Assistant/ Associate Professor in Neuro-Symbolic Natural Language Processing

Who are we?

Télécom Paris is one of the top 5 general engineering schools in France. The school is located in the greens of the Plateau de Saclay, 45min by public transport from Paris, on a completely new campus together with 4 other engineering schools (École Polytechnique, ENSTA, Télécom Sud Paris and ENSAE). These schools together form the Institut Polytechnique de Paris (IP Paris). The institute has 10,000 students (41% international), 2100 faculty members (41% international), and numerous collaborating institutes (INRIA, CNRS, CEA, ONERA, etc.). The institute is ranked 36th in the world in computer science by the QS ranking.

Telecom Paris has three areas of activity: research, teaching, and industry collaboration. On research, the school focuses on technological and societal challenges that include artificial intelligence, quantum computing, IOT, cybersecurity, large-scale digital equipment (Cloud), 5G/6G, and Green IT. Télécom Paris received the label A+ by the nation-wide HCERES assessment. It is ranked as the 6th best small university in the world by the Times Higher Education (THE) rankings. On teaching, the school is ranked 7th in France by the students. It has an excellent student-professor ratio of 910 engineering students for 150 faculty members. Teaching is dispensed to engineering students, master students, and in adult education programs. Dedicated PhD tracks provide a funded and direct access to the PhD program after the Bachelor's degree. On industry collaboration, Telecom Paris is recognized as one of the most industry-affine schools in France, with dozens of industrial partners that contribute funding, expertise, and joint research opportunities. In particular, Telecom Paris supports a flourishing scene of start-ups, with 3 start-ups created per month, and 550 spin-offs created so far since 1999 (80% of which are up and running to this date).

Telecom Paris is a "human scale" school, but it has a strong international component: 45% of its students are international; many of its courses (and all of them in the master's program) are taught in English; and 38% of staff are international. The school is committed to an inclusive environment, in which all talented people are welcome, no matter their nationality, gender identity, or physical abilities. The school has also self-committed to an ambitious plan of ecological transition.

Scientific context :

Large language models (LLM) have revolutionized natural language processing, and they will continue to profoundly affect our society. And yet, the models are based on a probability distribution of words learned from texts, which sometimes deviates from reality (leading to the problem of hallucinations). The challenge is then to link these models with knowledge about the real world (structured, logical, explainable knowledge). The job offer aims to develop the synergy between neural AI and symbolic AI, and to bring about a symbiosis that links the ease of interaction of language models with the formal and verifiable foundations of symbolic methods.

Job offer : Assistant/Associate Professor in Neuro-Symbolic Natural Language Processing

We are looking for a researcher in Neuro-Symbolic Natural Language Processing. The position is to be filled in the Computer Science and Networks department (INFRES). The successful candidate will join the school as a permanent member of the faculty in the team “DIG” (Data, Intelligence, Graphs), with the duties of teaching, research, and the development of industrial partnerships. A committee will decide whether the candidate obtains the title of Assistant Professor (usually if the candidate does not yet have a habilitation/HDR) or Associate Professor (usually when the candidate has a habilitation). In both cases, the job is a permanent position from the start. In their later career, assistant professors can obtain their habilitation and become associate professors. Associate professors can apply for a promotion to a full professor.

Your main tasks will be to :

- Participate in the design and implementation of teaching programs in the field of Neuro-Symbolic Automatic Language Processing.
- Conduct research in your scientific field.
- Participate in the development of partnerships, collaborations and contractual relations in your scientific field.

The candidate must hold a PhD in computer science or mathematics (or equivalent degree - see qualifications required in the full job description).

The candidate should have an excellent command of spoken and written English. If the candidate does not speak French, they must commit to reaching a professional proficiency of French while under contract.

The list of desired expertise includes:
• Natural language processing (language models, transformers, classical methods)
• Symbolic formalisms (logic, knowledge representation, knowledge graphs, databases, automatic reasoning, theorem proving)
• Open data and open-source projects

Why join us?
If you are passionate about innovation, research and teaching, and would like to join a dynamic and collaborative team, we would be delighted to receive your application.

You'll be working in a fast-growing, pleasant, green and accessible environment at 45min from Paris by public transport. You will benefit from :

• 49 days' annual leave (CA + RTT)
• Flexible working hours (depending on the department's activity)
  
• Teleworking 1 to 3 days/week possible
  
• 75% reimbursement of public transport season ticket
  
• Proximity to numerous sports facilities, concierge service, underground car park, in-house catering, etc.
  
• Staff association at school and department level
  
• Good to know: our social security contributions are lower than in the private sector

To apply :
Candidates are invited to apply via the apply button at the top of this page

The selection process takes place in 4 stages :
- Pre-selection of candidates by the reception team
- Pre-interview with Human Resources
- Hearing by the recruitment committee and ranking of successful candidates
- Final interview with the Director of Télécom Paris

Application deadline: 01 march 2025
Type of contract: Permanent
Contact: Fabian SUCHANEK, fabian.suchanek@telecom-paris.fr
Full job description here

Telecom Paris is an equal-opportunity employer.
All our positions are open to individuals with disabilities.