SOFAIR Fellow/SOFAIR Senior Fellow (UCL Grade 7 to Grade 10) Full-time NEW

SOFAIR Fellow/SOFAIR Senior Fellow

UCL's Department of Computer Science (CS) is a top-ranked Computer Science Department in the UK. In the 2021 Research Excellence Framework (REF) evaluation, UCL Computer Science was ranked second in the UK for research power and first in England.

This 12-month fellowship with the possibility of a multi-year extension unites interdisciplinary academic expertise to pursue fundamentally new foundation models, moving beyond incremental refinement of existing models. The fellow will help advance open, distributed, and trustworthy AI systems, positioning the UK at the centre of global efforts to shape the future of open AI. Ideally the fellow will be interested in innovation and spinouts.

SOFAIR – Science of Fundamental AI Research Lab. SOFAIR is a consortium of leading academic researchers from across the UK, with partners Oxford, Cambridge and Edinburgh Universities, and led by UCL. The SOFAIR Lab will pursue fundamentally new AI architectures, moving beyond incremental refinement of existing models. By advancing open, distributed, and trustworthy AI systems, SOFAIR will extend the UK‑LLM initiative, stimulate innovation and spin‑outs, and position the UK at the centre of global efforts to shape the future of open AI.

Research Fellow: Postholders will undertake internationally excellent research as members of SOFAIR's interdisciplinary research programme, developing and testing original approaches to fundamental AI and contributing to the Lab's collective research objectives.

Senior Research Fellow: In addition to the responsibilities of a Research Fellow, postholders appointed at Senior Research Fellow level will be expected to demonstrate substantial research independence and provide intellectual and strategic leadership. They will initiate and lead research programmes, shape SOFAIR's scientific direction, develop collaborations and funding opportunities, mentor researchers, manage significant research resources, and contribute to the Lab's governance and organisational development.

UCL Department of Computer Science is one of the top research and teaching departments in the UK and has world-class standing. The department offers undergraduate and postgraduate programmes and has an extensive research portfolio across a wealth of areas, from information security to complex systems.

University College London (UCL) is a multi-faculty college of the University of London with a population of over 40,000 students, from more than 130 different countries.

This post is advertised at UCL Grade 7 to Grade 10 dependent on relevant experience.

Funding for this post is available until 15th December 2027 in the first instance.

About the role

The role requires the post holder to research non-incremental advances in next generation foundation models. An imperative is that all ideas must be tested at scale to confirm potential utility.

The postholder will work as part of an interdisciplinary team to research and implement at significant scale next generation foundation models, reporting to the team on progress and contributing to decisions on the most promising research directions.

The postholder must therefore be capable of world-leading research and contribute to the team's effort to push the frontier forward. Applicants are expected to be familiar with principled approaches to machine learning and current frontier frameworks and have a strong background in the mathematics of machine learning, optimisation and coding (PyTorch). As a member of a newly established national research lab, the postholder will also contribute to SOFAIR's research culture, cross-institutional collaboration, mentoring, and the development of its research and operational structures.

About you

The successful candidate will be expected to conduct research of the highest international standard, working collaboratively with researchers across machine learning, statistics, computer science and related disciplines. The postholder will contribute to the development of innovative theoretical and practical approaches to foundation models, disseminate findings through leading conferences and journals, and help foster an open, collaborative and inclusive research environment.

What we offer

The UCL Ways of Working supports colleagues to be successful and happy at UCL through sharing expectations around how we work.

As well as the exciting opportunities this role presents, we also offer some great benefits some of which are below:

• 41 Days holiday (27 days annual leave 8 bank holiday and 6 closure days)
• Additional 5 days' annual leave purchase scheme
• Defined benefit career average revalued earnings pension scheme (CARE)
• Cycle to work scheme and season ticket loan
• Immigration loan
• Relocation scheme for certain posts
• On-Site nursery
• On-site gym
• Enhanced maternity, paternity and adoption pay
• Employee assistance programme: Staff Support Service
• Discounted medical insurance

Visit https://www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/reward-and-benefits to find out more.

Our commitment to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion

As London's Global University, we know that diversity and inclusion are fundamental drivers of creativity, innovation, and excellence, and we want our community to represent the diversity of the world's talent. We are committed to equality of opportunity, to being fair and inclusive, and to being a place where we all belong, thrive, and reach our full potential. We therefore particularly encourage applications from candidates who are likely to be underrepresented in UCL's workforce. These include people from Black, Asian, and ethnic minority backgrounds; disabled people; and for our Grade 9 and 10 roles, women.

Our department holds an Athena SWAN Gold award, in recognition of our commitment to advancing gender equality. You can read more about our commitment to Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion here: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/equality-diversity-inclusion/.