BDC Post-Doc Research Associate

A global higher education leader in innovative teaching, research and public service, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill consistently ranks as one of the nation's top public universities and is among is the top ten research universities in the nation for federal research expenditures as well as for federally funded social and behavioral sciences research and development.

Here at Carolina, our highly skilled postdocs play a vital role in our research enterprise and towards our overall commitment to research excellence. Across many disciplines, postdocs contribute to the intellectual vitality of the University. They provide innovative ideas and perspectives, foster a stimulating research environment and advance knowledge within their fields. Postdocs are crucial members of our scientific research workforce, contributors to our research outputs and an important reason why Carolina is one of the leading public research institutions in the country.

UNC-Chapel Hill offers postdocs comprehensive medical and vision coverage, paid leave, and benefits and services that support professional development and a healthy work/life balance. Chapel Hill regularly ranks as one of the best college towns and best places to live in the United States, a reputation guided by the diverse social, cultural, recreation and professional opportunities that span the campus and community.

Primary Purpose of Organizational Unit

Are you ready to go beyond the state of the art?

At the Renaissance Computing Institute (RENCI), we use data, creativity, and inclusive teaming to revitalize how science is done. Fostering data science expertise and creating cyberinfrastructure isn't just about solving known problems - it's about expanding human potential by unlocking data.

We need innovators, builders, strategists, technologists, architects, and creative thinkers across all domains to drive this work forward. When you join our team, you'll:

• Spend your time solving the interesting and unique problems of research and development.
• Shape your future through experimentation and unfettered access to premier education and research.
• Make connections to people and projects that ignite your passion.

We know that diversity of people and ideas is a cornerstone of innovation, and we work to ensure our culture reflects that knowledge. We provide the tools you need to do your job effectively; we offer flexibility so you can be the most productive version of you; and we encourage thoughtful and challenging discourse.

Join our research institute at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill today and help us spark a scientific renaissance across the Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, and beyond.

Position Summary

The Renaissance Computing Institute (RENCI) at UNC Chapel Hill is seeking a Postdoctoral Research Associate to contribute to innovative projects within the NIH BioData Catalyst (BDC) ecosystem a cloud-based platform that provides secure access to biomedical data, analytic tools, and collaborative workspaces. This position offers the opportunity to work on cutting-edge initiatives aimed at improving how researchers interact with complex data and analysis workflows.

Potential project areas include developing semantic search capabilities to help users efficiently locate relevant datasets, designing natural language interfaces for more intuitive navigation of the BDC environment, creating BDC-specific foundation models, and enabling large language models (LLM) and machine learning-based workflows within the platform. The role may also involve advancing harmonization techniques to improve data interoperability and usability across the ecosystem. This is an exciting opportunity to contribute to high-impact, translational research infrastructure at the intersection of biomedical informatics, cloud computing, and AI.

Minimum Education and Experience Requirements

Ph.D. in Bioinformatics, Biomedical Informatics, Computer Science, or a related field.

Required Qualifications, Competencies, and Experience

Experience deploying and working with LLMs

Agentic workflows and retrieval augmented generation (RAG)

Prompt engineering experience

Developing, training, and testing machine learning (ML) models

Software engineering expertise

Preferred Qualifications, Competencies, and Experience

Experience with biomedical data, including clinical, EHR, omics, and imaging

Knowledge graphs (KGs), and integrating LLMs with KGs

Multimodal LLMs

Special Physical/Mental Requirements Special Instructions

For information on UNC Postdoctoral Benefits and Services click here

Quick Link