-speech gestures, and VOT which evlauates short and long term trackers in the field of visual object tracking.
Contribute to the student project at the annual WASP summer school on multimodal modelling of human communication.
Contribute to on-going research efforts on multimodal foundation models and language-processing pipelines.

The project offers the opportunity to:

Interact with ML experts from industry and academia in WARA Media and Language, and thereby building a professional network in a rapidly growing field.
Publish scientific articles as main or co-author.
Influence the national development of AI in the area of Media and Language.

Qualifications

You need:

At least a bachelor’s degree or higher in computer science or a related field
Programming knowledge in Python
Basic knowledge of virtualization, networks, and computer security
Experience of working with containers, e.g., Docker, Singularity, GitHub, or CI/CD
Experience of machine learning and platforms such as Tensorflow and Pytorch

We also require the following soft skills:

Excellent communication skills in English
The ability to concretise and solve open and complex problems
Strong collaboration skills

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

Scientific research
Technical support
System administration
Agile software development
Frameworks such as Unity, Blender or Unreal Engine
Heterogenous accelerators (e.g., GPUs, TPUs)
Cloud computing platforms, such as Amazon AWS, Microsoft Azure, or Google Cloud Platform

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 2024-03-22. Further information can be obtained from Johanna Björklund, 070 603 94 59, e-mail johanna.bjorklund@umu.se.

Start date

The employment starts 1 april 2024 or according to agreement.

We welcome your application!