3-year Postdoc(s) in Natural Language Processing and Law Full-time

Postdoctoral Position in NLP and Law

Joint position between the Department of Computer Science, Faculty of Science, University of Copenhagen and the Faculty of Law, University of Copenhagen. We are looking for a highly motivated postdoc for a three-year position from 1 September 2026 or as soon as possible hereafter, to join the DETECT project funded by Independent Research Fund Denmark, as well as the CoAStaL NLP research group.

About the Project and Research Environment

Large Language Models (LLMs) are increasingly used in legal question-answer contexts. It is now well known that answers may contain noise, for example, in the form of so-called hallucinations. To ensure more accurate and trustworthy answers for legal questions, LLMs have been coupled to legal knowledge databases, enabling so-called Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) systems. While commercial providers of RAG systems in law claim they are hallucination-free, recent research has documented that this is not the case. DETECT aims to develop knowledge on how legal RAG systems can be made more trustworthy, not by eliminating noise, but by making (potential) noise in answers visible to users of these systems. The project will seek to detect the origin of generated text (model or knowledge base) and to make the origin visible to users, thereby also ensuring compliance with transparency and human control requirements in the AI Act.

CoAStaL is a collective, open research culture that prizes diversity, friendliness, and life-work balance. Our team spans five continents and varied worldviews; we treat these differences as a source of learning and strength. Projects are open for everyone to join, ideas are shared freely, and we foster inclusion, engagement, trust, and respect—aiming to be not just a top research group but the friendliest in the top. We value ambition without ego-attachment: celebrate progress, learn from failures, and keep “shooting for the next deadline.” The result is a supportive environment with strong mentoring, shared infrastructure, and an international network of collaborators and visitors.

Your Job

You will conduct independent and collaborative research within NLP and law, contributing to one or more of the project's work packages. The position also includes limited teaching responsibilities. You are expected to actively participate in research activities across both departments and engage with international collaborators.

Profile

We are looking for a highly motivated researcher with the following qualifications:

• PhD in computer science, computational linguistics, AI, legal informatics, or a related field (or expected to obtain one before the start date)
• Documented experience with natural language processing and/or machine learning (e.g., through first/co-authored publications)
• Demonstrated interest in interdisciplinary research at the intersection of AI and law
• Excellent communication skills and ability to work collaboratively in a team
• Proficiency in written and spoken English

Desirable qualifications:

• Experience working with legal or other domain-specific text corpora
• Knowledge of transformer models (e.g., BERT, GPT) and representation learning
• Familiarity with hallucination detection in LLMs

Place of employment

The position is jointly hosted by the Department of Computer Science and the Faculty of Law at the University of Copenhagen. We offer a creative and stimulating working environment in two leading research institutions, with access to modern facilities, including a GPU cluster, and strong international networks.

Terms of employment

The average weekly working hours are 37 hours per week. The position is a fixed-term position limited to a period of three years. The start date is from 1 September 2026 or as soon as possible hereafter.

Salary, pension and other conditions of employment are set in accordance with the Agreement between the Ministry of Taxation and AC (Danish Confederation of Professional Associations) or other relevant organisation. Currently, the monthly salary starts at 38,700 DKK/approx. 5,100 EUR (April 2025 level). Depending on qualifications, a supplement may be negotiated. The employer will pay an additional 17.1 % to your pension fund.

Foreign and Danish applicants may be eligible for tax reductions, if they hold a PhD degree and have not lived in Denmark the last 10 years.

The position is covered by the Job Structure for Academic Staff at Universities 2020.

Questions

For further information please contact Henrik Palmer Olsen or Daniel Hershcovich.

Application procedure

Your online application must be submitted in English by clicking 'Apply now' below. Furthermore, your application must include the following documents/attachments – all in PDF format:

1. Motivated letter of application (max. one page).
2. CV incl. education, work/research experience, language skills and other skills relevant for the position.
3. A certified/signed copy of a) PhD certificate and b) Master of Science certificate. If the PhD is not completed, a written statement from the supervisor will do.
4. List of publications.
5. Research plan – description of current and future research plans
6. Copies of up to three peer-reviewed publications that are particularly relevant to the position (as separate files)

Deadline for applications: 29 June 2026, 23.59pm CET

We reserve the right not to consider material received after the deadline, and not to consider applications that do not live up to the abovementioned requirements.

The further process

After the expiry of the deadline for applications, the authorized recruitment manager selects applicants for assessment on the advice of the hiring committee. All applicants are then immediately notified whether their application has been passed for assessment by an unbiased assessor. Once the assessment work has been completed each applicant has the opportunity to comment on the part of the assessment that relates to the applicant him/herself.

You can read about the recruitment process at https://employment.ku.dk/faculty/recruitment-process/

The applicant will be assessed according to the Ministerial Order no. 242 of 13 March 2012 on the Appointment of Academic Staff at Universities.

The University of Copenhagen wish to reflect the diversity of society and encourage all qualified candidates to apply regardless of personal background.