Postdoctoral Research Associate

Oak Ridge National Laboratory • Oak Ridge, TN

82d

About The Position

The Advanced Computing in Health Sciences (ACH) section at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) is seeking qualified applicants for a Postdoctoral Research Associate position for health research projects. The research activities include HIPAA compliant research data that has been entrusted to ORNL by sponsors such as the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). As such, you will have the opportunity to work on some of the most challenging and impactful research and development programs in healthcare informatics, bioinformatics, high performance computing and deep learning. The candidate will work in a collaborative research and development environment focusing on designing, implementing, and applying robust and high performance applications for biomedical research. The candidate's work will focus on developing AI methods, training AI models, and creating agentic AI workflows on DOE supercomputers and applying them to population-level cancer research in collaboration with partners at institutions like the VA and NCI. It will also include collaborations across the ORNL and DOE research landscape. This position requires novel thinking, teamwork, and discovery in finding new approaches for analyzing massive and complex data, collaborating with experts, and publishing significant results.

Requirements

• PhD in a computational discipline such as Data Science, Computer Science, Applied Mathematics and Statistics, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, or a related field.
• Experience with a deep learning framework like PyTorch.
• Strong interest in developing and using agentic AI workflows to advance the way in which computational science is conducted.
• Self-disciplined work ethic and eagerness to tackle challenging research problems.

Nice To Haves

• Familiarity with running on scheduled clusters or cloud services.
• Experience in developing and applying biostatistics, AI, and ML-based solutions to healthcare data.
• Experience developing or applying parallel algorithms and scalable workflows for HPC resources.
• Experience developing or applying privacy-enhancing technologies such as federated learning, differential privacy, and synthetic data.
• Experience with generative AI methods and libraries (architectures like large language models and vision transformers, inference engines like vLLM, domain specific languages like Triton, workflow libraries like LangGraph, etc.).

Responsibilities

• Developing high-quality code following best practices in the community for documentation, provenance, version control, etc.
• Participating in research projects in AI modeling and workflows using high performance computing with applications to health sciences and related domains
• Preparing manuscripts and dissemination of research results in publications and conferences.
• Working in secure enclaves and open computing environments on a wide variety of applied areas.
• Conducting tasks independently and communicate effectively to team members and stakeholders.
• Delivering ORNL's mission by aligning behaviors, priorities, and interactions with our core values of Impact, Integrity, Teamwork, Safety, and Service.

Benefits

• Medical and retirement plans
• Flexible work hours
• On-site fitness, banking, and cafeteria facilities
• 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
• Industry: Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services
• Education Level: Ph.D. or professional degree
• Number of Employees: 5,001-10,000 employees