A Junior Researcher in the field of LLM/LRM Interpretability and Multi-Agent Systems

Fondazione Bruno Kessler (FBK) is a private research institution devoted to excellence in research in numerous disciplines and designated to the role of keeping the Autonomous Province of Trento in the mainstream of European and international research. Each research area is assigned to a specific research center, of which there are twelve totals. Information regarding the research centers, their activities and production is available at Augmented Intelligence Center is a newly established FBK center aiming to bring together a plurality of scientific areas already present in FBK to open up a new frontier of research in the field of Augmented Intelligence. The key research lines in Augmented Intelligence encompass : Foundational Artificial Intelligence; Human-Artificial Intelligence Interaction; Cooperative and Social Artificial Intelligence; Proactive ethical Artificial Intelligence.The FBK Research Center in Augmented Intelligence encompasses FBK research groups working in machine learning, natural language processing, dialogue technologies, speech recognition, human-computer interaction, computer vision, multi-modal perception, neuro-symbolic techniques, data and knowledge representation and reasoning, data and process intelligence, neuroinformatics, cooperative and social Artificial Intelligence. The Center benefits from the expertise and scientific excellence of approximately 80 researchers and developers, including senior researchers, emerging talents, and doctoral students affiliated with these FBK research groups.FBK is opening a new position within the Mobile and Social Computing Lab (MobS) Research Unit of the Augmented Intelligence Research Center at FBK. The main objective of MobS Lab is to build predictive and computational approaches to human behavior understanding using the newly ubiquitous sources of data that are becoming available about all aspects of human life. Moreover, MobS is focused on human-centric machine learning, cooperative AI, generative AI agents, algorithmic fairness, mechanistic interpretability and graph neural networks.FBK actively seeks diversity and inclusion in the workplace and is also committed to promoting gender equality. To promote the inclusion of disabled staff as per law 68 / 99, the Foundation is available and interested in evaluating the applications received for technical-scientific domains that do not correspond exactly to this call.Job DescriptionThe successful candidate will do research on Large Language and Reasoning Models (LLMs / LRMs), with a focus on interpretability and steerability. The candidate will be working in the Mobile and Social Computing Lab (MobS) team and will be involved in the algorithmic design, development, and evaluation of (multi-)agentic architectures.The activities will be primarily carried out within the framework of the TANGO, ELIAS and Mobility Veneto projects; however, the selected candidate may also be involved in further initiatives or projects within the Centre, depending on organizational needs.Job RequirementsThe ideal candidate should have : Master Degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Physics, Mathematics; Previous experience LLM / LRM mechanistic interpretability and / or in LLM-based agentic systems; Strong software development skills (preferably in Python); Very good knowledge and proficiency of the English language; Strong sense of curiosity and willingness to learn and develop; Teamwork approach, good communication and relational skills; Strong orientation to results, determination, flexibility and aptitude for problem-solving.Furthermore, the following elements will be positively evaluated : A track record of publications in machine learning conferences (NeurIps, ICML, ICLR, AAAI, IJCAI, ECML-PKDD, AISTATS, COLM, etc.) and multidisciplinary journals is very relevant.EmploymentType of contract: fixed-term contractWorking hours: Full time (38 h per week)Start date: preferably February 2026End date: 30 June 2027Workplace: Povo, TrentoGross annual salary: about € 38.900, plus objectives achievements bonusBenefitsflexi-time, company subsidized cafeteria or meal vouchers, internal car park, welcome office support for visa formalities and for research in accommodation, accommodation etc., supplementary pension and health fund, social security (SANIFONDS), family-work balance, free training courses, support on