Postdoctoral researcher position on algorithmic fairness funded by Horizon Europe through project FINDHR

13 Feb 2024
Job Information

Organisation/Company

Universitat Pompeu Fabra - ETIC

Department

Tecnologies de la Informació i les Comunicacions

Research Field

Computer science

Researcher Profile

Recognised Researcher (R2)

Country

Spain

Application Deadline

13 Mar 2024 - 23:59 (Europe/Madrid)

Type of Contract

Temporary

Job Status

Full-time

Hours Per Week

37,5

Offer Starting Date

15 Feb 2024

Is the job funded through the EU Research Framework Programme?

H2020

Is the Job related to staff position within a Research Infrastructure?

No

Offer Description

As part of the Horizon Europe project FINDHR (Fairness and Intersectional Non-Discrimination in Human Recommendation), we offer a postdoctoral research position at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona.

FINDHR is an interdisciplinary project to fight discrimination in Artificial Intelligence (AI). The project addresses primarily discrimination risks in algorithmic hiring: the usage of AI tools for sourcing and assessment of job candidates.

Most of the tasks of the researcher will involve the development of algorithms, benchmarking datasets, and demonstrators, as well as contributions to research led by social scientists, legal scholars, and advocacy organization representatives.

Project FINDHR (Fairness and Intersectional Non-Discrimination in Human Recommendation) is a Horizon Europe EU-funded research project (grant agreement No 101070212) coordinated by Dr. Carlos Castillo, ICREA Research Professor at Universitat Pompeu Fabra. It aims to develop methods, algorithms, and training for anti-discriminatory AI that are contextualized within the technical, legal, and ethical problems of algorithmic hiring, yet are applicable to a broad class of applications involving human recommendation. The tasks of the researcher will involve the development of algorithms, benchmark datasets, and demonstrators.

The researcher will collaborate closely with FINDHR's academic partners in the project to develop methods for tracking the risk of discrimination, as well as methods for creating interpretable equity-aware rankings while leading the creation of benchmark datasets for algorithmic equity research. The researcher will also collaborate with development teams from industry partners within FINDHR to prepare demonstrators of these advancements in a real-world context. Interdisciplinary collaborations are at the core of the project, and the researcher will be able to contribute to the development of an impact assessment and audit framework alongside social scientists, legal experts, and advocacy representatives within the project. Collaboration in teaching tasks is also possible (for a minimum of 40 and a maximum of 60 hours per academic year). Successful completion of this postdoc will result in advances in algorithm fairness described in multiple research papers with the postdoctoral researcher as the first author, plus other papers in which the researcher will have a contributing role, published in top-tier conferences and journals.

Requirements

Research Field

Computer science

Education Level

PhD or equivalent

Skills/Qualifications

REQUIRED SKILLS

- At least four years of experience in data analysis and/or data management using Python programming.

- Academic publications in high-impact journals and/or reputable conferences (the latter includes, but is not limited to FAccT, CHI, CSCW, KDD, CIKM, ICWSM).

- Capacity to communicate well in English and proficiency in writing technical English.

ADDITIONAL SKILLS

- Empirical, data-driven research orientation, including experience analyzing large datasets is a big plus.

- Experience designing, conducting, and analyzing experiments and studies in HCI (human-computer interaction) is a big plus.

- Experience working with collaborative software development tools (Git) is a plus.

- Experience contributing to open-source projects is a plus.

- Experience working with Unix-based operating systems is a plus.

- Experience collaborating with international research teams is a plus.

QUALIFICATIONS

Past experience: 0-60 points.

- Research history in algorithmic fairness, artificial intelligence, machine learning, information retrieval, recommendation systems and/or human-computer interaction.

- Data-driven empirical research orientation, including experience in analyzing large data sets.

Additional merits: 0-40 points

- Contributions to algorithmic equity research in the candidate's research record are highly meritorious.

- A solid background in statistics is an asset.

- Knowing the experimental methods of human-computer interaction is a merit.

The minimum score to pass the selection process is: 60 points.

Specific Requirements

GENERAL

Be in possession of the Doctor's degree

Not having been separated by means of a disciplinary file from the service of any of the public administrations, nor having been disqualified by a final judgment for the performance of public functions. In the case of being a national of another State, not being disqualified or in an equivalent situation or having been subjected to a disciplinary or equivalent sanction that prevents, in your State, in the same terms, access to public jobs .

SPECIFIC

1. Track record of academic publications in high-impact journals and/or reputable conferences (the latter include but are not limited to FAccT, CHI, CSCW, KDD, CIKM, ICWSM)

2. At least four years of experience working in data analysis and/or data management using the Python programming language.

MERITS 

Experience designing, conducting and analyzing HCI (human computer interaction) experiments and studies

Experience working with collaborative software development tools (Git)

Experience contributing to open source projects

Experience working with Unix-based operating systems

Experience collaborating with international research teams

Languages

ENGLISH

Level

Excellent

Research Field

Computer science

Years of Research Experience

4 - 10

Additional Information
Benefits

ANNUAL GROSS SALARY: €39.952,92

Website for additional job details

https://www.upf.edu/web/etic/postdoc

Work Location(s)

Number of offers available

1

Company/Institute

Universitat Pompeu Fabra - ETIC

Country

Spain

State/Province

Barcelona

City

Barcelona

Postal Code

08018

Street

Roc Boronat 138

Geofield

Where to apply

Website

https://apply.interfolio.com/141006

Contact

State/Province

Barcelona

City

Barcelona

Website

http://www.upf.edu/etic

Street

Roc Boronat 138

Postal Code

08018

E-Mail

[email protected]

STATUS: EXPIRED