The Department of Computing at the Faculty of Technology invites applications for a full-time Postdoctoral Researcher position. This role focuses on leading the development of pretraining pipelines and clinical alignment techniques for clinical foundation models. The fixed-term position starts based on mutual agreement, and the duration is 2 years (24 months).
Job description
This position is integrated into the high-impact research project, FINe-Health Foundry: Nationwide Foundation Health Model. As a Postdoctoral Researcher, you will lead key research lines, co-supervise students, and manage deliverables with partners at ELLIS Institute Finland.
The successful candidate will lead activities in one of the following pillars:
- Pretraining Foundation Health Model: Leading the design and scaling of pretraining pipelines on nationwide health databases and structured longitudinal electronic health records.
- Medical Reasoning and Grounding: Developing advanced post-training and alignment techniques (RLHF, DPO, GRPO) to ensure foundation health models reason accurately and safely.
- Agentic Methods for Virtual Labs: Researching and constructing interactive agentic frameworks and virtual labs for expert human-in-the-loop auditing and alignment.
Responsibilities:
- Lead research in large-scale pretraining of clinical foundation models and clinical alignment techniques.
- Co-supervise PhD and Master's students in the group, and assist in teaching activities.
- Lead project deliverables and actively collaborate with partners at ELLIS Institute Finland.
- Target publications at top-level AI, ML, and NLP venues.
Who we are looking for
Requirements
- Ph.D. in Machine Learning, Natural Language Processing, Computer Science, or a closely related field.
- A strong track record of publications in top-tier AI/NLP conferences.
- Advanced experience in training large language models or handling multi-modal clinical data.
- Strong organizational skills and experience in collaborative research tasks.
- Good communication skills in English (written and spoken).
Qualification requirements
The eligibility criteria for prospective applicants are defined in the University of Turku's Rules of Procedure: university-of-turku-rules-of-procedure.pdf
A person selected for the post of postdoctoral researcher is required to have a doctoral degree and the ability to conduct independent scientific work as well as having the necessary teaching skills.
We primarily seek to recruit a Postdoctoral Researcher. However, in exceptional cases, applicants who have completed almost all doctoral studies required for a PhD in a relevant field may also be considered. In such cases, the job title at the start of the employment will be Project Researcher and salary will be in the beginning on average 3100–3400 euros/month, depending on previous experience and skills. A person selected for the post of Project researcher is required to have a higher university degree. When assessing the merits of the applicants, special emphasis will be placed on competence and practical expertise in the field in question.
We value collegiality and promote equality, diversity, and inclusivity. We encourage all qualified applicants with different backgrounds to apply for our open positions.
Benefits
We offer you responsible and interesting tasks and the opportunity to develop your professional skills in a versatile operating environment. You get a professional and inspiring team to support your work. We take care of your well-being at work and the functionality of your everyday life, e.g. with the help of flexible working hours and our well-being services.
Please read more about University of Turku as an employer from our Come work with us! pages.
The European Commission has awarded the University of Turku the right to use the HR Excellence in Research quality label. The label is a token of the University's commitment to continuous development of the position and working conditions of researchers according to the guidelines set forth in the European Charter for Researchers.
The university offers good support and orientation for international hires. Please learn more about the Finnish culture and relocation to Finland:
The University of Turku is among the top of the world’s universities in most rankings and among the best universities in the world in certain fields. Our high-quality basic research, a multidisciplinary research profile and close cooperation in research infrastructures creates the basis for international top research. Read more about University of Turku in international university rankings.
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Salary and trial period
The salary is determined in accordance with the university salary system for teaching and research personnel and will depend on the degree and qualifications of the applicant.
For a postdoctoral researcher (OV5-OV6), the salary will be in the beginning of the employment on average 3700–4600 euros/month, depending on previous experience and skills.
The amount of the salary is defined when the employment contract is prepared.
A six (6) month trial period applies to the position.
How to apply
Please submit your application through our online recruitment system. The closing date for applications is 17 August 2026 at 16.00 (Europe/Helsinki).
Your application should include the following:
- A motivation letter
- Curriculum Vitae (CV)
- A list of publications
- Copies of degree certificates with translation in English or in Finnish
- Other documents that may affect the decision-making (for example a research plan, awards)
Further information
Home page of the research group: https://www.olaresearch.org/
For further information about the position, please contact: Assistant Professor Shaoxiong Ji, [email protected].
With questions about the application process, please contact: HR Specialist Nina Reini, [email protected].
University of Turku reserves the right for justified reasons to leave the position open, to extend the application period, reopen the application process, and to consider candidates who have not submitted applications during the application period.
