Research Associate

The Opportunity:

We invite applications for a Postdoctoral Research Associate in machine learning based in the School of Informatics, University of Edinburgh. The postholder will also be formally affiliated with the EPSRC-funded Hub in Generative AI and work with Drs Siddharth N. and Michael Gutmann as part of the Hub. This is an outstanding opportunity to conduct methodological research at the frontier of machine learning and to collaborate across a vibrant national network of leading universities and industry partners.

The scope of the project will be defined together with the candidate and tailored to their strengths and interests but will broadly focus on one or both of the following topics:

• Mutual information estimation and maximisation for continuous and discrete variables, with application to cross-modal data analysis or experimental design and active learning. This work stream will build on papers [1, 2].
• Probabilistic latent variable modelling with hierarchically structured continuous and discrete variables for more efficient and effective generative modelling [3,4] and uncertainty quantification, with application to diffusion models [5].

The overarching goal is to advance methodology and to explore their use in real-world problems in collaboration with Hub partners.

• Neural Mutual Information Estimation with Vector Copulas, NeurIPS 2025
• Implicit Deep Adaptive Design: Policy-Based Experimental Design without Likelihoods, NeurIPS 2021
• Autoencoding Conditional Neural Processes for Representation Learning, ICML 2024
• Banyan: Improved Representation Learning with Explicit Structure, ICML 2025
• On Designing Diffusion Autoencoders for Efficient Generation and Representation Learning

The position includes funding for international travel, e.g., for attending conferences, visiting research collaborators, and disseminating research findings. The researcher will have access to the compute infrastructure available to the School of Informatics and the AI Hub.

As a member of the Hub, you will:

• Engage with a broad community of researchers and practitioners in generative AI, statistics, and machine learning.
• Access opportunities for cross-site collaboration, research visits, and industry engagement.
• Contribute to shared Hub activities (seminars, workshops, etc).

We expect the postdoc to proactively engage and collaborate with the Hub members beyond the immediate team. Specific collaborators within the Hub will be identified jointly after appointment, aligned with your expertise, interests, and the evolving needs of the project and the Hub.  

Essential:

• PhD (or near completion) in Machine Learning, AI, Statistics, Applied Mathematics, or a related field. 
• Research experience in at least one of: probabilistic machine learning, diffusion/flow-based models. 
• Proficiency in modern ML toolchains (e.g., PyTorch, JAX) and reproducible research practices. 
• A track record of high-quality publications, e.g. at ICML, NeurIPS, ICLR, AISTATS, ACL, EMNLP, CVPR, JMLR, Machine Learning, and computational statistics journals. 
• Excellent communication skills and a collaborative mindset. 

Desirable: 

• Research experience in mutual information estimation and/or experimental design. 
• Research experience in energy-based models and/or hierarchical generative models. 
• Strong cross-disciplinary experience and expertise. 
• Strong software engineering practices (testing, benchmarking, packaging, CI).

This post is full-time (35 hours per week); however, we are open to considering flexible working patterns. We are also open to considering requests for hybrid working (on a non-contractual basis) that combines a mix of remote and regular on-campus working.

Advert information