[Job Vacancy] Research Fellow in Translation/Interpreting Technologies and Natural Language Processing

The Centre for Translation Studies (CTS) is an internationally recognised centre for research, scholarship and teaching in translation and interpreting, and has recently been awarded a £3.56m Expanding Excellence in England grant to launch an ambitious new research programme. This programme will bring together human-based research practices with cutting-edge advances in machine learning and AI, focusing on the convergence of human and automated approaches to different modalities of translation and interpreting in order to initiate a step-change in the broader translation research agenda. We believe this direction of research is critical at a time when advances in automation are reshaping the language services industry into one of the fastest growing industries, nationally and globally. The ‘technological turn’ in translation/interpreting creates exciting opportunities, but it also requires fresh approaches in order to understand all the dimensions of its impact, to mitigate drawbacks and to derive truly innovative solutions.

To support the expansion programme, we seek to appoint a Postdoctoral Research Fellow with expertise in translation or interpreting studies and natural language processing (especially deep learning approaches). The successful candidate will undertake research relevant to current and future projects in CTS, with a specific focus on designing, creating, and applying NLP-based methods within translation/interpreting research. She/he will contribute to the development of a research group focussing on this area.

We are looking for a candidate with a PhD in translation technologies, natural language processing, computational linguistics or a closely related field. The candidate should have knowledge of applying human language technologies and should be proficient in relevant programming languages. The success of the research programme requires multidisciplinary collaborations. Good communication, presentation and project management skills are therefore essential as is a strong interest in combining human and automated approaches to translation/interpreting. Experience in the development of research proposals and in securing external research funding would be a plus.

Please note this post complements further new posts available in CTS. This is a unique opportunity – in collaboration with existing and other new CTS staff – to shape an emerging research agenda that will play an important role in translation studies.

This is a fixed-term contract until 31 July 2022 but there is a possibility to extend the post if external research funding can be secured.

For an informal discussion regarding this post, please contact Prof Sabine Braun, Director of CTS by email (s.braun@surrey.ac.uk).

*Please note, it is University Policy to offer a starting salary equivalent to Level 3.6 (£31,302) to successful applicants who have been awarded, but are yet to receive, their PhD certificate. Once the original PhD certificate has been submitted to the local HR Department, the salary will be increased to Level 4.1 (£32,236).

Further details:

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