The CITEC (Center for Cognitive Interaction Technology) has the following job opening in the SFB TRR 318 [subproject A02]: 
Employment is conducive to academic qualification.
Research Position in the SFB TRR 318 [subproject A02]
ID: Wiss25391
- starting: 01.01.2026
- Vollzeit
- salary according to Remuneration level 13 TV-L
- befristet
The transregional collaborative research center (TRR) “Constructing Explainability” funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) at the Universities of Paderborn and Bielefeld, deals with explainable and explanatory artificial intelligence. The central hypothesis of the TRR is that explanations should be co-constructed by dialogue partners so that humans can make confident and informed decisions when interacting with intelligent systems.
To this end, both universities aim to contribute basic research in the areas of co-constructive explanation processes and their mechanisms, explanation as a socio-technical phenomenon, and computational representations of the dynamics of co-constructive explanation. They bring together different disciplinary perspectives both at the level of individual projects and the TRR as a whole. The goal of the second funding phase is to develop more flexible, personalized, proactive explanation systems (sXAI) that take social and situational context into account when adapting their explanatory behavior.
The A02 project aims to capture moments of (non-)understanding of a human interlocutor in her multimodal ensembles and to enable explanatory AI to draw conclusions and adapt its explanatory strategy. Corpus analyses enable the integration of rich, multimodal signals with different perspectives on the degree of understanding of the human interlocutor in different contexts. Beyond computational modelling of monitoring and adaptation in explanations, we evaluate their usefulness for a dynamically adapted social XAI.
The position will be filled subject to project approval.
To this end, both universities aim to contribute basic research in the areas of co-constructive explanation processes and their mechanisms, explanation as a socio-technical phenomenon, and computational representations of the dynamics of co-constructive explanation. They bring together different disciplinary perspectives both at the level of individual projects and the TRR as a whole. The goal of the second funding phase is to develop more flexible, personalized, proactive explanation systems (sXAI) that take social and situational context into account when adapting their explanatory behavior.
The A02 project aims to capture moments of (non-)understanding of a human interlocutor in her multimodal ensembles and to enable explanatory AI to draw conclusions and adapt its explanatory strategy. Corpus analyses enable the integration of rich, multimodal signals with different perspectives on the degree of understanding of the human interlocutor in different contexts. Beyond computational modelling of monitoring and adaptation in explanations, we evaluate their usefulness for a dynamically adapted social XAI.
The position will be filled subject to project approval.
Your Tasks
- research activities (90 %):
- Computational modelling of multimodal monitoring of understanding and non-understanding human-machine interaction
- Evaluation of the models in interaction with a conversational agent in empirical studies
- Presentation of project results at international symposia and participation in publications
- teaching equivalent to 1 LVS (5 %)
- collaboration in administration and in the activities of the Collaborative Research Centre (5 %)
Employment is conducive to academic qualification.
We offer
- salary according to Remuneration level 13 TV-L
- befristet (limited until 30.06.2029 - end of project) (§ 2 (1) sentence 1 of the WissZeitVG; in accordance with the provisions of the WissZeitVG and the Agreement on Satisfactory Conditions of Employment, the length of contract may differ in individual cases)
- Vollzeit
- internal and external training opportunities
- variety of health, consulting and prevention services
- reconcilability of family and work
- flexible working hours
- good transport connection
- supplementary company pension
- collegial working environment
- open and pleasant working atmosphere
- exciting, varied tasks
- modern work environment with digital processes
- various offers (canteen, cafeteria, restaurants, Uni-Shop, ATM, etc.)
Your Profile
We expect
- completed academic university degree (e. g. Master's or comparable) in e. g. computational linguistics, linguistics, computer science or cognitive science
- practical experience and theoretical knowledge in the analysis of linguistic data, formal, computer-aided or statistical modelling
- interest and passion for interdisciplinary research at the interface of computational linguistics, human-machine interaction and linguistics
- good command of the English language (oral and written)
- analytical skills and scientific mindset
- strong co-operation and teamwork skills
- independent, autonomous and committed way of working
Preferred experience and skills
- experience with spontaneous (multimodal) interaction data
- experience with current methods of computational linguistics/NLP
- good programming skills (e. g. Python)
- knowledge of statistical data processing (e. g. R)
- German language skills, or willingness to learn German
Application Procedure
We are looking forward to receiving your application. To apply, please preferably use our online form via the application button below.
application deadline: 13.10.2025
Contact
Prof. Dr. Hendrik Buschmeier
0521 106-6982
hbuschme@uni-bielefeld.de
Postal Address
Universität Bielefeld
Fakultät für Linguistik und Literaturwissenschaft
Prof. Dr. Hendrik Buschmeier
Postfach 10 01 31
33501 Bielefeld
Prof. Dr. Hendrik Buschmeier
0521 106-6982
hbuschme@uni-bielefeld.de
Postal Address
Universität Bielefeld
Fakultät für Linguistik und Literaturwissenschaft
Prof. Dr. Hendrik Buschmeier
Postfach 10 01 31
33501 Bielefeld
Bielefeld University has received a number of awards for its achievements as an equal-opportunity employer and has been
recognized as a family-friendly university. The university welcomes applications from women. This is particularly true with regard
both to academic and technical posts as well as positions in information technology as well as the skilled crafts and trades.
Applications are handled according to the provisions of the state statutes on equal opportunity. Applications from suitably qualified
handicapped and severely handicapped persons are explicitly encouraged.
At Bielefeld University on request positions can be carried out with reduced working hours as long as this does not conflict with official needs.
