Professor of Data Science

ENVIRONMENT

The successful applicant will join the Department of Software Science (see https://taltech.ee/en/department-of-software-science) at the School of Information Technologies of Tallinn University of Technology (TalTech). The position is supported by the strategic development fund of the department, IT Academy and a recently started project “Smarter use of data via machine learning” and has close ties to the Estonian Centre of Excellence in Artificial Intelligence (EXAI), composed of groups from TalTech, Tartu University and AS Cybernetica.

We are the leading university of technology in Estonia, providing world class working conditions in a lively scientific environment. Estonia ranks as the number one country per number of startups, unicorns, and VC investments in Europe per capita, and Tallinn hosts most of the Estonia’s active start-up ecosystem. In addition, our close connections to relevant government agencies enable impact on the rapid development of the data economy in Estonia. 

RESPONSIBILITIES

Responsibilities of the applicant include research and teaching, as well as the promotion of early-career scientists. The aim of the position is strengthening both the synergy and quality of the current research of TalTech in the area of data science and artificial intelligence, while significantly enhancing the capabilities of TalTech to cooperate with Estonian industry and public sphere by joint work, consultations and education. The emphasis is on increasing the capacity and competence in the application of artificial intelligence for data science, in a close cooperation with our existing groups in data management, data mining, data semantics, knowledge representation, artificial intelligence, natural language processing, and computational statistics. The role will include supervision of PhD students as well as MSc and undergraduate students. In addition to carrying out relevant research the candidate is expected to pursue industry collaboration by acquiring R&D funding and managing teams who carry out the appropriate projects.

We are looking for candidates who have demonstrated excellent achievements in research and teaching according to their relevant career level. In addition to a PhD degree or equivalent scientific qualification, TalTech regulations for this career level require:

• H-index (Scopus, Google Scholar or WoS) of at least 10 in engineering sciences.
• At least 1 PhD student supervised to completion.
• At least 5 years of teaching experience and a demonstrated ability to supervise BSc and/or MSc student projects.
• Has been the PI or primary executor of a project/contract. 
• Fluency in English required.
• Estonian is an advantage but not required. According to the Language Act, academic staff with foreign citizenship working in Estonia must acquire at least B1-level proficiency in Estonian after five years of employment.

WE ENCOURAGE ALL STRONG CANDIDATES IN DATA SCIENCE AND RELATED FIELDS TO APPLY.

The candidate is expected to have strong research skills in artificial intelligence for data science. This may be evidenced by a track record of publishing in venues such as Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS), Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining (KDD), AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI), International Joint Conferences on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI), Conference on Learning Theory (COLT), International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML), Journal of Machine Learning Research (JMLR). The following desirable criteria will also be considered:

• A research focus on the use of AI foundation models in data science;
• A proven track record of attracting competitive research funding;
• International visibility including serving on Programme Committees of international conferences, invited talks, serving on the editorial boards of international journals etc. 
• A track record of contributions to bodies responsible for the development of the university and experience in holding managerial roles;
• A track record of collaboration with industry;
• A track record of outreach to the wider public.

Please submit the following documents by using the link "Apply Now":

• documents proving that the candidate holds the required academic degree (PhD degree or equivalent scientific qualification);
• a curriculum vitae and a list of publications;
• a cover letter detailing how the candidate meets the qualifications of the position
• an academic activity portfolio or a free-form description of previous academic work, including an overview of teaching activities, details of the candidate’s research and teaching experience, a list of courses taught, and evidence of teaching quality;
• descriptions of work period objectives and an action plan to achieve them;
• other documents considered to be important by the applicant.

Please include links to your professional profiles (e.g., Google Scholar, Scopus, ORCID) or other relevant personal pages.

TalTech offers a merit-based academic career path for tenure track faculty from Assistant Professor through a permanent position as Associate Professor and on to Full Professor. The regulations of the TalTech Recruitment and Career System apply.

The TalTech environment is multicultural, with English serving as a common interface for scientific interaction.

Our HPC Centre is developing rapidly, provides local resources for experimentation and additionally access to the resources of the LUMI supercomputer (https://lumi-supercomputer.eu/). 

We will help in establishing contacts and an access to different stakeholders in Estonian digitalized state and industry. You will get in-house advice and help for writing opinion pieces for the local and global visibility.

Our support centre assists with the relocation and integration of new professors, their partners, and accompanying family members. 

We offer

• A competitive compensation package;
• 3 years of seed research funding for a postdoc position in your team; 
• Additional funding for at least two PhD student positions;
• A dynamic, modern and international work environment; 
• Flexible working hours and occasional remote work by agreement with the head of the department, main location in Tallinn;
• Opportunities for personal and professional development.