Postdoctoral Research Associate - HPC and Al

Oak Ridge National Laboratory • Oak Ridge, TN

1d • Hybrid

About The Position

The Analytics and AI Methods at Scale (AAIMS) group at the National Center of Computational Science (NCCS) at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) is seeking motivated and talented postdoctoral research associate(s) to join our dynamic team. This role lies at the exciting intersection of High-Performance Computing (HPC) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) at scale with a particular focus on AI for Science, Natural Language Processing (NLP), and AI for Operations. Our aim is to push the boundaries of computational science by integrating advanced AI methods with state-of-the-art high-performance computing. The NCCS is the home of the world’s first exascale supercomputer Frontier. Our Leadership Computing Program (OLCF) provides world class computing facilities to applications across all computational domains and disciplines. We are an inclusive dynamic environment that welcomes those with initiative and creativity. As a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science national laboratory, ORNL has an impressive 80-year legacy of addressing the nation’s most pressing challenges. Our team is made up of over 7,000 dedicated and innovative individuals! Our goal is to create an environment where a variety of perspectives and backgrounds are valued, ensuring ORNL is known as a top choice for employment. These principles are essential for supporting our broader mission to drive scientific breakthroughs and translate them into solutions for energy, environmental, and security challenges facing the nation.

Requirements

• Ph.D. in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or a field closely related to the job duties of this position.

Nice To Haves

• Well-versed with deep neural networks.
• Experience working on PyTorch or similar DL frameworks.
• Programming in Python (preferred).
• NLP packages and pipelines.
• Usage and understanding of basic Machine Learning algorithms and tools.
• Solid record of productive research demonstrated by publications in peer-reviewed AI/NLP/ML conferences or journals, and/or open-source software development.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills.
• Motivated self-starter with ability to work independently and to participate creatively in collaborative teams across the laboratory.
• Ability to function well in a fast-paced research environment, set priorities to accomplish multiple tasks within deadlines, and to adapt to ever changing needs.
• Proficiency in frameworks such as DeepSpeed, FSDP, Megatron are highly valued.

Responsibilities

• Research and development of large-scale AI models for science, focusing on pre-training, instruction-based fine-tuning, and integrating human-in-the-loop reinforcement learning approaches.
• Exploration of privacy-preserving AI techniques, enhancing AI safety, and addressing vulnerabilities and defenses in Large Language Models (LLMs).
• Specialization in data parallelism, model-parallelism, and collective communication strategies in large-scale environments.
• Building scalable, energy-efficient, trustworthy, and safe AI solutions for operations at the lab and Department of Energy (in general) with a particular focus on event forecasting, predictive maintenance, and corrective actions. The role would encompass working on forecasting, predictive, and text generation algorithms with Large Language Models.
• Collaborate with internal and external researchers on a variety of AI/ML-related research and projects.
• Present and report research results, publish scientific results in top-tier AI/NLP peer reviewed conferences/journals in a timely fashion.
• Deliver ORNL’s mission by aligning behaviors, priorities, and interactions with our core values of Impact, Integrity, Teamwork, Safety, and Service. Promote equal opportunity by fostering a respectful workplace – in how we treat one another, work together, and measure success.

Benefits

• Prescription Drug Plan
• Dental Plan
• Vision Plan
• 401(k) Retirement Plan
• Contributory Pension Plan
• Life Insurance
• Disability Benefits
• Generous Vacation and Holidays
• Parental Leave
• Legal Insurance with Identity Theft Protection
• Employee Assistance Plan
• Flexible Spending Accounts
• Health Savings Accounts
• Wellness Programs
• Educational Assistance
• Relocation Assistance
• Employee Discounts

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Entry Level
• Education Level: Ph.D. or professional degree