Several Postdoctoral Researcher and Research Fellow Positions in ICT (Helsinki, Finland)

Several positions to be filled at Aalto University and University of Helsinki in different areas of ICT:

• artificial intelligence and machine learning,
• data science,
• privacy and security,
• computational health, and
• human-computer interaction.

We welcome applications linking two or more of these areas together, and encourage female applicants to apply!

Deadline for applications is 31 January 2018. By applying to this call, organized by Helsinki Institute for Information Technology HIIT, you apply with one application to both Aalto University and University of Helsinki. The employing university will be determined according to the location of the supervising professor. Further information can be found below.

Aalto University and University of Helsinki, the two leading universities in Finland in computer science and information technology, are currently looking for several Postdoctoral Researchers or Research Fellows in ICT. These positions belong to the university career system and the selected person will be appointed for a fixed-term position, for postdoctoral researchers typically for two years with an option for renewal. For exceptional candidates, a longer term Research Fellow position can be considered. The length of the contract and starting and ending dates are negotiable. In addition to research work, persons hired are expected to participate in the supervision of students and teaching following the standard practices of the hiring department.

Helsinki Institute for Information Technology HIIT is a joint research institute of Aalto University and the University of Helsinki for basic and applied research in information technology. HIIT's mission is to conduct top-level research, seamlessly moving between fundamental methods and technologies to novel applications and their impact on people and society. HIIT’s research is organized in form of joint research centers and research programs. There are multiple research groups participating in each of them. The researchers to be recruited will be placed in one of the participating groups, or in some cases a shared position may also be possible.

The current HIIT research centers and programs are as follows:

• Finnish Center for Artificial Intelligence (FCAI), a recently established center for artificial intelligence, covering also topics of the earlier research program Computational Inference (COIN). For more information, see http://www.fcai.fi.
• Helsinki Center for Data Science (HiData), a recently established center for data science. For more information, see http://www.facebook.com/groups/hidata/
• Helsinki-Aalto Center for Information Security (HAIC), in which the objective is to build trust in computing systems and make the underlying platforms verifiable at all stages of the lifecycle: design, build, deployment, and run-time. For more information, see http://haic.aalto.fi.
• Foundations of Computational Health (FCHealth), a research program aiming to solve hard computational challenges related to digitalization and wide adoption of data-driven approaches in healthcare. This programme also include researchers from the Hospital District of Helsinki and Uusimaa (HUS) and the Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland (FIMM).
• Augmented Research, a research program investigating how HCI and probabilistic machine learning can be combined to increase the effectiveness of search and knowledge work. For more information, see http://augmentedresearch.hiit.fi/.

The applicants are asked to indicate in the application form their preferences related to the above listed HIIT centers/programs, and explain in their motivation letter how they could contribute in the selected research area(s). In addition to this, the applicants may also indicate one to three PIs as potential supervisors, if they find their research group's research profile a particularly good match with their own. (In addition to the names found on the web pages given above, a full list of potential supervisors of doctoral students in ICT can be found at http://www.hict.fi/supervisors).  Note that these indications are used only as flags for potential reviewers of the applications, they do not restrict the list of potential supervisors in any way. Therefore, the center/program level flags are typically sufficient, and it is not necessary to flag individual supervisors, unless you have arguable reasons for this.

Qualifications

The candidate should have a PhD and are expected to have an excellent track record in scientific research in one or several fields relevant to the position. Good command of English is a necessary prerequisite. In the review process, particular emphasis is put on the quality of the candidate's previous research and international experience, together with the substance, innovativeness, and feasibility of the research plan, and its relevance to the research group or groups in question. Efficient and successful completion of studies is considered an additional merit.

Compensation, working hours and place of work

The salary for the postdoctoral position is typically between 3 450 and 3 700 EUR per month depending on experience and qualifications. In addition to the salary, the contract includes occupational health benefits, and Finland has a comprehensive social security system. The annual total workload of teaching staff at recruiting universities is 1 624 hours. The position is located at Aalto University’s Otaniemi campus or University of Helsinki’s Kumpula campus.

Application material and procedure

The applications for the postdoctoral researcher position are to be submitted through the eRecruitment system no later than 31 January 2018 at 23:59 Finnish time.

The application for the position should contain (in single pdf document named as lastname_firstname_application.pdf):

• Motivation letter including a tentative plan for the research work (1-5 pages)
• CV
• List of publications
• A transcript of the doctoral studies and degree certificate of the PhD degree

All material should be submitted in English. The application materials will not be returned. Short-listed candidates may be invited for an interview either at the Otaniemi or Kumpula campus or for an interview conducted via Skype. The recruiting universities reserve the right for justified reasons to leave the position open, to extend the application period and to consider candidates who have not submitted applications during the application period.

About Helsinki

The Helsinki Metropolitan area forms a world-class information technology hub, attracting leading scientists and researchers in various fields of ICT and related disciplines. Moreover, as the birth place of Linux, and the home base of Nokia/Alcatel-Lucent/Bell Labs, F-Secure, Rovio, Supercell, Slush (the biggest annual startup event in Europe) and numerous other technologies and innovations, Helsinki is fast becoming one of the leading technology startup hubs in Europe. As a living and working environment, Finland consistently ranks high in quality of life, and Helsinki, the capital of Finland, is regularly ranked as one of the most livable cities in the world.

About the host institutions

Aalto University is a community of bold thinkers where science and art meet technology and business. We are committed to identifying and solving grand societal challenges and building an innovative future. Aalto University has six schools with nearly 11 000 students and nearly 400 professors. Our campuses are located in Espoo and Helsinki, Finland. For more information, see http://www.aalto.fi/en/.

The University of Helsinki, established in 1640, is the most versatile university in Finland. The University of Helsinki is an international academic community of 40,000 students and staff members. The university lays special emphasis on the quality of education and research, and it is a member of the League of the European Research Universities (LERU). For more information, see http://www.helsinki.fi/university/.

Helsinki Institute for Information Technology HIIT is a joint research institute of Aalto University and University of Helsinki for basic and applied research on information technology. For more information, see http://www.hiit.fi/.

 Further information

• Research related information: See the web pages of the professors listed at https://www.hict.fi/supervisors.
• Application process, practical arrangements: e-mail ”jobs-cs-sci@aalto.fi”