You will conduct cutting-edge research on topics including, but not limited to:

• Continual learning, with a focus on novel optimization techniques and memory architectures.
• Advancing the reasoning capabilities of large language models (LLMs).
• Developing methods to improve the safety and robustness of LLMs.
• Enabling effective collaboration between intelligent agents.

The research is funded by NWO (Dutch Science Foundation). The researchers will be employed by the University of Amsterdam and will be a member of the Institute for Logic, Language, and Computation and the Faculty of Science. The collaboration is envisaged with researchers across the University of Amsterdam as well as with the University of Edinburgh.

Your tasks and responsibilities:

• Carry out research as described in the project proposal;

• Present and publish at key international conferences and in leading journals;

• Contribute your expertise to joint research projects within the research groups;

• Participate in and contribute to the organization of research activities and events at the ILLC, such as workshops and colloquia;

• Make a small contribution to the ILLC’s educational mission, by possibly taking part in teaching and student supervision activities in areas related to your expertise.

• A PhD degree (or equivalent qualification) in AI (e.g., machine learning, natural language processing or computer vision);

• A strong scientific track record, documented by publications at first-tier conferences and journals (e.g., NeurIPS, ACL, ICLR, EMNLP, NAACL or COLM);

• Have excellent programming skills;

• Have strong mathematical skills (e.g., probability theory, statistics, calculus, and linear algebra);

• Have strong communication, presentation and writing skills;

• Enjoy working in a multidisciplinary research environment;

• Are highly motivated and creative;

• Have an excellent command of English.

We offer a temporary employment contract for 38 hours per week for a period of 12 months. The initial employment contract will be for one year. Contingent on a positive performance evaluation the contract will be extended with up to 2 years. The preferred starting date is before February 1, 2026, but negotiable.

The gross monthly salary, based on 38 hours per week and dependent on relevant experience, ranges between € 3,546 to € 5,538 (scale 10)
. This does not include 8% holiday allowance and 8,3% year-end allowance. The UFO profile Researcher 4
is applicable. A favourable tax agreement, the ‘30% ruling’, may apply to non-Dutch applicants.
The Collective Labour Agreement of Universities of the Netherlands is applicable.

Besides the salary and a vibrant and challenging environment at Science Park we offer you multiple fringe benefits:

• 232 holiday hours per year (based on fulltime) and extra holidays between Christmas and 1 January;

• multiple courses to follow from our Teaching and Learning Centre;

• a complete educational program for PhD students;

• multiple courses on topics such as leadership for academic staff;

• multiple courses on topics such as time management, handling stress and an online learning platform with 100+ different courses;

• 7 weeks birth leave (partner leave) with 100% salary;

• partly paid parental leave;

• the possibility to set up a workplace at home;

• a pension at ABP for which UvA pays two third part of the contribution;

• the possibility to follow courses to learn Dutch;

• help with housing for a studio or small apartment when you’re moving from abroad.

Are you curious to read more about our extensive package of secondary employment benefits, take a look here.