Postdoctoral Scholar in Wireless Communications, AI (RL/LLMs), and Software-Defined Radios
University of California, Irvine is hiring a
Postdoctoral Scholar
in
wireless communications
,
digital signal processing
,
reinforcement learning
,
large language models
, and
software-defined radios
.
The position is part of an interdisciplinary research effort led by
Payam Heydari
(Chancellor’s Professor and Henry Samueli Faculty Excellence Professor, UC Irvine). The project focuses on AI-enabled circuits/systems that translate high-level mission objectives into deployable communications DSP solutions. The research direction includes end-to-end transmit/receive chain design, multi-agent AI coordination, and hardware-aware optimization under constraints such as BER, throughput, bandwidth/SEM, latency, MIMO/beamforming, and platform budgets.
Research responsibilities include developing and benchmarking modulation, coding, synchronization, spectral shaping, equalization, and related transceiver components; implementing multi-agent reinforcement learning workflows; contributing to LLM-assisted engineering tools; and validating designs with MATLAB, GNU Radio, and SDR/hardware-in-the-loop experiments.
Eligibility highlights:
a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or a related field; strong background in digital communications and statistical signal processing; research software experience in Python and/or C/C++; familiarity with modern machine learning tools. Preferred experience includes RL, multi-agent coordination, LLMs, and SDR platforms such as USRP-class radios.
Funding:
the salary range listed is
$69,073-$82,836
depending on experience.
Application window:
open date April 30, 2026; most recent review date May 19, 2026; final date April 29, 2027. Applications are accepted online through the UC Irvine recruitment portal.
