The Information Retrieval Lab at the University of Amsterdam’s Informatics Institute is seeking a research engineer with a focus on machine learning and information retrieval. Our lab works on various information retrieval problems with strong machine learning focus, such as search, recommendation, question answering and conversational intelligence, often in close collaboration with industry partners.

What are you going to do?

We are looking for a research engineer with a strong skillset in machine learning and information retrieval to help us with the engineering of heavy areas of our research. Examples are collecting and maintaining large datasets, efficiently implementing ML models for search and recommendation, productionizing models in cloud environments, setting up compute infrastructure for experimentation, and building demonstrators for our research. You will work in close collaboration with our researchers, postdoctoral researchers, PhD students and industry partners, and be a vital part in proving the practical applicability of our research results, upholding good engineering practices, and making sure that our research software is robust and efficient. You will also act as an ICT contact point towards the ICT services of the University for 20% of your time.

What do we require?

Prerequisites:

• Master’s degree in computer science (or a related field);
• basic understanding of machine learning and information retrieval;
• strong programming skills in Python and ML-related libraries (scikit-learn, tensorflow, pytorch);
• experience in data wrangling and large-scale data processing (Elastic, SQL, pandas, Apache Spark, etc.);
• experience with ML deployments in cloud infrastructures (AWS / Azure / GCP);
• ability to quickly build demonstrators.

Not required, but very helpful:

• contributions to open-source projects;
• experience with languages such as Scala/Go.

Our offer

We offer a temporary contract for 38 hours per week, preferably starting as soon as possible for the duration of 12 months. A permanent contract subsequently follows if we assess your performance positive.

The salary, depending on relevant experience before the beginning of the employment contract, will be €2,656 to €4,402 gross per month, based on a full-time contract of 38 hours a week. This is exclusive 8% holiday allowance and 8.3% end-of-year bonus. For this position a visa can not be sponsored. The Collective Labour Agreement of Dutch Universities is applicable.

Are you curious about our extensive package of secondary employment benefits like our excellent opportunities for study and development? Take a look here.

University of Amsterdam

With over 5,000 employees, 30,000 students and a budget of more than 600 million euros, the University of Amsterdam (UvA) is an intellectual hub within the Netherlands. Teaching and research at the UvA are conducted within seven faculties: Humanities, Social and Behavioural Sciences, Economics and Business, Law, Science, Medicine and Dentistry. Housed on four city campuses in or near the heart of Amsterdam, where disciplines come together and interact, the faculties have close links with thousands of researchers and hundreds of institutions at home and abroad.  

The UvA’s students and employees are independent thinkers, competent rebels who dare to question dogmas and aren’t satisfied with easy answers and standard solutions. To work at the UvA is to work in an independent, creative, innovative and international climate characterised by an open atmosphere and a genuine engagement with the city of Amsterdam and society.

Faculty of Science – Informatics Institute

The Faculty of Science has a student body of around 7,000, as well as 1,600 members of staff working in education, research or support services. Researchers and students at the Faculty of Science are fascinated by every aspect of how the world works, be it elementary particles, the birth of the universe or the functioning of the brain.

The mission of the Informatics Institute is to perform curiosity-driven and use-inspired fundamental research in Computer Science. The main research themes are Artificial Intelligence, Computational Science and Systems and Network Engineering. Our research involves complex information systems at large, with a focus on collaborative, data driven, computational and intelligent systems, all with a strong interactive component.

The mission of Ellogon AI is to develop automated biomarkers from pathology biopsies and genomic data for personalized medicine, and specifically maximizing the benefits of immunotherapy per patient. You will have the opportunity to contribute to some of the most exciting R&D areas of the future, to work with leading personalities in the intersection of AI and cancer, and to develop some of the most impactful products for society.