Junior Researcher in NLP and Computational Linguistics

Institute for Applied Linguistics
The Language Technologies (LT) research group at the Institute for Applied Linguistics is seeking a junior computational linguist to contribute to the group’s core research activities and to several ongoing projects (lingua

Xlab, LCI, LTI).
The position focuses on the development, maintenance and analysis of linguistic data resources (written and spoken data with a special focus on non-standard language and learner languages, particularly in German), as well as on the implementation and evaluation of language technology methods in applied research contexts. Depending on project needs, the successful candidate may also contribute to selected tasks in areas such as optical character recognition (OCR), handwritten text recognition (HTR) and automatic speech recognition (ASR).
The role is embedded at group level and offers opportunities to develop a broad methodological profile in corpus linguistics, learner corpus research and NLP, while working in a collaborative, interdisciplinary research environment. As the position involves working with other researchers on locally collected language data, experience with linguistic research (especially variational linguistics, learner corpus research/second language acquisition) as well as basic knowledge of German is considered an advantage.
We are looking for a cooperative, proactive colleague who thrives in an interdisciplinary and application-oriented research environment.
Tasks
The successful candidate will

Contribute to the creation, processing, documentation and maintenance of written and spoken corpora, including standard, non-standard and learner language varieties
Support digitization, data cleaning and annotation, quality control and metadata management in line with good research data management practices
Analyse mono- and multilingual data using quantitative and computational methods
Implement, adapt and evaluate language technology workflows across projects (e.g. NLP pipelines, data processing, evaluation setups)
Support research dissemination through scientific and transfer-oriented publications, presentations and internal knowledge sharing
Participate in the LT group’s and Institute’s general research activities and collaborative initiatives

Requirements

Degree (MA/MSc or BSc) in relevant fields, such as Computational Linguistics, Data Science, Computer Science or similar (linguistic degrees will be considered if technical skills are given)
Awareness of (and/or interest to acquire good practice in) research data management, including all steps required for the collection and creation of data and metadata that comply with FAIR and CARE principles
Awareness of reproducible research practices, or strong interest in learning and applying them in practice
Programming skills in Python and relevant libraries
Knowledge of typical text and data processing pipelines and current NLP toolkits (e.g. spaCy, Stanza, quanteda), or strong interest in learning and applying them in practice
Basic knowledge of (large) language models and their application to common NLP tasks
Familiarity with git, Jupyter notebooks and command-line interfaces (CLI)
Willingness to move to South Tyrol or to its vicinity in order to work on-site
Strong command of English
Knowledge of German or the willingness to develop German as a working language
Social, organizational and communication skills, including careful scheduling and task management
Ability and willingness to collaborate with researchers from different disciplinary backgrounds and research paradigms

Additional advantageous skills

Experience with Dev Ops, data integration workflows or high-performance computing environments
Knowledge of Italian or the willingness to acquire it
Familiarity with tools and methods of descriptive and inferential statistics, including knowledge of how to apply them

Experience with digitization technologies such as OCR, HTR, ASR or audio editing

We offer

A full-time position for 12 months with the possibility of extension depending on project needs and the candidate’s performance. If the selected candidate is interested, a part-time contract of at least 70% could also be considered.
A supportive, international, and interdisciplinary research environment
Professional development opportunities
Flexible working arrangements with regular on-site presence to ensure exchange and collaboration
Benefits (e.g. family-friendly benefits, lunch bonus, supplementary health insurance, etc.)
Access to numerous scientific and cultural facilities and events

Eurac Research actively supports equal opportunities and diversity and encourages applications from candidates of all backgrounds.
Interested candidates should submit their application (CV and cover letter) by 31.03.2026.
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