Aalto University is looking for an
Postdoctoral Artificial Intelligence Research Software Engineer
to a postdoctoral-level position. The desired start dates would be as soon as possible in 2026.
Are you more of a programmer than your researcher colleagues? Are you more of a researcher than commercial developers? Do you want a career that involves research and science but isn't the academic tenure track? The Academic Research Software Engineer position is your next step on that path.
This position will be similar to a postdoc, but with an emphasis on research infrastructure, HPC,and engineering rather than preparation for an academic career path. You will be involved in research, but more focused on learning and improving how computing, workflows, and data are used in research than finding your own novel research results and publishing them.
You will work with research groups and be affiliated with Aalto Scientific Computing (ASC). You'll serve as an intermediary between the two. Compared to the staff of ASC, you will be directly working within research groups, much more involved in day-to-day research, follow projects for a much longer period, and more involved in publications. Compared to a typical academic position, you will have a joint affiliation with ASC and get extra training in research engineering. There will be less emphasis on novel results for the sake of novelty, and more on applying and developing best practices in the way the research is done.
In this position, you will:
- Serve as the local research software engineer for your research group(s) and improve the use of computing among all group members.
- Stay up to date with the latest HPC, AI, and general computing/data management practices, evaluate latest developments, and implement whatever is most suitable.
- Possibility to take part in publications as a research engineer.
- Provide one-on-one and group research support from a software, programming, Linux, data, and infrastructure perspective: short-term projects helping researchers with specific tasks, so that the researchers gain competence to work independently.
- Provide good role models of best open science practices.
- As needed and depending on interest, teaching and other research infrastructure support.
General qualifications: As expected for a computational-science postdoc or doctoral student position in your field, with a special focus on high-quality computation and data management
This particular call emphasizes a knowledge of AI research, performance optimization of AI training and inference, and hands-on-experience with PyTorch or similar. This should be complemented with general experience in software development, computing, GPU computing, and data management for the support of AI projects. An ideal candidate also has a good understanding of recent advancement in AI and capability to read and implement research papers.
Important skills:
- Desire to mentor and work with other researchers with understanding and compassion.
- Ability to tackle any problem with a researcher's mindset and a developer's passion for technology.
- Good communication and organizational skills, independent working style as well as flexibility in changing situations.
- Experience or knowledge of the principles of open source software, open science, and software development tools such as version control.
- Please see https://scicomp.aalto.fi/rse/become-a-rse/ for more information on what kind of skills we value - or more precisely what you are likely to learn.
- Good skills and experience in written, spoken, and collaborative work in English.
What we offer:
- A career path optimized for transition to industry.
- You will be affiliated with the dynamic Aalto Scientific Computing team, where you will learn from some of the best research IT specialists in Finland.
- Co-working within top-quality research groups, getting experience in a wide variety of fields and developing an extensive network of scientific contacts. This includes contacts to the Aalto startup scene and community.
- A way to be close to the research process while focusing on interesting computational problems and not the publication process.
- Mentorship to improve your software, data, and computing skills – you are expected to engage in plenty of professional development.
- Open Source is our expectation. All (or most) of your code may be open source and may be added to your public CV, depending on the needs of researchers.
- All other standard benefits of Aalto as an employer: pleasant campus, occupational healthcare, a sustainable workplace, support and coaching, and robust opportunities for professional development. Read more.
Salary will be according to the Aalto University pay scales for postdoctoral researchers. The primary workplace is Otaniemi, Espoo (Helsinki region), Finland.
To apply successfully:
- Please include a separate cover letter (~1-2 pages). Please try to write your cover letter avoiding information like name, gender, nationality or other demographic information that is not directly related to why you would be the right person for this position (this includes, for example, a signature on the letter) unless you think it benefits you. This will assist in anonymous recruitment possibilities. The letter could include, for example:
- Why being a Research Software Engineer is for you,
- experience relevant to this call's special topics (see above)
- any special background, experiences, or skills you will bring,
- past research experience, if any
- past technical teaching or mentoring experience,
- past software development experience (even informal self-learning),
- past Linux, command line, or scripting experience,
- highlight one (or a few) collaborative projects you have taken part in and your role within it, and
- what you bring and what you intend to learn, and
- why you want to work in, or any connections to, Finland or Aalto University (optional, if there are motivating factors) (Presence in Finland is required, and residence in the Helsinki metropolitan area is strongly recommended).
- A normal professional or academic CV including
- a list of your technical and programming tools and level of proficiency (e.g. basic/proficient/expert). This is the time to show the breadth of your experience.
- Github link or other public sample code. If not available, whatever is possible to demonstrate past programming experience. Please highlight one or two of your outstanding research software projects.
The job will stay open until it is filled, however please apply by 31.3.2026 23:59 (Finnish time) for consideration in the first round. For further information, please contact Staff Scientist Richard Darst at richard.darst(at)aalto.fi.
More about Aalto University:
Aalto.fi
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instagram.com/aaltouniversity
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