Researcher/PhD positions in machine learning for multi-omics research (m/f/d)

Researcher/PhD positions in machine learning for multi-omics research (m/f/d)

Organisation: The German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI)

Location: Berlin, Germany

Application Deadline: 48 days remaining

Interested in socially beneficial applied AI & data science research? Here at the German Research Centre for Artificial Intelligence (based in Kaiserslautern or Berlin), we are looking for enthusiastic junior and senior researchers to join our growing department: Data Science and its Applications (DSA).
At DSA, our mission is to use data science and AI to positively contribute to society. We work on applied problems in research and industry, have a highly collaborative culture across the board, and prioritize a healthy, productive, and wholesome working environment.

You will fit well in our diverse, international team if you are driven, enjoy a dynamic environment and flat hierarchy free of micromanagement, take pride in your work, and want to contribute to the healthy growth of a young research organisation.

The project will involve:

1. Identifying opportunities for applications of AI to improve multi-omics research
2. Development of reusable machine learning pipelines for bioinformatics research
3. Extending statistical methodology to new areas and regimes, especially evaluating existing methods for classification to time-to-event prediction tasks
4. Collaboration with domain experts, including biostatisticians and clinicians
5. Dealing with limitations of sparse and sensitive data, through appropriate use of ‘small data’ approaches, for example data augmentation, synthetic data generation, transfer learning, Bayesian models or use of knowledge graphs.

Minimum Requirements:

• Master’s degree in bioinformatics, computer science, systems biology, statistics, data science, mathematics or a related quantitative field
• Advanced Python programming skills and familiarity with deep learning frameworks (e.g. PyTorch, TensorFlow) or probabilistic programming (e.g. Stan)
• Detailed knowledge and understanding of machine learning algorithms
• Demonstrable research interest in applying machine learning and statistical models to the analysis of high-dimensional data, such as bioinformatics or clinical records
• Good English communication skills, written and spoken
• Prior experience in bioinformatics, genomics or multimodal data analysis
• Experience in development of open-source Python (or Julia, R) software packages
• Familiarity with writing and publishing scientific articles and technical reports

The contract will be limited according to the German Academic Fixed-Term Contract Act (WissZeitVG) till the end of February 2026, with the possibility for extension.

The German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) has operated as a non-profit, Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) since 1988. DFKI combines scientific excellence and commercially-oriented value creation with social awareness and is recognized as a major "Center of Excellence" by the international scientific community. In the field of artificial intelligence, DFKI has focused on the goal of human-centric AI for more than 35 years. Research is committed to essential, future-oriented areas of application and socially relevant topics.

DFKI encourages applications from people with disability; DFKI intends to increase the proportion of female employees in the field of science and encourages women to apply for this position.