Researcher – Natural Language Processing in Erlangen bei Fraunhofer Institut für Integrierte Schaltungen IIS

The Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft (www.fraunhofer.com) currently operates 76 institutes and research institutions throughout Germany and is the world’s leading applied research organization. Around 30 000 employees work with an annual research budget of 2.9 billion euros.

For over 30 years, the »Audio and Media Technologies« division of Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS has been shaping the globally deployed standards and technologies in the fields of audio and moving picture production. Today, almost all consumer electronic devices, computers and mobile phones are equipped with systems and technologies from Erlangen, Germany.

You are enthusiastic about the capabilities and potential of the large language models?

Join us into the exciting world of conversational AI.

• As a member of our research team, you are working on the training and optimization of large language models to create innovative enterprise solutions for a variety of tasks and domains.
• You are aligning outputs of generative models with human preferences and expectations.
• You are developing advanced methods (such as parameter-efficient fine-tuning of LLMs) for controlling and interpreting the output of generative language models.
• You are communicating and coordinating activities with project partners as well as internal and external stakeholders.

• PhD or 2+ years of work experience in computer science, computational linguistics, or in a related field.
• Profound knowledge of natural language processing with pre-trained language models, especially generative pre-trained transformers (GPT).
• Solution-oriented thinking and ability to work in a team
• Hands-on experience with machine learning frameworks
• Experienced in developing in Python
• Excellent written and oral communication skills in English

Fraunhofer is not only the largest organization for applied research (application-oriented research organisation) in Europe, but also a top-rated employer. But why?

• An exciting role: We offer a vibrant research environment at a global leader in a major innovative industry.
• Here you will find opportunities to bring your ideas into life and contribute to state-of-the-art conversational AI solutions for our industry partners.
• Feel free to get involved in diverse activities and the chance to assume responsibility within interdisciplinary teams.
• Plus, we offer you opportunities to push frontiers in research and applications of natural language processing.
• We value personal contact: With our structured onboarding process, you will quickly become familiar with our institute and be able to extend your network successfully.
• We take your needs seriously: We support your work-life-balance by offering flexible working hours and hybrid work.
• You will have ample opportunity to meet your colleagues in our community rooms, at sports courses (at the institute and online) and many other events.
• Our colleagues enjoy our positive work culture: We are open-minded, we help and trust each other.
• Top infrastructure at your work place: With our state-of-the-art technologies, we develop solutions to meet the challenges of today and tomorrow.
• Talent development already starts in school: Our programs inspire young people at an early age to pursue sciences. This way we foster creative junior scientists.
• Your goals and interests are important to us: We offer ongoing professional and personal seminars, coaching and language classes.
• We offer equal opportunities: Our female scientists, for example, benefit from the »Fraunhofer TALENTA« career program.
• We offer complementary parking spaces, charging stations for electric cars and covered bicycle parking. We also provide showers at the institute.
• We subsidize your Deutschland-Ticket (jobticket). Bus stops are located directly in front of the institute.
• Our in-house health management organizes, e.g. sports courses, running groups and relaxation seminars.

The weekly working time is 39 hours. The position is initially limited to 2 years with the aim for subsequent employment.

We value and promote the diversity of our employees' skills and therefore welcome all applications - regardless of age, gender, nationality, ethnic and social origin, religion, ideology, disability, sexual orientation and identity. Appointment, remuneration and social security benefits based on the public-sector collective wage agreement (TVöD).

With its focus on developing key technologies that are vital for the future and enabling the commercial utilization of this work by business and industry, Fraunhofer plays a central role in the innovation process. As a pioneer and cataly