Data Scientist for pioneering research combining AI and psychotherapy

Are you passionate about the intersection of AI and mental health? Join the ALF project at VIRTU Research Group in a 2-year, full-time position, where you will play a key role in advancing the budding field of AI psychotherapy research.


About the position
We are seeking a data scientist with expertise in large language models (LLMs) to contribute to an innovative line of research aimed at transforming mental health care with AI technologies. As part of an interdisciplinary team, you will be based at VIRTU Research Group and work closely with the Pioneer Centre for AI Research and the IT University of Copenhagen.

Your primary role in the project will involve:

Deploying and evaluating automatic speech recognition models to transcribe Danish psychotherapy audio with high accuracy.

Creating the world’s first comprehensive data corpus of psychotherapy for psychosis.

Developing LLMs to accurately categorize psychotherapy utterances.

Authoring scientific publications

Collaborating with researchers and clinicians to design LLM powered tools that could revolutionize mental health care in Denmark.


We are looking for a candidate with the following qualifications:

• PhD or master’s degree in data science, machine learning, artificial intelligence, computer science or a related field.

• Proven experience with training, fine-tuning, and evaluating large language models.
• Experience of machine learning for speech, audio data, and automatic speech recognition.
• Proficiency in Python programming and machine learning frameworks such as Pytorch.
• Understanding spoken and written Danish.

It is understood that even highly qualified applicants will satisfy these requirements to varying degrees, for example because of differences in countries and research fields. If you are interested in the project but are in doubt about checking these boxes, please contact Benjamin Arnfred before applying (See contact info below).

A genuine passion for research and mental health, psychology and/or psychiatry will make this role especially rewarding. While the position is primarily aimed at postdocs, we are open to considering candidates with less research experience, provided they match the technical qualifications for the project. In this case, the position has the potential to transition into a PhD program.


What we offer

• Be part of Copenhagen Research Centre for Mental Health and VIRTU Research Group (www.psykiatri-regionh.dk/virtu), a dynamic research environment with a focus on utilizing modern technology to improve mental health treatment.
• Contribute to a novel line of research aimed at transforming mental health care with AI technologies.
• Access to state-of-the-art computational resources.
• Opportunities to author scientific publications and attend international conferences.
• Mentorship from experts in NLP and clinical psychology.
• Opportunities to collaborate on mental health related projects with researchers from a variety of backgrounds.
• Engage in international collaborations with leading experts in the fields of AI and psychotherapy.

Details
Employment: Full-time, 2 years - with the possibility for extension depending on further funding.

Start date: Ideally 1st of June, but negotiable.

Salary: Based on salary agreement

Work location: Gentofte Hospital / Pioneer Centre for AI Research

VIRTU Research Group is led by associate professor Louise Birkedal Glenthøj, who serves as the study PI. Post.doc Benjamin Arnfred is the projects daily leader. Additionally, associate professor Christian Hardmeier from the IT-University and Pioneer Centre for AI serves as co-principal investigator on the study.

For further details contact Benjamin Arnfred:

Phone: +45 31 72 46 03

E-mail: [email protected]

Application
To apply, please submit:

• A motivated application.
• Your CV.
• Relevant documents (e.g., diplomas, portfolio, or examples of technical work).

Salary, pension, and other conditions of employment are set in accordance with the Agreement between the Ministry of Finance and AC (Danish Confederation of Professional Associations) or other relevant organizations.

Deadline: 3rd of March, 2025, interviews held in the first two weeks of March