Postdoctoral Fellow in Mechanistic Interpretability

Johns Hopkins, founded in 1876, is America's first research
university and home to nine world-class academic divisions working
together as one university.

Salary : Fellow AY26–27 salaries range from $63,480 to
$100,000+. The budgeted salary for this position is $80,000

Johns Hopkins University: Whiting School of Engineering: Department
of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Description

We are recruiting a Postdoctoral Fellow at Johns Hopkins
University’s Center for Language and Speech Processing (CLSP). We
are looking for candidates with strong expertise in mechanistic
interpretability, large language models, multimodal AI, and machine
learning. Experience with representation analysis, causal
interventions, or model steering is particularly welcome.

The successful candidate will be advised by Berrak Sisman and
Philipp Koehn and collaborate with an international team on an
exciting research project advancing our understanding of foundation
models and developing methods for more interpretable, trustworthy,
and controllable AI. Candidates with experience in speech, audio,
or language modeling are encouraged to apply.

Qualifications

Candidates with doctoral degrees in electrical engineering,
computer science, or closely related fields are sought.

Application Instructions

Interested candidates should submit a CV (with full list of
publications), a brief description of their research experience and
interests on mechanistic interpretability along with contact
information for two references. Questions should be directred to
both Berrak Sisman ( sisman@jhu.edu ) and Philipp Koehn (
phi@jhu.edu ).

Equal Employment Opportunity Statement

Salary Range

The referenced salary range represents the minimum and maximum
salaries for this position and is based on Johns Hopkins
University's good faith belief at the time of posting. Not all
candidates will be eligible for the upper end of the salary range.
The actual compensation offered to the selected candidate may vary
and will ultimately depend on multiple factors, which may include
the successful candidate's geographic location, skills, work
experience, internal equity, market conditions, education/training
and other factors, as reasonably determined by the
University.

Total Rewards

Johns Hopkins offers a total rewards package that supports our
employees' health, life, career and retirement. More information
can be found here: https://hr.jhu.edu/benefits-worklife/
.

Equal Opportunity Employer

The Johns Hopkins University is committed to equal opportunity for
its faculty, staff, and students. To that end, the university does
not discriminate on the basis of sex, gender, marital status,
pregnancy, race, color, ethnicity, national origin, age,
disability, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity or
expression, veteran status or other legally protected
characteristics. The University is committed to providing qualified
individuals access to all academic and employment programs,
benefits and activities on the basis of demonstrated ability,
performance and merit without regard to personal factors or
demographic characteristics that are irrelevant to the program
involved.

Pre-Employment Information

If you are interested in applying for employment with Johns Hopkins
University and require special assistance or accommodation during
any part of the pre-employment process, please contact the HR
Business Services Office at jhurecruitment@jhu.edu . For
TTY users, call via Maryland Relay or dial 711. For more
information about workplace accommodations at Johns Hopkins
University for disabilities, medical conditions (including medical
conditions related to pregnancy or childbirth), accessibility, or
religious reasons, please visit accessibility.jhu.edu .

Background Checks

After receiving a conditional offer, the successful candidate(s)
for this position will be subject to a pre-employment background
check including education verification. When deciding whether a
candidate’s conviction history is job-disqualifying, the University
considers the nature and gravity of the offense, the time that has
passed since the conviction, and the nature of the job being
sought.

EEO is the Law

https://www.eeoc.gov/employees-job-applicants

Vaccine Requirements

Johns Hopkins University strongly encourages, but no longer
requires, at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. This change
does not apply to the School of Medicine (SOM). SOM hires must be
fully vaccinated with an FDA COVID-19 vaccination and provide proof
of vaccination status. We still require all faculty, staff, and
students to receive the seasonal
flu vaccine .

Exceptions to the seasonal flu vaccine or COVID-19 vaccine (for
SOM) requirement(s) may be provided to individuals with sincerely
held religious beliefs or medical conditions that preclude them
from receiving the vaccine. Requests for an exception must be
submitted to the JHU vaccination registry. For additional
information, applicants for SOM positions should visit https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/coronavirus/covid-19-vaccine/
and all other JHU applicants should visit
https://covidinfo.jhu.edu/health-safety/covid-vaccination-information/
.

The following additional vaccine requirements may apply,
depending upon your campus. Please contact the hiring department
for more information.

The pre-employment physical for positions in clinical areas,
laboratories, working with research subjects, or involving
community contact requires documentation of immune status against
Rubella (German measles), Rubeola (Measles), Mumps, Varicella
(chickenpox), Hepatitis B and documentation of having received the
Tdap (Tetanus, diphtheria, pertussis) vaccination. This may include
documentation of having two (2) MMR vaccines; two (2) Varicella
vaccines; or antibody status to these diseases from laboratory
testing. Blood tests for immunities to these diseases are
ordinarily included in the pre-employment physical exam except for
those candidates who provide results of blood tests or immunization
documentation from their own health care providers. Any
vaccinations required for these diseases will be given at no cost
in our Occupational Health office.