Data scientist / ML engineer

SPKI is expanding, and is in search of a highly motivated data scientist / ML engineer who wants to contribute to the development and implementation of artificial intelligence (AI) tools for health.

SPKI was established as a centre for clinical artificial intelligence in collaboration between UNN, UiT and Helse Nord in the beginning of 2021. The ambition of SPKI is to facilitate development and use of clinical decision support tools based on AI at UNN and in Helse Nord.

The work will be done in a highly interdisciplinary environment, and you will collaborate with a team consisting of clinicians, scientists from the university and technologists, legal experts, industry partners, as well as personnel responsible for ICT, data security, privacy concerns and more. This environment also includes researchers at UiT Machine Learning Group and Visual Intelligence.

The data scientist will work at UNN Tromsø.

Duties and responsibilities

The candidate will contribute broadly to the activities at the centre. By joining our team at SPKI, you will have the opportunity to

• work closely with clinicians, legal experts, technologists, and stakeholders to identify needs and translate them into concrete problem statements that you and your team can deliver on.
• collect, preprocess, cleanse and analyze large amounts of health data.
• improve, develop and train algorithms for clinical AI based on heterogeneous sources of patient data such as medical images, electronic health records, or registry data. This could also include large language models and generative AI.
• work together with e. g. legal experts and ICT providers to establish and maintain databases for development and validation of AI tools.
• prototype and embed AI workflows and iterate to build production ready clinical decision support tools that scale.
• implement, validate, monitor, and follow-up both in-house and commercial AI tools to ensure safety and good performance.
• participate in studies of feasibility in routine clinical practice, prospective trials and randomized controlled trials to study effectiveness and safety of AI tools.

The position has secured funding for 2,5 years, with a possibility for extension into a permanent position.

Qualifications

Applicants should have a doctoral degree (PhD) or master’s in Computer Science, Statistics, Applied Mathematics, Engineering or equivalent fields. It is acceptable if the degree will be formally obtained within 2 months from the deadline of the present call. A good background in AI and machine learning in general, and related fields such as pattern recognition or computational statistics, is required. Good programming skills are required.

The ideal candidate has experience with health-related machine learning applications and a genuine interest in applying and developing AI tools to the benefit of the patients and the clinicians. Clinical knowledge will be an advantage. Research experience and prior publications in machine learning conferences and journals and related fields is also an advantage. How personally suitable the candidate is will also play a role, as well as the ability to work both independently and in teams.
Additionally, the ideal candidate:

• is ambitious and motivated to develop, apply and implement new AI technology that can improve healthcare
• has a strong background in machine learning and computer science and is interested in both method development and application of AI tools
• has experience with natural language processing on clinical text
• has experience in developing and productizing real-world AI/ML tools
• has experience in ML/AI product development and iterative work- from data generation/collection to visualization and explainability
• has experience establishing and maintaining databases
• can work independently
• has good collaboration skills
• must speak and write English fluently. To speak and write Norwegian is an advantage.

Personal qualities

• The excitement and experience of working in a highly multidisciplinary environment and the opportunity to participate in building and shaping a relatively new centre
• Favorable pension and insurance schemes
• Competitive salary based on education and experience
• Family-friendly policies and surroundings

The application must include

• Application letter including a statement describing current expertise and suggestions for how your expertise is relevant
• CV (summarizing education, relevant work experience, grants etc)
• A complete list of publications and academic work
• Contact details of 2-3 references
  

The application with attachments must be delivered in the electronic recruiting system "Webcruiter". Foreign applicants are advised to attach an explanation of their University's grading system. Please note that all documents should be in English or a Scandinavian language.

In assessing the applications, special emphasis will be on the applicant's potential as a co-worker at SPKI as shown in the application CV. In addition, consideration is given to professional experience and other activities that are considered important, as well as the candidate's motivation and personal suitability. Interviews with the best qualified candidates will be arranged.

For more information, visit www.spki.no.