Postdoctoral Research Associate, AI

City St George’s, University of London is the University of business, practice and the professions and brings together the expertise and excellence of City, University of London and St George’s, University of London into one institution. The combined university is now one of the largest higher education destinations for London students, combining a breadth of disciplines across health, business, policy, law, creativity, communications, science and technology. Our students are at the heart of everything that we do, and we are committed to supporting them to pursue their career and personal ambitions.

Our research is engaged, at the frontier of practice and has a positive impact on the world around us. The Department of Computer Science, within the School of Science and Technology, is seeking a Postdoctoral Research Associate to join the project When Victims Ask AI: A Feasibility Study Evaluating Chatbot Safety for Coercive Control and Non-Physical Domestic Abuse. Led by the Centre for Online-Safety, Safeguarding, Privacy and Identity (COSPI), the project brings together expertise from computer science, criminology, clinical practice and specialist Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) organisations.

The research will evaluate how widely used AI chatbots respond to scenarios involving coercive control, emotional and psychological abuse, economic abuse and technology-facilitated abuse, generating evidence to inform policy, practice and the responsible development of AI systems.

You will provide technical and intellectual leadership for the computer science components of the project, designing, implementing and managing a reproducible evaluation framework for testing leading large language model (LLM) chatbots, developing software tools for automated experimentation, response collection, data management and analysis. Working closely with colleagues from criminology, clinical practice and partner organisations, you will help translate real-world safeguarding concerns into rigorous research protocols.

You will analyse chatbot performance, consistency and robustness across a range of scenarios, contribute to the development of benchmark datasets and evaluation methodologies, and support the dissemination of findings through publications, reports and policy-facing outputs.

Applicants should hold, or be nearing completion of, a PhD in Computer Science, AI, Data Science, Software Engineering or a related discipline. You will have strong technical expertise in machine learning, large language models and data analysis, alongside experience of high-quality empirical research. The role requires excellent collaboration and communication skills. Experience in AI evaluation, safety testing or responsible AI research is desirable.

Closing date for redeployment applications: 23 August 2026 at 23:59. Closing date for all applications: 6 September 2026 at 23:59.

City St George’s offers a sector-leading salary, pension scheme and benefits including a comprehensive package of staff training and development. City St George’s, University of London is committed to promoting equality, diversity and inclusion in all its activities, processes, and culture for our whole community, including staff, students and visitors.

We welcome applications regardless of age, caring responsibilities, disability, gender identity, gender reassignment, marital status, nationality, pregnancy, race and ethnic origin, religion and belief, sex, sexual orientation and socio-economic background. City St George’s operates a guaranteed interview scheme for disabled applicants.