Postdoc position — USI – Università della Svizzera italiana
- Location
- Lugano
- Contract
- other
- Posted
- —
Role overview
Open position at Università della Svizzera italiana.
Department/Institute: Institute of Argumentation, Linguistics and Semiotics – Dalle Molle Institute for Artificial Intelligence.
Role: Postdoc position.
- Open position at Università della Svizzera italiana.
- Department/Institute: Institute of Argumentation, Linguistics and Semiotics – Dalle Molle Institute for Artificial Intelligence.
- encompass both research and teaching responsibilities.
- The successful candidate will have shared responsibilities in the design and conduction of research projects in the field of NLP, present papers at scientific conferences and produce publications in high-ranking journals and top-tier conferences.
Main responsibilities
- encompass both research and teaching responsibilities.
- The successful candidate will have shared responsibilities in the design and conduction of research projects in the field of NLP, present papers at scientific conferences and produce publications in high-ranking journals and top-tier conferences.
- On the teaching side, he/she will work as teaching assistant in courses at master level, helping in the preparation of teaching materials and help with supervising PhD students.
- Candidates’ profile Ideal candidates should satisfy the following requirements:
- A PhD in natural language processing, computer science, or related disciplines.
- Experience with and/or strong interest in interdisciplinary work, and collaborative projects. Strong programming skills
- Excellent research track record and publications.
Application process
- The Institutes invite applications for a fully funded postdoc position in NLP, for two years, renewable for another 2 years.
- The project SATURNA (https://www.saturna.ch/) is a large-scale four-year project funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation.
- It is an inter-disciplinary collaboration between the University of Bern, EPFL, Idiap Research Institute and the National University of Singapore, with specialists in NLP, graph deep learning, knowledge-enhanced AI, computational biology and translational science.
- The role of the team of Prof.
- Lonneke van der Plas is to draw parallels between text sequences and RNA sequences, thereby leveraging advances made in the NLP field to learn informative representations of RNA sequences.
- Vice versa, handling the intricacies of RNA, such as extremely long-distance dependencies, context- dependency, structure, function etc. sheds new light on assumptions made in NLP models, that will be tested for their applicability on language. pagina 2 / 3 The Postdoc Position The postdoc will work under the scientific supervision of Prof.
- Lonneke van der Plas (https://usi.to/bkks).
- The successful candidate will be offered the possibility to work in a fast-growing, cross-institutional, dynamic research team and have the opportunity to collaborate with members of Van der Plas’ NLP lab (https://usi-nlp.github.io/) that are based at USI and the EPFL, as well as the large international network the group features.
Contacts
- You will also need to upload the documents listed above. pagina 3 / 3 Requests for further information can be sent to Lonneke van der Plas ([email protected]) with ‘SATURNA-POSTDOC’ in the title.
Company and context
- Good communication skills, scientific curiosity, good organizational skills, rigor in experimental work and high level of motivation.
- Excellent command of English, both written and spoken.
- Good oral and written skills in one (or more) national Swiss languages (German, French, Italian, Romansh) is a plus.
- Interest in teaching and supervising students and availability to collaborate with colleagues (engage in scientific dialogue, listen and think critically) are required.
- General terms Workplace is USI Università della Svizzera italiana, located in Lugano, Switzerland.
- Availability to travel to other parts of Switzerland and abroad (for purposes of collaboration and research) is required.
- Starting date is 1 September 2026 (at the earliest).
- However, the position will be kept open until a suitable candidate has been found.
Additional details
- Tasks encompass both research and teaching responsibilities.
- Experience with and/or strong interest in interdisciplinary work, and collaborative projects. Strong programming skills
Notes and original content
- Experience with and/or strong interest in interdisciplinary work, and collaborative projects.
- Strong programming skills
Questions about this listing
What salary does USI – Università della Svizzera italiana offer for this role?
USI – Università della Svizzera italiana lists CHF 49'500 - 75'000 gross per year for this position in Lugano. This is the salary published in the original listing (or, when the employer omits a figure, a realistic estimate for the role and sector) — the calculator on this site converts it to your actual net take-home once cross-border tax and social contributions are applied.
Is this a full-time role, and what type of contract does USI – Università della Svizzera italiana offer?
This listing is a full-time position. The contract type shown here comes directly from the employer's original posting; always confirm exact hours, notice period and probation length with USI – Università della Svizzera italiana during the application process, since these details can vary by role even within the same contract category.
Do I need the G permit to apply for this role in Ticino as an Italian cross-border worker?
Yes, if you are resident in Italy within the 20 km border zone. The Swiss employer files the G-permit application at the Ticino cantonal migration office after the contract is signed — first issuance takes 2-6 weeks, then automatic yearly renewal for as long as the employment continues. Weekly return to your Italian home is required to keep the status.
How do I apply for this position at USI – Università della Svizzera italiana?
Use the "Apply now" button on this page — it links directly to USI – Università della Svizzera italiana's original listing at content.usi.ch, so your application goes straight to the employer's own applicant-tracking system. Frontaliere Ticino does not collect or forward applications itself.
