Post Doc Research Assistant

The College of Liberal Arts Research Academy (CLARA) at Purdue University invites applications for a full-time Postdoctoral Research Assistant position in AI, decision making, and risk.

About the role

• Join a vibrant community of faculty, staff, graduate and undergraduate students from social science and humanity programs in the College of Liberal Arts at Purdue and work on interdisciplinary projects including faculty from communication, psychology, and engineering at Purdue and Rice University.
• This is an academic year position (9 months) with a start date of August 12. The appointment is for one year.

Responsibilities

• Contribute to interdisciplinary research projects focusing on AI, decision making, and risk.
• Develop and analyze models of human-machine interaction and human perceptions of AI.
• Work with large language models and other AI techniques to study their impact on decision making and risk.
• Collaborate with faculty and students from various disciplines to advance knowledge in this field.

Qualifications

• Minimum Qualifications: PhD in social science (e.g., cognitive and decision science, psychology, communication, political science, sociology), or a technology-related field (e.g., computer science, industrial engineering) conferred by the expected start date.
• Substantial quantitative expertise in one or more of the following areas: human decision making; decision modeling; human-machine interaction; human perceptions of AI; large language models; data simulation; machine learning; software development.
• Preferred Qualifications: Excellent academic writing ability on quantitative topics; familiarity with relevant software environments (e.g., R, Python, SPSS); expertise in psychological research methods including experiments and modeling of cognitive processes involving AI; substantive research interests related to AI and human decision making/risk.

Benefits

• Competitive salary commensurate with experience.
• Excellent benefits package including health insurance, retirement plans, and professional development opportunities.

Pay

Salary is competitive and commensurate with experience.

Schedule

The position is an academic year position (9 months) with a start date of August 12.

Contact Information

To apply, submit a cover letter, CV, 1-3 representative manuscripts or other products demonstrating relevant expertise, names and contact information of at least 2 references, and address questions about the position to the Director of Purdue’s College of Liberal Arts Research Academy (CLARA), Professor Torsten Reimer, at treimer@purdue.edu.

The priority deadline is March 31, 2026, but all applications will be considered until the position is filled.