Postdoctoral Researcher -- Biomedical Semantics, Ontologies, and Large Language Model Integration

The German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) is one of Europe’s largest cancer research centers. “Research for a life without cancer" is the mission of our world-class scientists and all our team members.

The DKFZ is a place where the brightest minds pursue bold ideas and seek answers to pioneering scientific questions through collaboration, innovation, and exploration across many disciplines. We provide a dynamic environment which empowers excellence with state-of-the-art technologies, cutting edge infrastructure, and a global scientific network. 

Contribute your knowledge, vision, and dedication to create a space where scientific discovery in cancer research is transformed into benefits for human health.

We are seeking a highly motivated postdoctoral researcher to join an interdisciplinary project at the intersection of biomedical informatics, semantic technologies, and large language models (LLMs). The position is embedded in the MIRO-LLMs initiative (Helmholtz Metadata Collaboration), which focuses on advancing machine-interpretable research objects through ontology-driven approaches and AI-assisted knowledge integration.

The successful candidate will contribute to the design and implementation of domain ontologies, knowledge graphs, and semantic data models that enable structured integration of biomedical research data with LLM-based systems. The role involves close collaboration with data scientists, clinicians, and AI researchers to ensure semantic interoperability, FAIR data principles, and robust metadata standards across heterogeneous datasets.

Key responsibilities include developing and maintaining ontologies using OWL/RDF, implementing semantic pipelines and APIs, integrating structured knowledge with LLM workflows, and contributing to research publications and open-source tools development.

Equivalent training will be provided to be up to date with our methodology.