Within both our research and education, we see an increasing role within many of the scientific subjects and disciplines for natural language processing (NLP) technology in our two Computer Science departments at Delft University of Technology: Software Technology (ST) and Intelligent Systems (INSY)

Therefore, we like to extend our current staff and research & teaching activities with two new colleagues working on natural language processing. The two new assistant professors will be expected to have their own research lines that can be well embedded into the larger research landscape of our current computer science research areas, where they are expected to join our current forces to together develop both the discipline and usable systems for human interaction with natural language.

Department of Intelligent Systems (INSY)

One assistant professor will be working within the INSY department. The INSY department aims to enable man and machine to deal with the increasing volume and complexity of data, in close cooperation with their environment. The department integrates fundamental research, engineering, and design in the interlocking fields of data processing, interpretation, visualization and interaction using model- and knowledge-based methods and algorithms. INSY consists of five research groups (more details can be found here). The new colleague will be working within the Multimedia Computing Group, but collaborations with other groups are envisaged and encouraged.

At INSY we are looking for an assistant professor who can strengthen our team and research on the general topic of NLP for human-compatible natural language systems, particularly on the topics of

• NLP for natural language understanding
• NLP for natural language generation

or related areas, for spoken and written conversational AI.

Ideally, you will combine methods from AI and linguistics, with skills, competences and interests that would enable building a strong NLP research line within Computer Science.

Department of Software Technology (ST)

One assistant professor will be located within the ST department (more details can be found here), the Web Information Systems group. You are expected to have a primary research focus on natural language processing for written text, generated in social and scientific contexts such as social media posts, blogs, threads in online fora, news articles, wiki articles, scientific papers and reports.

Research of the ST department contributes both to the foundations of software and computer systems, and to the understanding of the operation of such systems. Its research approach is both fundamental - designing algorithms and abstractions, developing new concepts and theories, and identifying principles, as well as experimental - engineering and analysing the behaviour of actual systems. 

We are looking for, but not exclusively, candidates with research profiles relevant to the roles of knowledge and humans in natural language processing. In particular, we are interested in candidates who can strengthen our team and research on the following topics: 

• NLP for knowledge extraction and knowledge graph construction
• NLP enhanced by human computation and interaction
• NLP for information retrieval in Web and conversational search.

The successful assistant professor candidates should have:

• a PhD degree in natural language processing, computer science, artificial intelligence, or equivalent;
• excellent research demonstrated by publications in natural language processing in renowned journals and conference series (e.g., ACL, ICASSP, EMNLP, NAACL, COLING, CONLL, Interspeech);
• excellent command of the English language, both spoken and written;
• strong communication, collaboration, and coordination skills;

and ideally should have:

• a proven track record in teaching;
• experience with applying for research funding.

Fixed-term contract: 6 years.

A tenure-track position is offered for six years. In the fifth year we’ll decide if you will be offered a permanent faculty position, based on performance indicators agreed upon at the start of the appointment. We expect that you have the potential to grow towards an Associate Professor and/or Full Professor role in the future.

Inspiring, excellent education is our central aim. We expect you to obtain a University Teaching Qualification (UTQ) within three years if you have less than five years of teaching experience. This is provided by the TU Delft UTQ programme.
TU Delft sets high standards for the English competency of the teaching staff. The TU Delft offers training to improve English competency. If you do not speak Dutch, we offer courses to learn the Dutch language within three years.

Salary and benefits are in accordance with the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities. The TU Delft offers a customisable compensation package, a discount on health insurance and sport memberships, and a monthly work costs contribution. Flexible work schedules can be arranged.

For international applicants we offer the Coming to Delft Service and Partner Career Advice to assist you with your relocation. An International Children's Centre offers childcare and there is an international primary school.

Delft University of Technology

Delft University of Technology is built on strong foundations. As creators of the world-famous Dutch waterworks and pioneers in biotech, TU Delft is a top international university combining science, engineering and design. It delivers world class results in education, research and innovation to address challenges in the areas of energy, climate, mobility, health and digital society. For generations, our engineers have proven to be entrepreneurial problem-solvers, both in business and in a social context. At TU Delft we embrace diversity and aim to be as inclusive as possible (see our Code of Conduct). Together, we imagine, invent and create solutions using technology to have a positive impact on a global scale.

Challenge. Change. Impact! 

Faculty Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science

The Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science (EEMCS) brings together three disciplines - electrical engineering, mathematics and computer science. Combined, they reinforce each other and are the driving force behind the technology we use in our daily lives. Technology such as the electricity grid, which our faculty is helping to make future-proof. We are also working on a world in which humans and computers reinforce each other. We are mapping out disease processes using single cell data, and using mathematics to simulate gigantic ash plumes after a volcanic eruption. There is plenty of room here for ground-breaking research. We educate innovative engineers and have excellent labs and facilities that underline our strong international position. In total, more than 1,100 employees and 4,000 students work and study in this innovative environment.

Click here to go to the website of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science.

The Multimedia Computing Group (MMC) covers a broad palette of research directions in the domains of multimodal analysis and processing, network data computing and multimedia information systems.  In particular, the MMC group is an internationally leading group regarding the new methodological and algorithmic concepts for analyzing, interpreting, enriching, modeling, searching and recommending image, video, music and speech data available in stand-alone collections or connected in (complex) networked data structures. We follow a user-centered research approach. Consequently, our activities benefit from a strong influx of expertise from the domain of human factors.

The Web Information Systems (WIS) group concentrates its research on engineering and science of the Web, considering specifically the role of human-generated data in the engineering of Web-based information systems. The WIS group is an internationally leading research group with researchers and students advancing the state of the art in the following disciplines: large-scale data processing, information and knowledge extraction, information retrieval, human computation and crowdsourcing, human-computer interaction, and user modeling.