Postdoc on Human-Centered Development of AI Partners to Support Decision-Making in High Performing Teams
Requisition Number:
64399
Location:
Boulder, Colorado
City
Boulder
State
Colorado
Employment Type:
Research Faculty
Schedule:
Full-Time
Date Posted:
20-May-2025
Job Summary
We are seeking a technical postdoc with experience in Natural Language Processing (NLP), developing large language models (LLMs) and similar systems (e.g., RAGs) for studies in human-centered AI. The ideal candidate will have strong team collaboration skills to work with our existing team of researchers and full-stack developers, and will have prior experience in developing and conducting experiments with LLMs. Additionally, this candidate should have a strong publication record in areas including social, cognitive, affective state modeling with multimodal data (e.g. speech, text, eye-tracking), intelligent interactive systems, HCI, AI, and/or affective computing.
CU is an Equal Opportunity Employer and complies with all applicable federal, state, and local laws governing nondiscrimination in employment. We are committed to creating a workplace where all individuals are treated with respect and dignity, and we encourage individuals from all backgrounds to apply, including protected veterans and individuals with disabilities.
Who We Are
The Institute of Cognitive Science at the University of Colorado Boulder has a large project focused on building out AI partners to support individuals and teams with decision making and team coordination in complex environments that include space and command and control disaster recovery settings. Decision making in these settings is often done under pressure and with a need for sensemaking amidst heterogeneous, often conflicting, forms of information that are characterized by noise and uncertainty. The goal of the project is to build AI support for individuals and teams, which will be embedded into our custom testbed environments. AI supports will model the environment and team states (using real-time speech, human-computer interaction/typed text, and eye-gaze) and adapt to support the team.
What Your Key Responsibilities Will Be
- Develop and iterate AI partner systems leveraging large language models (LLMs) and retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) techniques.
- Collaborate with interdisciplinary researchers across cognitive science, computer science, and social science to design AI agents that support effective collaboration.
- Collaborate with existing software developers to integrate AI models and LLM supports into our existing testbed environments.
- Prototype and refine user interfaces for interactive AI systems that can engage with human users in socially aware and educationally effective ways.
- Contribute to publications and grant reports in areas such as AI-human teaming, HCI, affective computing, and intelligent tutoring systems.
What You Should Know
The candidate will be supervised by Professor Leanne Hirshfield and Dr. Chad Tossell. The position offers unique postdoctoral training experience and publishing opportunities within multi-department and multi-institution grant-funded projects. The postdoc will be encouraged to strengthen their research portfolios via peer-reviewed publications, gain interdisciplinary experience by working with a diverse team, and develop leadership skills by mentoring students.
What We Can Offer
- 1-2 year position. Initial contract is for one year (providing renewal after 6-month probationary period). For each consecutive year, the extension of the contract is based on performance.
- Start date is negotiable, but anticipated for summer or Fall of 2025.
- Competitive salary in the range of $68-$75K per year, with benefits commensurate with qualifications. This position is eligible for medical, dental and life insurance, retirement benefits programs, and is eligible for monthly vacation and sick leave accruals.
Benefits
The University of Colorado offers excellent benefits, including medical, dental, retirement, paid time off, tuition benefit and ECO Pass. The University of Colorado Boulder is one of the largest employers in Boulder County and offers an inspiring higher education environment. Learn more about the University of Colorado Boulder.
Be Statements
Be creative. Be impactful. Be Boulder.
What We Require
- Ph.D. in Computer Science (HCI, HRI), or a related field.
- Strong programming skills that demonstrate comfort with NLP, LLMs, UI development, and back-end programming to develop prototype AI systems to be tested in laboratory and field studies.
- Experience designing and implementing HCI-focused laboratory experiments and applying appropriate research/evaluation methodology and analysis.
- Strong writing and communication skills and ability to conduct research in interdisciplinary teams.
- Experience working with (some subset of) multimodal data, including video, action log-file, eyetracking, and speech data.
What You Will Need
Programming Languages and Environments:
- Experience with Python
- Experience with Python libraries for machine learning and LLM research, such as PyTorch, Transformers and LangChain
- Familiar with REST API and microservice development in Python with libraries like Flask + Marshmallow or FastAPI
- Experience with AWS technologies like ECS, DynamoDB, S3, SQS, Lambdas
- Comfortable using docker and docker compose to build and deploy services
- Familiar with modern javascript UI frameworks like Angular, React or Vue
What We Would Like You to Have
Preferred but not required:
- Experience with AI-based modeling approaches to human data including explainable AI,
- Experience in NLP
- Experience with human-guided machine learning
Special Instructions
To apply, please submit the following materials:
- Resume/CV
- Cover Letter
- 1-3 representative publications and/or products.
During the application process you will need to enter contact information for three references who will be contacted to provide letters of recommendation as the search progresses.
For full consideration please apply by June 20, 2025. Position will remain open until filled.
Note: Application materials will not be accepted via email. For consideration, please apply through CU Boulder Jobs.
In compliance with the Colorado Job Application Fairness Act, in any materials you submit, you may redact or remove age-identifying information such as age, date of birth, or dates of school attendance or graduation. You will not be penalized for redacting or removing this information.
Posting Contact Information
Posting Contact Name: Boulder Campus Human Resources
Posting Contact Email: Recruiting@colorado.edu