University Assistant Prae-Doc (all genders)

The Faculty of Informatics at TU Wien is offering a PhD position, located in the Data Science Research Unit. The primary advisor will be Professor Alexander Hoyle although collaborations with other researchers are encouraged, particularly those with expertise in areas outside computer science.

The broad research focus of the Hoyle Lab is natural language processing with an eye toward applications in the social sciences. However, there is no fixed topic for this position. Intellectual curiosity and dedication are the most important criteria.

The appointment is limited to expected 4 years for 40 hours/week. Expected start: between August 2026 an November 2026.

You will be among the first members of a new Lab, and so will play an important role in developing its culture and direction! While this may seem intimidating, the first students of an advisor are often their most successful. You will be part of an international working environment with employees of the TU Wien Faculty of Informatics originating from at least 50 countries. The working language at the Faculty of Informatics is English. 

Tasks:

• Conducting research is your main priority with the aim of publishing in premier conferences and journals in NLP, ML, and/or strong interdisciplinary venues
• Teaching activities. Typically, this involves running lab sessions (exercises), although can also include assisting with lectures, examinations, thesis supervision and grading. These tasks occupy an average of 4 hours/week during the semester
• Mentoring, guiding and collaborating with students at all levels
• Contributing to funding proposals
• Participating in – and later contributing to – scientific events like conferences, workshops, etc.
• Writing a dissertation
• Assisting with organizational and administrative tasks related to research and teaching. This work will be kept to a minimum

Your profile:

Academic background

• Bachelor’s or master’s degree in computer science/informatics, data science, human-computer interaction, computational social science, machine learning, statistics, computational linguistics or related disciplines

Research and domain-knowledge

• Ideally, knowledge of natural language processing (including large language models), machine learning, experimental design, and statistical analysis (linear regression, significance testing, etc.)
• Additional knowledge of a social science discipline and methodologies is also appreciated, but at a minimum you should have an interest
• Some prior research experience is beneficial (e.g., a thesis or some months working with a lab)
• Existing publication(s) in top machine learning or natural language processing conferences are terrific, but not at all a requirement

Technical skills

• Very good skills in English communication and writing; Knowledge of German (level B2) or willingness to learn it
• Python knowledge is strongly preferred, experience with agentic coding is also a plus

General traits

• You should be someone who takes initiative. While a PhD is primarily a learning experience, you should be striving for eventual independence and autonomy
• You should want to do research in this field and be a participant in both the local and global academic community
• Curious about the world and self-motivated

We offer:

• The opportunity to do a well-paid PhD at a computer science department ranked in the top 15 in Europe (first in Austria)
• Working in a city consistently ranked as having the highest quality of life in the world
• A range of nice social benefits (see Benefits) in addition to those afforded by a country with generous social services
• Ample access to computing resources (GPUs, etc.) both within TU Wien (DataLab) and with Austrian Scientific Computing which includes the new MUSICA supercomputing cluster with hundreds of H100 GPUs
• Internal and external training opportunities
• Central location of workplace as well as good accessibility (U1/U2/U4 Karlsplatz)

Entry level salary is determined by the pay grade B1 of the Austrian collective agreement for university staff. This is a minimum of currently EUR 3,776.10/month gross, 14 times/year for 40 hours/week. Relevant working experiences may increase the monthly income.

We look forward to receiving your application until July 9th, 2026. 

Your application should include the following documents:

• CV
• Motivation letter (one to two pages) The purpose of this document is to give me insight into your interests, way of thinking, and writing style; therefore, please do not use AI assistance; clear thoughts are more important than perfect prose, and a rough structure (covering your goals and research interests, relevant experience, initial ideas/directions, and a paragraph about your fit with the above-mentioned “group”) may be helpful but isn't required.
• Academic degrees (Bachelors´s and Master´s)
• List of Publications
• If you have GRE scores, feel free to submit them, but they are not remotely a requirement. Similarly, you are free to submit TOEFL results (+add more documents)

If you have already been accepted to another PhD program, please make this clear in your application (e.g., include the acceptance email).
Shortlisted candidates will receive a brief exercise and a zoom interview.

International / non-EU candidates are encouraged to apply! TU Wien will assist you with visa requirements.
Content related questions can be directed to Alexander Hoyle: alexander.hoyle@tuwien.ac.at