The newly founded Chair of Intelligent Language Systems at FAU Erlangen–Nürnberg is seeking applications for fully funded PhD and postdoctoral positions. The key research areas include reasoning, interpretability, neuro-symbolic methods, memory and multilinguality. The position offers a degree of research freedom, however the overall goal is to advance LLM/VLMs for the long-tail of the distribution, i.e., unseen languages, tasks or domains by developing novel ML/NLP/RL methods.
About the Lab
The lab is led by Gözde Gül Sahin https://gglab-ku.github.io/. We regularly publish at top-tier *CL venues, and are also looking to extend to top-tier ML venues. Our lab has been partially funded by https://www.tubitak.gov.tr/Wikimedia Foundation https://wikimediafoundation.org/ via Wikimedia Research Fund https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Programs/Wikimedia_Research_%26_Technology_Fund/Wikimedia_Research_Fund , Google (Gemini) Academic Program https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/gemini-for-research and Scientific and Technological Research Council of Türkiye https://www.tubitak.gov.tr/ via International Fellowship for Outstanding Researchers program.
About FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg
FAU offers broad opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration across Informatik and beyond. There is strong potential for joint research with other computer science chairs, for example in areas intersecting with speech processing https://lme.tf.fau.de/, as well as, security, and reliable systems https://www.cs1.tf.fau.de/lab/. Natural connections also exist with the Humanities https://www.phil.fau.eu/, particularly linguistics and digitally supported humanities research, as well as with application-oriented fields such as medicine https://www.med.fau.eu/. The chair is embedded in the vibrant Erlangen–Nuremberg research ecosystem, with close proximity to major industrial and applied research actors such as Siemens, adidas, and Fraunhofer IIS, providing an excellent environment for collaborative, impact-oriented PhD and postdoctoral research.
Computational Resources
FAU Erlangen–Nürnberg HPC Center offers access to powerful, well-maintained GPU clusters (https://doc.nhr.fau.de/clusters/overview/).
Your Profile
- For the postdoctoral position: PhD in computer science, computational linguistics or a related field. For PhD position: Master of Science in computer science, computational linguistics or a related field before the PhD starting date
- Strong background in Natural Language Processing and Machine Learning
- Excellent programming skills
- Proficiency in English (German not required)
- Ability to work independently and as part of an interdisciplinary team
- Positive attitude, enjoyment of research, and finding new solutions
Application
Please email the following as a single pdf file to goezde.sahin [at] fau.de
- Cover letter, including your motivation for application (max. one page)
- A research statement outlining your research interests within the scope of the advertised position. It should propose a concrete research agenda you plan to develop during your PhD or PostDoc (up to two pages including references).
- Curriculum vitae (including your publication list (if available))
- Bachelors and Masters diplomas
- Transcripts
- Name and contact details of 2 referees
Applications until *01.03.2026* will be given full consideration, however the position will remain open until filled. Hence, feel free to inquire even if the deadline has passed. The preferred starting date is 01.05.2026 (or soon after)
Salary This is a fully funded E13 position (100%). An approximate salary can be calculated using the following tool: https://oeffentlicher-dienst.info/c/t/rechner/tv-l/west?id=tv-l-2025.