Postdoctoral Research Associate - Geospatial Multimodal Analytics
Overview:
The National Security Sciences Directorate at Oak Ridge National Laboratory leads scientific and technological breakthroughs to confront some of the nation’s most difficult security challenges. We develop interdisciplinary applications needed for the security of our nation today and target our vision on how these challenges may manifest themselves in a decade or more.
Our research and development focuses on cybersecurity and cyber physical resiliency, data analytics, geospatial science and technology, nuclear nonproliferation, and high-performance computing for sensitive national security missions. We also enhance ORNL contributions to national security challenges by working closely with leading researchers at the lab in areas such as nuclear and chemical sciences and engineering, applied materials, advanced manufacturing, biosecurity, transportation, and computing.
We are currently seeking qualified applicants for a Postdoctoral scientist in Multimodal Analytics within our Geographic Data Science Section and GeoAI group. The position requires strong skills in computer science, GIScience, spatio-temporal analytics, natural language processing, machine learning for high performance environments, and Big Data analytics.
The position affords the unique opportunity to work with a talented interdisciplinary team of R&D professionals, build new research directions advancing GeoAI systems for computing on multi-platforms, edge, cloud and high performance computing environments. The Geographic Data Science Section develops sensor technologies, analytical methods and models that collect, integrate, analyze and derive value from spatiotemporal data.
Within the GeoAI group the selected candidate will focus on conceptualizing and developing tools to support the integration of visual query answering systems, explainability and image captioning capabilities. You will be part of a core team developing novel methods for machine learning application in large scale space-time analytics and multi-modal data fusion, take advantage of the world’s most robust high-performance computing platforms, aim for big geospatial science opportunities to support critical national security missions.
Major Duties/Responsibilities:
- Participate, initiate and perform independent and impactful R&D on an ongoing basis as evidenced by, for example, innovative S&T artifacts delivered to sponsors, publications, successful proposals, technical presentations and technology demonstrations, professional community engagement, inventions/patents/copyrights, etc.
- Publish in top tier conferences and journal venues.
- Develop and implement plans to exploit new opportunities and/or expand existing research efforts.
- Lead by example through exercising scientific integrity in proposing, performing, and communicating research.
- Lead by example to ensure all work is carried out safely, securely, and in compliance with ORNL policies, standards, and procedures.
- Exemplify a commitment to excellence in research, operations, and community engagement, and work cooperatively to leverage scientific capabilities across ORNL.
- Advance the reputation of the group members and standing of the group as a whole through establishing collaborations, professional society leadership and involvement, and organization of technical events at major conferences.
- Work in a highly collaborative environment with data scientists, machine learning scientists, remote sensing scientists, engineers, physicists and geographers to deliver systems from prototyping to production level.
Basic Qualifications:
- Ph.D. with a focus on computer science, applied mathematics, machine learning, natural language processing, databases, GIScience, remote sensing or relevant field completed within the last 5 years
- 1-2 years of research and development experience
- Strong knowledge in GIScience, natural language processing, machine learning, computer vision and remote sensing.
- Experience with data management in relational databases like PostgreSQL, experience for geospatial extensions to relational databases like PostGIS.
- Qualified candidates should have demonstrated experience in machine learning for high performance computing and geographic data science related research areas.
- Preferred experience in prototyping and deploying models on GPU accelerated high performance computing platforms.
- Experience programming in Python, C++ or other production languages, using tools like TensorFlow, PyTorch
- Excellent interpersonal skills with a demonstrated leadership ability and a strong commitment to a teaming environment.
- Strong written and oral communication skills.
Preferred Qualifications:
- Experience of working with large spatio-temporal datasets, remote sensing imagery and text corpora.
- Hands on experience in optimization methods, machine learning, applied mathematics, statistical learning methods, geocomputing
- Hands-on experience with and NoSQL databases, PostgreSQL, Tensorflow, and/or PyTorch.
- Hands-on experience with training machine learning models on high performance computing infrastructures with GPU accelerators.
- Strong drive to learn new topics and skills, to develop innovative products for our customers, and build new programs to expand our capability.
Applicants cannot have received their Ph.D. more than five years prior to the date of application and must complete all degree requirements before starting their appointment. The appointment length will be for up to 24 months with the potential for extension. Initial appointments and extensions are subject to performance and the availability of funding.
Moving can be overwhelming and expensive. UT-Battelle offers a generous relocation package to ease the transition process. Domestic and international relocation assistance is available for certain positions. If invited to interview, be sure to ask your Recruiter (Talent Acquisition Partner) for details.
For more information about our benefits, working here, and living here, visit the “About” tab at jobs.ornl.gov.
This position will remain open for a minimum of 5 days after which it will close when a qualified candidate is identified and/or hired.
We accept Word (.doc, .docx), Adobe (unsecured .pdf), Rich Text Format (.rtf), and HTML (.htm, .html) up to 5MB in size. Resumes from third party vendors will not be accepted; these resumes will be deleted and the candidates submitted will not be considered for employment.
If you have trouble applying for a position, please email ORNLRecruiting@ornl.gov.
ORNL is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants, including individuals with disabilities and protected veterans, are encouraged to apply. UT-Battelle is an E-Verify employer.