Substitute Senior Lecturer in Computational Linguistics

The Department of Linguistics and Philology conducts research and education in linguistics and text studies, with a focus on Asian languages and cultures, Europe’s classical languages, linguistics, and computational linguistics. Education is offered at undergraduate, advanced, and doctoral levels. The department employs around 80 staff members who, together with students and collaborators, create an international and intellectually vibrant environment.

Subject Area

Computational Linguistics

The department is seeking an Senior Lecturer in Computational Linguistics. Computational linguistics, or language technology, is an interdisciplinary field concerned with computer models of natural language. Traditionally, research has been driven both by the theoretical goal of understanding human language and by practical applications such as machine translation, information retrieval, and human–computer dialogue. In recent years, the field has been increasingly influenced by the emergence of large language models and generative AI. The Computational Linguistics group at Uppsala University conducts research across a broad spectrum, with two main focus areas: digital philology and multilingual language technology. Teaching is primarily at the advanced level within the international Master’s Programme in Language Technology and at the doctoral level in computational linguistics.

Duties

The position involves teaching, supervision, examination, administration, and independent research. Teaching primarily includes supervising master’s theses and teaching courses such as Information Retrieval and Language Technology: Research and Development. All teaching is conducted in English within the international Master’s Programme in Language Technology. Duties also include keeping up to date with developments in the subject area and societal changes relevant to the university’s work.

Eligibility Requirements

Candidates who have obtained a PhD in or possess equivalent scholarly competence in computational linguistics or another relevant field, and who have demonstrated pedagogical competence are eligible for the position of Senior Lecturer. Candidates must have completed training in tertiary-level teaching of no less than ten weeks or obtained equivalent competence. In special circumstances, the training can be carried out during the first two years of employment.

Documented ability to teach in English is required.

It is required that academic competence, pedagogical competence and the candidate’s professional skills are relevant to the duties and subject that are central to the position. The applicant must have the personal qualities required to fit the position well. In this case, such personal qualities are flexibility, a good ability to work together with colleagues and a sense of responsibility.

Scientific competence, teaching proficiency, and professional skills must be relevant to the subject area and duties of the position.

Assessment Criteria for candidates who meet the eligibility requirements

In the selection among eligible candidates, pedagogical competence will be accorded special significance.

Equal care will be taken in the examination of the academic competence and the pedagogical competence.

Academic competence refers to research qualifications. When assessing academic competence, primarily research quality will be taken into account. The scope of the research, mainly depth and breadth, will also be accorded significance. In the assessment of academic competence, special weight will be accorded research qualifications within core methods, questions, and applications in computational linguistics, where machine learning and large language models play a crucial role.

Demonstrated ability to interact both within academia and with society at large is an advantage.

Pedagogical competence refers to qualifications in education and teaching. In addition to academic teaching, experience from other educational activities, such as supervision, internal training, or mentoring, may be considered. Assessment will focus on pedagogical quality and scope. Special emphasis will be placed on teaching experience in language technology, particularly in areas related to machine learning, large language models, and applications in information retrieval.

Administrative competence and leadership skills will also be considered. Administrative proficiency includes the ability to plan, organize, and prioritize work effectively and appropriately, as well as to set and meet deadlines. Leadership proficiency includes the ability to lead activities and staff, make decisions, take responsibility, and motivate and provide conditions for others to achieve common goals. Collaborative proficiency includes the ability to plan, organize, and carry out cooperation with society, for example through popular science work, public debate, and lectures.

All qualifications must be documented in a way that makes it possible to assess their quality and scope.

In this recruitment, Uppsala University will primarily consider the candidate who, after a holistic qualitative assessment of skills and competence, is considered to have the best capability to carry out and develop relevant duties and contribute to a positive development of the organisation.

Additional Information

Parental leave, part-time work due to childcare, union assignments, military service, or similar will be considered as work experience and should be stated in the CV.

Application procedure

All qualifications must be documented in a way that makes it possible to assess their quality and scope. The application, which may be in English or Swedish, must be complete by the deadline. It must be submitted through Uppsala University’s electronic recruitment system Varbi and should contain the following:

• A letter of application (max 1 page)
• CV (a brief account of qualifications and previous positions)
• An account of the candidate’s academic qualifications, including a reflective account of future research plans (max 3 pages excl. references)
• An account of the candidate’s pedagogical qualifications
• An account of the candidate’s leadership and administrative qualifications
• An account of any additional qualifications
• A list of scholarly and pedagogical publications
• No more than ten publications or other works that the applicant considers especially relevant to the position 
• Degree certificates and other relevant documents

About the Position

The position is temporary for 12 months at 50% of full-time. Starting date: February 1 or as agreed. Location: Uppsala.

For further information about the position, please contact Head of Department Dimitrios Iordanoglou (dimitrios.iordanoglou@lingfil.uu.se) or Professor Joakim Nivre (joakim.nivre@lingfil.uu.se).

Please submit your application by 23 December 2025, UFV-PA 2025/3823.