Post-Doctoral Associate in the Division of Science (Computer Science) Dr. Yasir Zaki

Organisation/Company NEW YORK UNIVERSITY ABU DHABI Research Field Computer science Researcher Profile Recognised Researcher (R2) Established Researcher (R3) Application Deadline 31 Oct 2026 - 00:00 (UTC) Country United Arab Emirates Type of Contract Permanent Job Status Full-time Is the job funded through the EU Research Framework Programme? Not funded by a EU programme Is the Job related to staff position within a Research Infrastructure? No

Offer Description

Description

The Communication Networks Lab at New York University Abu Dhabi (NYUAD), led by Yasir Zaki, invites applications for a Postdoctoral Associate in Responsible AI and Computational Social Science. Our research examines how artificial intelligence, online platforms, and the Web shape individuals, societies, and access to information. Recent themes include large-language-model safety and bias, political behavior in AI systems, misinformation and online harms, platform and recommendation-system audits, multilingual and culturally inclusive AI evaluation, and biases in digital and scientific ecosystems. We seek an outstanding researcher who already has a demonstrated record of publishing rigorous work in leading AI, NLP, Web, computational-social-science, human-computer-interaction, or interdisciplinary-science venues. The successful candidate will be expected to formulate research questions, lead empirical projects, develop rigorous computational or experimental methods, publish in highly selective venues, and help mentor junior researchers.

The successful candidate will lead research in one or more areas such as:

• Safety, bias, fairness, and political behavior in large language models
• Multilingual and culturally inclusive AI evaluation
• Misinformation, toxicity, and online-harm measurement and mitigation
• Auditing recommendation systems, search systems, and online platforms
• AI-mediated political communication and public opinion
• Social and behavioral effects of generative AI
• Computational analysis of digital and scientific ecosystems
• Human-centered evaluation of AI systems
• Reproducible datasets, benchmarks, and auditing infrastructure for responsible AI. The candidate will have substantial freedom to develop new research directions aligned with the lab’s goal of creating a more trustworthy and socially responsible Web. Mandatory publication requirement Applicants must have a strong peer-reviewed publication record in leading venues relevant to this position

Qualifying conferences include:

• ACM Web Conference;
• ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency (FAccT)
• International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media (ICWSM)
• ACL
• EMNLP
• NAACL
• COLING
• AAAI
• ACM CHI
• ACM CSCW

Qualifying journals include:

• Nature or relevant Nature-family journals, including Scientific Reports;
• Science and Science Advances
• PNAS or PNAS Nexus;
• National Science Review;
• IEEE Transactions on Computational Social Systems;
• ACM Transactions on the Web
• ACM Transactions on data science
• Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction;
• Journal of Computational Social Science.

At minimum, applicants must identify one qualifying paper in which they were the first or co-first author, or for which they can document an equivalent leading intellectual and technical contribution. A competitive applicant will normally have multiple strong research outputs appropriate to their career stage. Applications that do not demonstrate a publication record in at least one of the venues listed above will not be considered. General interest in responsible AI, coursework, use of machine-learning tools, unpublished projects, or publications only in unrelated venues do not satisfy this requirement. For collaborative publications, applicants must explain their personal contribution. Authorship by itself will not be treated as evidence of research leadership.

Qualifications

Candidate requirements Applicants must:

• Hold a PhD—or have completed all PhD requirements before starting—in computer science, information science, data science, computational social science, electrical or computer engineering, or a closely related discipline and be less than 5 years post-receipt of the doctoral degree.
• Meet the mandatory publication requirement above
• Demonstrate the ability to define and complete original, rigorous research
• Possess strong programming, experimental-design, and quantitative-analysis skills
• Have experience working with large-scale data, machine-learning models, human-subject studies, platform audits, or computational experiments
• Communicate research clearly in writing and presentations
• Be able to lead projects while collaborating across technical and social-science disciplines
• Be committed to ethical, transparent, and reproducible research. Relevant expertise may include NLP, large language models, computational social science, social-network analysis, causal inference, survey or behavioral experiments, recommender systems, algorithmic auditing, machine-learning evaluation, or human-computer interaction. Experience conducting multilingual, cross-cultural, or Global South-focused research is particularly valuable.

Working for NYUAD

At NYUAD, we recognize that Abu Dhabi is more than where you work; it’s your home. In order for research staff to thrive, we offer a comprehensive benefits package. This starts with a generous relocation allowance; educational assistance for your dependents; access to health and wellness services; and more. NYUAD is committed to research staff success throughout the academic trajectory, providing support for ambitious and world-class research projects and innovative, interactive teaching approaches. Support for dual-career families is a priority.

NYUAD is an equal-opportunity employer. We welcome applications from all qualified candidates and seek individuals who will contribute to the excellence and vibrancy of our academic community.

Applications are welcome from all qualified candidates. In line with UAE regulations, Emirati candidates are encouraged to apply.

Join NYU Abu Dhabi, an exceptional place for exceptional people.

NYUAD values belonging and respect; such principles are fundamental to the university’s commitment to excellence. NYUAD is an equal-opportunity employer. We welcome applications from all qualified candidates and seek individuals who will contribute to our vibrant, multidisciplinary research and teaching community. Multidisciplinary research and exceptional teaching in a global campus community are hallmarks of the University’s mission.

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