Saarland University, Germany, is a campus university with an international focus and a strong research profile. With numerous internationally respected research institutes on campus and dedicated support for collaborative projects, Saarland University is an ideal environment for innovation and technology transfer. The German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence ﴾DFKI﴿ is Germany's leading application‐driven research institute with a core technology transfer mission. DFKI is currently the world's largest research centre for artificial intelligence operated as a public‐private partnership. DFKI maintains close collaborative ties with national and international companies and is firmly rooted in the worldwide scientific AI landscape.

To further strengthen this excellence in research and teaching, the Department of Language Science and Technology ﴾LST﴿ in collaboration with the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence ﴾DFKI﴿ is inviting applications for the following position:

Professorship (W3) in Language Technology (m/f/x; Reference: W2464)

This position is a permanent public sector appointment ﴾equivalent to a 'full‐tenured professorship'﴿ starting at the earliest possible opportunity. We are looking for an experienced researcher in the field of language technology who has extensive knowledge of natural language processing and machine learning/AI methodologies. Experience with dialogue systems and reinforcement learning, the development of foundation models and/or trustworthy Artificial Intelligence is also desirable. In addition to holding a professorship at the university, the successful candidate will also be appointed as a scientific director at the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence ﴾DFKI﴿ where they will head a research department. DFKI is an application‐driven research organization that is largely financed through external project funding. A demonstrated ability to attract significant external funding for research projects at the national and international level is therefore essential. We also expect candidates to have experience in interdisciplinary research and in collaborating with industrial partners. The Department of Language Science and Technology is internationally recognized for its collaborative and interdisciplinary research, and the successful candidate will be expected to contribute to relevant joint research initiatives. Language technologies are core elements of our study programmes at the M.Sc./M.A. and B.Sc./B.A. level and the person appointed will teach courses within these programmes.

What we can offer you: The successful candidate will conduct world‐class research, lead their own research group at the university and perform teaching and supervisory duties at the undergraduate, graduate and doctoral levels. At DFKI, the person appointed will lead a research department with access to an extensive worldwide network of industrial and other research partners, facilitating research and impact at a scale that is otherwise difficult to achieve. The position offers excellent working conditions in a lively and international scientific community. Saarland University is one of the leading centres for language science and computational linguistics in Europe and offers a dynamic and stimulating research environment. The Department of Language Science and Technology ﴾LST﴿ employs about 100 research staff across nine research groups in the fields of computational linguistics, natural language processing, psycholinguistics, phonetics and speech science, speech processing, and corpus linguistics (https://www.uni%E2%80%90saarland.de/en/department/lst.html). The department serves as the focal point of the Collaborative Research Centre 1102 'Information Density and Linguistic Encoding' (http://www.sfb1102.uni%E2%80%90saarland.de) and of the Research Training Group 'Neuroexplicit Models of Language, Vision, and Action' (https://www.neuroexplicit.org/), both of which involve close collaboration with DFKI. The LST department and the DFKI are both part of the Saarland Informatics Campus (SIC: https://saarland%E2%80%90informatics%E2%80%90campus.de/en), which brings together some 800 researchers and over 2000 students from 81 countries. SIC is a collaboration between Saarland University and world‐class research institutions on campus, which in addition to DFKI include the Max Planck Institute for Informatics and the Max Planck Institute for Software Systems.

Qualifications: The appointment will be made in accordance with the general provisions of German public sector employment law. Candidates must have experience in and an aptitude for academic teaching. They will have a PhD or doctorate in an appropriate subject and will have demonstrated a particular capacity for independent academic research, typically by having obtained an advanced, post‐doctoral research degree ﴾ Habilitation﴿ or by having published an equivalent volume of peer‐reviewed research or by having been appointed to a junior professorship or similar position. They will have a proven track record of leading their own research group and of acquiring external research funding. The successful candidate will be expected to actively contribute to departmental research and teaching. The language of instruction is English ﴾in the M.Sc. and M.A. programmes﴿ and German ﴾in the B.Sc./B.A. programmes﴿. We expect the successful candidate either to have sufficient proficiency to teach in both languages or to be willing to acquire this level of proficiency within an appropriate period.

Your Application: Applications should be submitted online at www.uni-saarland.de/berufungen. No additional paper copy is required. The application must contain: • a letter of application and CV/résumé (including your telephone number and email address) • a complete list of your academic publications • a complete list of external funding (stating own share if you were not the sole beneficiary) • your proposed research concept (2–5 pages) • your teaching concept (1 page) • copies of your degree certificates • complete copies of your five most significant publications • the names of three academic references (including email addresses), at least one of whom is not one of your previous academic supervisors. • If you hold a university degree from a foreign university, please provide proof of equivalence from Germany's Central Office for Foreign Education ﴾ZAB﴿ if available. If proof of equivalence has not been requested at the time of application, it must be submitted later upon request.

Applications must be received no later than May 30, 2024.

Please include the job reference number W2464 when you apply. Selected candidates will be interviewed. If you have any questions, please contact: crocker@lst.uni‐saarland.de.

At Saarland University, we view internationalization as a process spanning all aspects of university life. We therefore expect members of our professorial staff to engage in activities that promote and foster further internationalization. Special support will be provided for projects that maintain collaborative interactions within existing international cooperative networks, e.g. projects with partners in the European University Alliance Transform4Europe (www.transform4europe.eu) or the University of the Greater Region (www.uni‐ gr.eu)

Saarland University is an equal opportunity employer. In accordance with its affirmative action policy, Saarland University is actively seeking to increase the proportion of women in this field. Qualified women candidates are therefore strongly encouraged to apply. Preferential consideration will be given to applications from disabled candidates of equal eligibility. We welcome applications regardless of nationality, ethnic and social origin, religion/belief, age, sexual orientation and identity.

When you submit a job application to Saarland University you will be transmitting personal data. Please refer to our privacy notice (https://www.uni-saarland.de/verwaltung/datenschutz/) for information on how we collect and process personal data in accordance with Art. 13 of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). By submitting your application, you confirm that you have taken note of the information in the Saarland University privacy notice.