Lecturer/Reader in Machine Learning

Lecturer: UE08 - £42,149 - £50,296 (per annum)

Reader: UE09 - £53,348- £60,022 (per annum)

School of Informatics, Science and Engineering

Full-time (35 hours per week)

Open-ended (permanent role)

Applications are invited for an academic position in machine learning in the School of Informatics at the University of Edinburgh, as part of a continuing expansion in Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence.

The Opportunity:

The successful candidates will have (or be near to completing) a PhD, an established research agenda and the enthusiasm and ability to undertake original research, and to lead a research group. They will show excellent teaching capability and engagement with academic supervision. We are seeking current and future leaders in the field.

We seek candidates with research interests in the development of cutting-edge machine learning methods. Candidates will have a research interests in principled approaches to machine learning, the explainability of machine learning methods, machine learning for novel or critical tasks, and/or the development of novel methods of wide applicability and with state-of-the-art capability.

The Machine Learning group carries out research on principled models, algorithms and applications of machine learning. The University of Edinburgh is one of the five founding partners of the UK's Alan Turing Institute for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence; this gives rise to opportunities to interact with PhD students, research fellows and senior researchers within the Turing Institute. In addition, the University has just established one of the first ELLIS units, which are recognized centres of excellence in AI research across Europe. There are also ample opportunities within the University to enact collaborative activities with researchers in other areas of computer science, mathematics and statistics, and across the physical, social and biomedical sciences. Diversity and ethical issues in the machine learning domain are also of particular interest.

The candidate's research focus might involve, for example (in no particular order and not exclusively):

• theoretical foundations of learning representations
• efficiency of methods and models, and data efficiency
• transfer and small-data learning
• generative deep learning, unsupervised deep learning and stochastic optimisation
• scalable Bayesian methods
• biological and biomedical applications
• fairness and ethical application of ML
• energy, climate and sustainability applications
• finance, risk and decision-making

Candidates should have a strong technical track record and be interested and able to teach undergraduate and master’s level courses in areas such as AI, machine learning, deep learning and neural networks.

Applicants must provide a recent CV, a research statement, and a teaching statement, which should specify the candidate's experience and approach to teaching, and what specialty and introductory (particularly undergraduate Informatics) courses they would be qualified to teach.

We recognise that the pandemic may have affected some applicants disproportionately, and aim to take this into account in the selection process. Applicants can optionally include a short statement regarding how their work has been disrupted by Covid, and how this affects their recent track record. This statement should be part of the cover letter and shouldn't be more than a paragraph in length.

Your skills and attributes for success:

UE08 Lecturer:

• PhD and experience as an established academic in Machine Learning .

Candidates who are close to completing their PhD, and who otherwise meet the selection criteria, will be considered.

• Ability to undertake original research, including leading a research group.
• Ability to attract research funding as an independent researcher.
• A track record of first author and/or collaborative publications in high quality journals and international conferences.
• Strong relevant research and teaching skills.
• Effective written and oral communication skills in a range of contexts (e.g. teaching, research presentations and publications).
• Ability to contribute to teaching on a range of non-Honours courses as well as in more specialist areas of algorithms and complexity .
• The ability to engage with a range of teaching mediums including online and distance learning.

UE09 Reader: as above and including:

• Proven ability to provide leadership for activities in delivering the School’s objectives.
• Extensive experience in research, postgraduate supervision and teaching is essential.
• Proven ability to foster and embed a strong student-focused culture
• A significant track record of success in securing research grants and awards.
• Evidence of significant achievement in the relevant field through (e.g.) successful knowledge transfer from research; the receipt of prestigious prizes and awards; membership of national and international bodies relevant to the research field.
• Experience of managing, motivating and supporting research staff, students and projects.

For the full job description:

• UE08 Lecturer – click here
• UE09 Reader – click here

Feedback is only provided to interviewed candidates. References will be sought for all shortlisted candidates, where approval has been given on application.

Appointment will be full-time and open-ended.

Enquiries may be addressed to Dr Matthias Hennig ( m.hennig@ed.ac.uk ) or Dr Michael Gutmann ( michael.gutmann@ed.ac.uk ).

As a valued member of our team you can expect:

An exciting, positive, creative, challenging and rewarding place to work. We give you support, nurture your talent and reward success. You will benefit from a competitive reward package and a wide range of staff benefits, which includes a generous holiday entitlement, a defined benefits pension scheme , staff discounts, family friendly initiatives , flexible working and much more. Access our staff benefits page for further information and use our reward calculator to find out the total value of pay and benefits provided.
The University of Edinburgh holds a Silver Athena SWAN award in recognition of our commitment to advance gender equality in higher education. We are members of the Race Equality Charter and we are also Stonewall Scotland Diversity Champions, actively promoting LGBT equality.

The University is able to sponsor the employment of international workers in this role. If successful, an international applicant requiring sponsorship to work in the UK will need to satisfy the UK Home Office’s English Language requirements and apply for and secure a Skilled Worker Visa.

If invited for interview you will be required to evidence your right to work in the UK. Further information is available on our right to work webpages .