
Postdoctoral Fellow in Mechanistic Interpretability - #Faculty
Baltimore, MDFull-time$80K/yrSeen todaySeen in employer's feed today
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Job overview
Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Language and Speech Processing is recruiting a Postdoctoral Fellow to study mechanistic interpretability and advance understanding of foundation models. The fellow will be advised by Berrak Sisman and Philipp Koehn and collaborate with an international team developing methods for more interpretable, trustworthy, and controllable AI. Experience in speech, audio, or language modeling is encouraged.
Skills & qualifications
Skills
Qualifications
Full job description
We are recruiting a Postdoctoral Fellow at Johns Hopkins University's Center for Language and Speech Processing (CLSP). We are looking for candidates with strong expertise in mechanistic interpretability, large language models, multimodal AI, and machine learning. Experience with representation analysis, causal interventions, or model steering is particularly welcome.
The successful candidate will be advised by Berrak Sisman and Philipp Koehn and collaborate with an international team on an exciting research project advancing our understanding of foundation models and developing methods for more interpretable, trustworthy, and controllable AI. Candidates with experience in speech, audio, or language modeling are encouraged to apply.
Candidates with doctoral degrees in electrical engineering, computer science, or closely related fields are sought.
Salary: Fellow AY26–27 salaries range from $63,480 to $100,000+. The budgeted salary for this position is $80,000
Interested candidates should submit a CV (with full list of publications), a brief description of their research experience and interests on mechanistic interpretability along with contact information for two references. Questions should be directred to both Berrak Sisman ([email protected]) and Philipp Koehn ([email protected]).
Salary Range
The referenced salary range represents the minimum and maximum salaries for this position and is based on Johns Hopkins University's good faith belief at the time of posting. Not all candidates will be eligible for the upper end of the salary range. The actual compensation offered to the selected candidate may vary and will ultimately depend on multiple factors, which may include the successful candidate's geographic location, skills, work experience, internal equity, market conditions, education/training and other factors, as reasonably determined by the University.
Total Rewards
Johns Hopkins offers a total rewards package that supports our employees' health, life, career and retirement. More information can be found here: https://hr.jhu.edu/benefits-worklife/.
Equal Opportunity Employer
The Johns Hopkins University is committed to equal opportunity for its faculty, staff, and students. To that end, the university does not discriminate on the basis of sex, gender, marital status, pregnancy, race, color, ethnicity, national origin, age, disability, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, veteran status or other legally protected characteristics. The university is committed to providing qualified individuals access to all academic and employment programs, benefits and activities on the basis of demonstrated ability, performance and merit without regard to personal factors or demographic characteristics that are irrelevant to the program involved.
Pre-Employment Information
If you are interested in applying for employment with Johns Hopkins University and require special assistance or accommodation during any part of the pre-employment process, please contact the HR Business Services Office at [email protected]. For TTY users, call via Maryland Relay or dial 711. For more information about workplace accommodations at Johns Hopkins University for disabilities, medical conditions (including medical conditions related to pregnancy or childbirth), accessibility, or religious reasons, please visit accessibility.jhu.edu.
Background Checks
After receiving a conditional offer, the successful candidate(s) for this position will be subject to a pre-employment background check including education verification. When deciding whether a candidate's conviction history is job-disqualifying, the University considers the nature and gravity of the offense, the time that has passed since the conviction, and the nature of the job being sought.
EEO is the Law
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Vaccine Requirements
Johns Hopkins University strongly encourages, but no longer requires, at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. This change does not apply to the School of Medicine (SOM). SOM hires must be fully vaccinated with an FDA COVID-19 vaccination and provide proof of vaccination status. We still require all faculty, staff, and students to receive the seasonal flu vaccine.
Exceptions to the seasonal flu vaccine or COVID-19 vaccine (for SOM) requirement(s) may be provided to individuals with sincerely held religious beliefs or medical conditions that preclude them from receiving the vaccine. Requests for an exception must be submitted to the JHU vaccination registry. For additional information, applicants for SOM positions should visit https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/coronavirus/covid-19-vaccine/ and all other JHU applicants should visit https://covidinfo.jhu.edu/health-safety/covid-vaccination-information/.
The following additional vaccine requirements may apply, depending upon your campus. Please contact the hiring department for more information.
The pre-employment physical for positions in clinical areas, laboratories, working with research subjects, or involving community contact requires documentation of immune status against Rubella (German measles), Rubeola (Measles), Mumps, Varicella (chickenpox), Hepatitis B and documentation of having received the Tdap (Tetanus, diphtheria, pertussis) vaccination. This may include documentation of having two (2) MMR vaccines; two (2) Varicella vaccines; or antibody status to these diseases from laboratory testing. Blood tests for immunities to these diseases are ordinarily included in the pre-employment physical exam except for those candidates who provide results of blood tests or immunization documentation from their own health care providers. Any vaccinations required for these diseases will be given at no cost in our Occupational Health office.
Job Type: Full Time
How this job compares
Set against the 553 open Postdoctoral Fellow jobs on Olive Jobs, counted October 31, 2026.
- Pay
- This posting$80K/yr
- Maryland median$75–89K/yr33 salary ranges
- US median$73–80K/yr355 salary ranges
This rate, $80K, is close to the Maryland median midpoint ($82K) — in the middle half of Postdoctoral Fellow salary ranges in Maryland.
- Openings
- Olive Jobs lists 34 open Postdoctoral Fellow jobs in Maryland and 553 across the US. Under 1% of them nationwide are listed as remote or flexible.
- Hiring the most across the US
- Mount Sinai Health System123 open
- Harvard University65 open
- MD Anderson Cancer Center48 open
- Experience
- Postdoctoral Fellow postings that state a minimum ask for 2 years of experience at the median; the middle half ask for 1 to 4 years (44 postings).
- Education
- This posting asks for a doctorate or professional degree; 443 of the 553 open Postdoctoral Fellow jobs (80%) ask for a doctorate or professional degree.
Counted across the open, public US postings on Olive Jobs on October 31, 2026. Pay medians are the middle values of the low ends and of the high ends of postings that list both ends of a range in the same cadence (a yearly salary or an hourly rate); a range's midpoint is halfway between its ends. Pay and experience figures resting on fewer than 20 postings are left out.
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