Postdoctoral Fellow in AI and Cognitive Science

Johns Hopkins, founded in 1876, is America's first research university and home to nine world‑class academic divisions working together as one university.

$63,480 - $76,000 a year

The Language Creation and Learning Laboratory (PI Annemarie Kocab) in the Department of Cognitive Science at Johns Hopkins University seeks an outstanding postdoctoral fellow to lead scientific effort on machine learning applications to signed languages to begin by Fall 2026.

The fellow will work on research projects spanning evaluation of deep learning neural networks trained on signed language recognition. The fellow will work closely with the PI Annemarie Kocab and collaborator Alex Lu, Senior Researcher at Microsoft Research. Duties will include:

• Design, execute, and troubleshoot experiments
• Develop and validate benchmarks for model evaluation
• Contribute to the development of datasets for model training and evaluation
• Mentor and supervise graduate and undergraduate students
• Prepare progress reports and present results to collaborators
• Publish findings in peer‑reviewed journals and conference proceedings
• Contribute to competitive grant proposals to federal agencies (e.g., NIH)

Required Qualifications

• PhD in Cognitive Science, Computer Science, Psychology, Linguistics, or related fields
• Ability to move to and work at Johns Hopkins University, USA
• Demonstrated track record of first‑author publications and presentations
• Experience with computational methods and machine learning, including but not limited to deep learning, computer vision, computational linguistics, pretraining methods, interpretability, and transfer learning
• Experience with cognitive science, particularly psycholinguistics or linguistics
• Proficiency in data analysis and computational tools; strong programming skills (e.g., MATLAB, Python, or equivalent)
• Ability to lead research projects and collaborate with experimentalists
• Strong written and oral communication skills

• Experience with human–computer interaction, accessibility, or AI fairness and ethics

Submit a cover letter, CV, sample of work, and 3 letters of reference to Interfolio.

Johns Hopkins University is an equal opportunity employer and strives to maintain a diverse environment that encourages scientific and educational development, scholarship, and broad community engagement. We welcome the participation of all applicants and will not discriminate on the basis of status or viewpoint. All employees and applicants are treated with dignity and respect. This is one of the best places to get a position on faculty and offer questions for what needed to maintain or change the work environment.

Candidates with qualified experience are encouraged to apply. We hope to include more of your perspective under this law with this position.

The referenced salary range represents the minimum and maximum salaries for this position and is based on Johns Hopkins University’s good faith belief at the time of posting. Not all candidates will be eligible for the upper end of the salary range. The actual compensation offered to the selected candidate may vary and will ultimately depend on multiple factors, which may include the successful candidate’s geographic location, skills, work experience, internal equity, market conditions, education/training, and other factors, as reasonably determined by the University.

Johns Hopkins offers a total rewards package that supports our employees’ health, life, career, and retirement. More information can be found here: (Use the "Apply for this Job" box below)..

The Johns Hopkins University is committed to equal opportunity for its faculty, staff, and students. To that end, the university does not discriminate on the basis of sex, gender, marital status, pregnancy, race, color, ethnicity, national origin, age, disability, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, veteran status, or other legally protected characteristics. The University is committed to providing qualified individuals access to all academic and…