Assistant Professor in Natural Language Processing and Conversational AI for Computational Law Full-time NEW

Assistant Professor in Natural Language Processing and Conversational AI for Computational Law

The Department of Computer Science invites applicants for a 12 month Assistant Professor in Natural Language Processing and Conversational AI for Computational Law. The project is part of the larger research project “XHAILe” (Explainable Hybrid AI for Computational Law and Accurate Legal Chatbots), in collaboration with the Faculty of Law and Department of Nordic Studies and Linguistics, DTU Compute, and industrial partners: DCR Solutions, KL (Local Government Denmark) and TietoEvry. The project is financed by Innovation Fund Denmark.

Start date is 1st October, 2026 or as soon as possible thereafter.

The XHAILe project aims to provide efficient and accurate hybrid AI technologies for computational law and natural language interaction with e-government solutions along with trustworthy benchmarks and guidelines for legal use of the technology.

This position focuses on the development of conversational AI systems for interaction with legal and administrative processes, combining large language models with symbolic rule-based systems. The overall goal is to enable reliable, explainable, and user-friendly access to complex legal procedures through natural language interfaces.

The work builds on the project's hybrid architecture, where language models are used for interaction, interpretation, and explanation, while decision-making remains grounded in executable symbolic models (DCR graphs) developed within the project and by the industrial partner DCR Solutions.

We are looking for candidates with a PhD degree and demonstrable experience in natural language processing, machine learning, or related areas, with a strong interest in conversational AI and applied AI systems.

We offer a position that is part of a large collaboration between several faculties within the University of Copenhagen, Technical University of Denmark, Local Government Denmark – and with a reference group of governmental institutions and leading international experts in the field. The position is based at the Department of Computer Science, University of Copenhagen, within the Natural Language Processing research environment, which is part of the AI section. The candidate will be part of an interdisciplinary collaboration across computer science, law, and language technology, and will interact closely with other postdocs and senior researchers in the project.

The project involves close collaboration with industrial and governmental partners, providing opportunities to work with real-world legal use cases and to evaluate research in applied settings. The work is embedded in a broader effort to develop trustworthy AI systems for the public sector and is affiliated with the Pioneer Centre for AI.

The University of Copenhagen offers a strong international research environment and access to modern computational resources, as well as a collaborative and interdisciplinary setting. It was founded in 1479 and is the oldest and largest university in Denmark. It is often ranked as the best university in Scandinavia and consistently as one of the top places in Europe. Within computer science, it is ranked number 2 in the European Union according to the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) 2021. Copenhagen is one of the 10 most livable cities in the world with a rich culture within music, theater and associations. Life for families is made easy by a publicly supported daycare and health care system, dual career opportunities, maternity/parental leave and six weeks of paid annual vacation. International candidates may find information on living and working in Denmark here. Useful information is also available at The International Staff Mobility office (ISM) at the University of Copenhagen (link). ISM offers a variety of services to international researchers coming to and working at the University of Copenhagen.

Principal supervisor: Assistant Professor Daniel Hershcovich, dh@di.ku.dk

Project lead: Professor Thomas Troels Hildebrandt, hilde@di.ku.dk

Responsibilities and tasks:

• Develop methods for integrating large language models with symbolic rule-based systems for legal reasoning
• Design and implement conversational interfaces for interaction with legal and administrative processes
• Develop techniques for structured fact elicitation from user input (e.g. mapping free text to structured representations)
• Develop and evaluate methods for generating faithful and understandable explanations grounded in symbolic models
• Contribute to the development of prototype systems and experimental evaluations on real-world use cases
• Collaborate with interdisciplinary partners, including legal scholars and industry stakeholders
• Write scientific papers of high quality

We are looking for the following qualifications:

• A PhD degree in computer science, computational linguistics, AI, or a related field
• Experience with natural language processing and/or machine learning
• Experience with large language models, dialogue systems, or tool-augmented AI systems
• Strong programming skills
• An inquisitive mindset and willingness to work in an interdisciplinary team
• Excellent English communication skills
• Experience from a prior position as Postdoc or Assistant professor
• Realistic plan and vision for research and attraction of funding for a continued career

Additional qualifications (considered an advantage):

• Experience with structured prediction, semantic parsing, or information extraction
• Experience with evaluation of NLP systems or human-centered AI
• Familiarity with symbolic AI, knowledge representation, or rule-based systems
• Experience with legal or other high-stakes application domains

General criteria apply to the appointment of Assistant Professor at the University of Copenhagen. The criteria (research, teaching, Innovation & societal impact, organisational contribution and leadership) are considered as a framework for an overall assessment of the applicant. In addition, each applicant will be assessed according to the specific requirements above. Listed in this advertisement.

Applicants are encouraged to read the University of Copenhagen's guidance on the merit criterion Innovation and Societal Impact here.

Application and Assessment Procedure:

Your application including all attachments must be in English and submitted electronically by clicking Apply for position below.

Please include:

1. Motivated letter of application (max. one page), that describes your motivation for applying for the position
2. Curriculum vitae including information about your education, experience, language skills and other skills relevant for the position
3. Original diplomas for MSc and PhD and transcript of records in the original language, including an authorized English translation if issued in another language than English or Danish. If not completed, a certified/signed copy of a recent transcript of records or a written statement from the institution or supervisor is accepted.
4. Plan for continued research and application for funding
5. Full publication list
6. Reference letters (if available)

Application deadline: The deadline for applications is 2nd August, 2026, 23:59 GMT +2.

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 deadline, a number of applicants will be selected for academic assessment by an unbiased expert assessor. You are notified, whether you will be passed for assessment.

The assessor will assess the qualifications and experience of the shortlisted applicants with respect to the above mentioned research area, techniques, skills and other requirements. The assessor will conclude whether each applicant is qualified and, if so, for which of the two levels of positions. The assessed applicants will have the opportunity to comment on their assessment. You can read about the recruitment process at https://employment.ku.dk/faculty/recruitment-process/.

Interviews with selected candidates are expected to be held in week 35.