PhD or Postdoctoral Position in LLM Training University of Basel in United Kingdom

The research groups of Prof. A. Lucchi and Prof. I. Bogunovic at the University of Basel invite applications for a PhD or postdoctoral position in Large Language Models (LLMs), with a focus on pre-training, post-training, and reasoning. The project aims to improve how modern AI systems reason, generalize, and adapt to specialized domains.

The successful candidate will work on methods for LLM reasoning with applications in mathematical reasoning, decision-making, and robust generalization across tasks and domains. The research will include designing and running large-scale experiments, developing fine-tuning approaches, and exploring reinforcement learning methods for improving the capabilities and reliability of language models.

This position is based at the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science in Basel, Switzerland. The environment is highly collaborative and connects with national and international research teams, including partners such as EPFL and ETH. The role also offers the chance to present research at leading conferences such as ICML, NeurIPS, ICLR, JMLR, and AISTATS.

Applicants should have a strong background in machine learning, excellent programming and implementation skills, and a solid mathematical foundation. For the PhD track, a Master's degree in mathematics, theoretical physics, computer science, or a related field is required; prior research experience is a plus. For the postdoctoral track, applicants must hold or be near completion of a PhD in one of these fields and are expected to have a strong publication record in machine learning, AI, optimization, or related areas.

The PhD position is funded for four years. The postdoctoral position is initially funded for two years, with the possibility of extension up to four years. The posting mentions excellent salary, benefits, and working conditions.

Application materials include a short motivation statement (maximum 150 words), CV with publications if applicable, transcripts for bachelor’s and master’s degrees, contact information for peers who can recommend you, and a latest thesis or publication if available. Applicants are encouraged to apply before 2026-07-31, though the position is also described as open until filled. The listed deadline is 2026-08-18.