Post-Doctoral Research Associate: Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science - UTK

The Global Computing Laboratory (GCLab) and the Energy, People, and Interactive Computing (EPIC lab) at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK) —led by Prof. Michela Taufer and Prof. Sai Swaminathan, respectively— invite applications for a Postdoctoral Research Associate position to advance the next generation of intelligent, adaptive, and user-aware scientific workflow systems. Together, our labs conduct interdisciplinary research that brings together high-performance computing (HPC), distributed systems, AI/ML, and human-computer interaction (HCI). Our ongoing collaborations span intelligent and explainable workflow composition, data and workflow provenance, reproducibility, and trust, sustainable AI, Human-in-the-loop reinforcement learning and personalization, edge AI-cloud-HPC convergence, and scientific computing. We collaborate with national laboratories, universities, and industry partners to develop scalable, trustworthy, and efficient systems for exascale and beyond.

This position offers a unique opportunity to work across system-level and human-centered innovations, contributing to open-source software, co-design with domain scientists, and publishing in top-tier venues such as SC, ISC, HPDC, NeurIPS, AAAI, CHI, UIST, and IMWUT/UbiComp.

Other Job Functions

• Collaborates with faculty, research staff, graduate/undergraduate students, and external partners.
• Designs, develops, and evaluates scalable software frameworks for HPC, AI workflows, HCI and data-intensive science.
• Engages with national laboratories, funding agencies, and industry collaborators to advance research goals.
• Authors research proposals to expand and sustain ongoing projects and explore new directions.
• Publishes in top-tier conferences and journals; presents research results at major venues.
• Mentors students and contributes to workforce development initiatives.

Required Qualifications

• Ph.D. in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or a related field.
• Strong programming skills in C/C++ and/or Python.
• Experience with AI, high-performance computing environments, parallel systems, or scientific workflows.
• Demonstrated research excellence through impactful publications, technical contributions, or leadership in projects.

Desired Qualifications

• Expertise in workflow orchestration, AI/ML integration with HPC, data management systems.
• Experience with distributed storage and I/O libraries (e.g., HDF5, NetCDF).
• Familiarity with containerization, cloud-HPC convergence, or exascale software stacks.
• Strong communication and technical writing skills; ability to work effectively in interdisciplinary teams.

Additional Information

• Occasional travel to national laboratories, conferences, or project meetings may be required.
• Starting salary range begins at $75,000 per year depending on experience and qualifications.

Application Instructions:

If you are interested in this position, please submit an online application. In addition to the application, you may also contact:

Prof. Michela Taufer

Dongarra Professor in High Performance Computing

Director, Global Computing Laboratory

Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

University of Tennessee, Knoxville

E-mail: mtaufer@utk.edu

The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, has shaped leaders, changemakers, and innovative thinkers since its founding in 1794. The university is home to more than 38,000 students and 10,000 statewide employees—the Volunteers—who uphold the university’s tradition of lighting the way for others through leadership and service.

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