Postdoctral Researcher; Adjunct Appointment Campus

Postdoctral Researcher (Adjunct Appointment) - Dubai Campus

United Arab Emirates

Position Title: Postdoctral Researcher (Adjunct Appointment)

Project title: AI Pathologist for Diverse Medical Diagnosis

Position Type: Adjunct Appointment — Contract duration 10 months (can be extended with a break between the two contracts)

Start Date: Ideally by Mid-March 2026

Heriot-Watt University (HWU) has five campuses: three in the UK (Edinburgh, Scottish Borders and Orkney), one in Dubai and one in Malaysia. The University offers a highly distinctive range of degree programmes in the specialist areas of science, engineering, design, business, and languages.

With a history dating back to 1821, Heriot-Watt University has established a reputation for world-class teaching and practical, leading-edge research, which has made it one of the top UK universities for business and industry. We connect with industry at every level and develop programmes to match their needs – so employers get work-ready industry-fit graduates.

Heriot-Watt is also Scotland's most international university, boasting the largest international student cohort.

We have an established set of values that help us to nurture innovation and leadership and show our commitment to continuous improvement and development in all our activities.

About School of Engineering and Physical Sciences

The School of Engineering & Physical Sciences (EPS) is a community of over 340 staff and around 3,000 students across three campuses in Scotland, Dubai and Malaysia. The School is recognised as an international leader in education, research and the application of knowledge to benefit society globally. We are striving to establish ourselves as partners of choice for world leading institutions, consistently delivering an environmentally and financially sustainable growth by aligning to the opportunities and requirements of our modern times to address local and global needs.

Heriot Watt holds an Institutional Athena Swan Bronze Award, as does the School of Engineering and Physical Sciences, recognising excellence in championing employment of women in the field of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. We offer a range of family friendly, inclusive employment policies, flexible working arrangements, staff engagement forums, campus facilities and services to support staff from different backgrounds.

About our Team

Heriot-Watt University established a campus in Dubai International Academic City (DIAC) in 2005 and moved in 2020 to a state of the art, digitally enabled campus within Dubai Knowledge Park. The Dubai campus now has nearly 4500 students. The School of Engineering and Physical Sciences (EPS) in Heriot-Watt University Dubai offers a range of undergraduate and postgraduate degree programmes in Automotive, Chemical, Mechanical, Energy, Renewable Energy, Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Robotics, Autonomous and Interactive Systems, and Global Sustainability Engineering.

Project Overview

The AI Pathologist project is an interdisciplinary initiative aimed at developing an advanced AI-driven diagnostic system using 3D medical imaging modalities (CT, MRI, PET) and explainable AI (XAI) techniques to support medical professionals in improving diagnostic accuracy, reducing workload, and enhancing patient outcomes. The Postdoc Researcher will play a key role in implementing system prototypes, managing data pipelines, and supporting the development and validation of AI models in collaboration with clinicians and engineers.

• Assist in developing machine learning and deep learning models for medical imaging analysis.
• Implement and fine-tune models using PyTorch, Tensor Flow, or related frameworks.
• Run experiments, perform hyperparameter tuning, and maintain organized experiment logs.
• Maintain data preprocessing, annotation preparation, and dataset organization for medical imaging projects.
• Collaborate with clinicians to understand imaging structures and diagnostic targets.
• Integrate Explainable AI methods (e.g., Grad-CAM, Guided Backprop, SHAP) into the system and generate visual explanations for model outputs.
• Contribute to the development of the AI Pathologist prototype, including UI/UX, backend integration, and workflow automation.
• Support deployment of models using Docker, APIs, or cloud environments.
• Prepare technical documentation, coding standards, and user guides; assist in project reporting, papers, and presentations; attend project meetings and provide weekly progress updates.

• PhD in Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, Data Science, Computer Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, or a related field.

• Experience with Python and machine learning libraries (PyTorch, Tensor Flow, scikit-learn).
• Understanding of deep learning, CNNs, Capsule Networks, and image processing fundamentals.
• Basic knowledge of handling medical images (e.g., DICOM).
• Familiarity with version control (Git/Git Hub).

• Strong analytical and…