Job Description

You want to understand how things are connected and make a fundamental impact? We offer an environment where you can realize your full potential. At one of Europe’s largest and most modern business and economics universities. On a campus where quality of work is also quality of life. We are looking for support at the

Institute for Data, Process and Knowledge Management
Part-time, 30 hours/week
Starting September 01, 2026, and ending after 6 years Qualified candidates with disabilities are especially encouraged to apply for this position. If necessary, a reduction of the extent of employment is possible.

We are seeking highly motivated and talented individuals to join our dynamic research team for combining symbolic and sub-symbolic AI. The successful candidates will conduct research at WU in collaboration with our partner institutes Johannes Kepler University Linz, AAU Klagenfurt, ISTA, TU Graz, and TU Vienna, within the Bilateral AI Cluster of Excellence (www.bilateral-ai.net).

The vision of Bilateral AI is to educate a new generation of top-quality AI scientists with a holistic view on symbolic and sub-symbolic AI methods. Training and mentoring of young researchers is a central activity, which combines groundbreaking research work with an education program. The training will be distributed over the six participating institutions.

What to expect

• Research Life: You will be trained within the Bilateral AI Doctoral School. Joint seminars, scientific workshops, and compulsory courses outside your research fields will also be designed to encourage interdisciplinarity
• Build a personal network: You will be supervised by two experienced and internationally renowned professors with different research fields (symbolic / sub-symbolic AI). The training will also provide a career development program, advice and support with innovative business ideas, and workshops for presentation and soft skills
• Supervision of students & Teaching: Plan, create and teach courses. Advise students and co-supervise their theses and exams. Note that this position includes a teaching requirement of 2 SWS (Semesterwochenstunden – weekly teaching hours – after a settling-in period), contributing to the department’s curriculum in Information Systems, Data Science, Artificial Intelligence and Digital Economy
• Writing a dissertation: You will be investigating a research topic and spending a third of your working hours on writing your dissertation. The possible topics are in the following areas:

- reliably incorporating legal, democratic and ethical principles into AI technology;
- improving spatio-temporal and legal reasoning in an LLM;
- extending the state of the art in knowledge representation and information retrieval

• Organizational and administrative support: You will be involved in grant applications, conference organization, etc.

What you have to offer

• Academic degree: You have completed a master's degree that qualifies you for enrolling in a PhD program at WU in one of the following subjects:

- Computer science
- Information systems (or a related field of study)

• Research Skills: You have solid practical & theoretical foundations in at least one of the following topic areas:

- Information Retrieval
- Knowledge Representation
- Data Science

• Additional Skills: You have excellent study results as well as knowledge of programming languages such as Python
• Willingness to use multimedia teaching methods: You are prepared to use multimedia teaching and learning formats

Applications should include the following information:

1. Letter of motivation (detailing previous research achievements, research goals, career plans);
2. A complete CV, including a list of previous scientific expertise, awards, grants, stays abroad, attended lectures, attended summer schools, attended workshops, skills, and publications (if applicable);
3. Abstract in English of the applicant’s MSc thesis, BSc thesis, or of a research project;
4. A complete list of completed studies and transcripts of all grades;
5. Two academic recommendation letters;
6. Proof of proficiency in English (usually TOEFL/IELTS/CAE).

By submitting your application, you agree with your application being shared also with members of the BILAI admission committee from other partner universities in the BILAI network.

The position will be supervised by Dr. Svitlana Vakulenko. We recommend the candidates to also name potential co-supervisors from within the “Bilateral AI” network, cf. https://www.bilateral-ai.net/research/key-researchers, and motivate in the application your interest in related research projects to the supervisor and potential co-supervisors (optional).

WU is dedicated to the principle of equal opportunities and is strongly committed to diversity and inclusion. Since WU seeks to increase the number of its female employees in academic and management positions, qualified women are strongly encouraged to apply. Women with equal qualifications are given priority.

Do you have any questions, or do you require additional information? Please contact: svitlana.vakulenko@wu.ac.at

What we offer you

• Six weeks of vacation/Extra vacation time
• Flexible working hours
• Training opportunities
• A wide range of benefits, from an in-house medical officer to athletic activities and a meal allowance to a variety of employee discounts
• Meaningful work in an open-minded, inclusive, and family-friendly environment
• A modern campus with spectacular architecture in the heart of Vienna
• Inspiring campus life with over 2,400 employees in research, teaching, and administration and approximately 21,500 students
• Excellent accessibility by public transportation

Curious? Visit our website and find out more at www.wu.ac.at/benefits

The minimum monthly gross salary amounts to €2,832.08 (14 times per year). This salary may be adjusted based on job-related prior work experience. In addition, we offer a wide range of attractive social benefits.

Do you want to join the WU team?
Then please submit your application by May 27, 2026 (ID 2772).
We are looking forward to hearing from you!