Technology (LST) at Saarland University in collaboration with the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) is inviting
applications for the following position.
# Position
This position is a permanent public sector appointment (equivalent to a ‘full‐tenured professorship‘) starting
at the earliest possible opportunity. We are looking for an experienced researcher in the field of language
technology who has extensive knowledge of natural language processing and machine learning/AI
methodologies. Experience with dialogue systems and reinforcement learning, the development of
foundation models and/or trustworthy Artificial Intelligence is also desirable. In addition to holding a
professorship at the university, the successful candidate will also be appointed as a scientific director at the
German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) where they will head a research department. DFKI is
an application‐driven research organization that is largely financed through external project funding. A
demonstrated ability to attract significant external funding for research projects at the national and
international level is therefore essential. We also expect candidates to have experience in interdisciplinary
research and in collaborating with industrial partners. The Department of Language Science and Technology
is internationally recognized for its collaborative and interdisciplinary research, and the successful candidate
will be expected to contribute to relevant joint research initiatives. Language technologies are core elements
of our study programmes at the M.Sc./M.A. and B.Sc./B.A. level and the person appointed will teach courses
within these programmes.
# What we can offer you
The successful candidate will conduct world‐class research, lead their own research group at the university
and perform teaching and supervisory duties at the undergraduate, graduate and doctoral levels. At DFKI,
the person appointed will lead a research department with access to an extensive worldwide network of
industrial and other research partners, facilitating research and impact at a scale that is otherwise difficult to
achieve. The position offers excellent working conditions in a lively and international scientific community.
Saarland University is one of the leading centres for language science and computational linguistics in
Europe and offers a dynamic and stimulating research environment. The Department of Language Science
and Technology (LST) employs about 100 research staff across nine research groups in the fields of
computational linguistics, natural language processing, psycholinguistics, phonetics and speech science,
speech processing, and corpus linguistics (https://www.uni‐saarland.de/en/department/lst.html). The
department serves as the focal point of the Collaborative Research Centre 1102 ‘Information Density and
Linguistic Encoding’ (http://www.sfb1102.uni‐saarland.de) and of the Research Training Group ‘Neuroexplicit
Models of Language, Vision, and Action’ (https://www.neuroexplicit.org/), both of which involve close
collaboration with DFKI. The LST department and the DFKI are both part of the Saarland Informatics Campus
(SIC: https://saarland‐informatics‐campus.de/en), which brings together some 800 researchers and over
2000 students from 81 countries. SIC is a collaboration between Saarland University and world‐class research
institutions on campus, which in addition to DFKI include the Max Planck Institute for Informatics and the
Max Planck Institute for Software Systems.
# Qualifications
The appointment will be made in accordance with the general provisions of German public sector
employment law. Candidates must have experience in and an aptitude for academic teaching. They will have
a PhD or doctorate in an appropriate subject and will have demonstrated a particular capacity for
independent academic research, typically by having obtained an advanced, post‐doctoral research degree ﴾
Habilitation﴿ or by having published an equivalent volume of peer‐reviewed research or by having been
appointed to a junior professorship or similar position. They will have a proven track record of leading their
own research group and of acquiring external research funding. The successful candidate will be expected to
actively contribute to departmental research and teaching. The language of instruction is English ﴾in the
M.Sc. and M.A. programmes﴿ and German ﴾in the B.Sc./B.A. programmes﴿. We expect the successful
candidate either to have sufficient proficiency to teach in both languages or to be willing to acquire this
level of proficiency within an appropriate period.
# Your Application
Applications should be submitted online at www.uni-saarland.de/berufungen. No additional paper copy is
required. The application must contain:
– a letter of application and CV/résumé (including your telephone number and email
address)
– a complete list of your academic publications
– a complete list of external funding (stating own share if you were not the sole beneficiary)
– your proposed research concept (2–5 pages)
– your teaching concept (1 page)
– copies of your degree certificates
– complete copies of your five most significant publications
– the names of three academic references (including email addresses), at least one of whom is not one of
your previous academic supervisors.
– If you hold a university degree from a foreign university, please provide proof of equivalence from Germany’s Central Office for Foreign Education ﴾ZAB﴿ if available. If proof of equivalence has not been requested at the time of application, it must be submitted later upon request.
__Applications must be received no later than May 30, 2024.__
Please include the job reference number W2464 when you apply.
The full job advertisement can be found at: www.uni-saarland.de | www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzo6dxr1FWk