Research engineer for the ERC project InfantSimulator

Organisation/Company Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) Research Field Computer science » Informatics Psychological sciences » Cognitive science Researcher Profile Recognised Researcher (R2) Positions Research Support Positions Application Deadline 15 Oct 2026 - 12:00 (Europe/Paris) Country France Type of Contract Temporary Job Status Full-time Hours Per Week 35 Offer Starting Date 1 Jan 2027 Is the job funded through the EU Research Framework Programme? Horizon Europe - ERC Is the Job related to staff position within a Research Infrastructure? No

Offer Description

The École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) is a public higher education and research institution specializing in the humanities and social sciences. It combines advanced research with graduate-level training and hosts approximately 3,000 students, including around 1,500 PhD candidates, with nearly 250 doctoral dissertations defended each year across the social sciences. EHESS also enrolls a similar number of master's students.

EHESS is the CNRS's leading partner in the humanities and social sciences, collaborating with approximately 300 researchers and 170 research support staff within joint research units. The institution is headed by a President elected by the faculty assembly and supported by an executive board composed of four faculty members. EHESS is also a founding member of the Campus Condorcet public institution.

The Cognitive Machine Learning team (CoML), located in the heart of Paris's Latin Quarter, was founded about ten years ago by Emmanuel Dupoux . Its mission is to model human learning abilities using artificial intelligence techniques. The team collaborates extensively with international academic and industrial partners, including META FAIR , Google Brain , and INRIA teams, as well as local partners such as the Center for Data Science and the Laboratoire de Sciences Cognitives et Psycholinguistique (LSCP) , a CNRS research unit. The team is hosted within the Department of Cognitive Studies (DEC) at the École Normale Supérieure (ENS).

The team is seeking a Research Engineer to work at the intersection of human intelligence and artificial intelligence as part of the ERC-funded InfantSimulator project.

InfantSimulator investigates the computational mechanisms enabling young children to learn their native language(s) much more efficiently and robustly than current AI systems. The successful candidate will be integrated into a multidisciplinary team comprising language scientists, developmental psychologists, and machine learning experts.

The successful candidate will join a multidisciplinary team of linguists, developmental psychologists, and machine learning researchers. The main responsibilities include:

• Analyzing and/or modifying state-of-the-art machine learning architectures developed by the team.
• Comparing these models with experimental and observational data collected from studies of young children.
• Collaborating closely with other engineers and PhD students to improve software efficiency by implementing software engineering best practices.
• Ensuring that software and algorithms developed by the scientific community are accessible to team members, either by integrating them into existing tools or by supporting PhD students in their use.
• Strong Proficiency in Python and bash; knowledge of C/C++ appreciated
• Proficiency in Data Science tools including NumPy, Pandas, Jupyter , and related libraries.
• Familiarity with best practices in software development (testing, documentation, continuous integration)
• Academic background in Machine Learning, Statistics, Linguistics, Cognitive Science , or a combination of these disciplines.
• Knowledge of signal processing and machine learning is an asset.

Additional Information

Work Location(s)

Number of offers available 1 Company/Institute EHESS - Cognitive Machine Learning Team (CoML) Country France State/Province Île-de-France City Paris Postal Code 75005 Street 29 Rue d'Ulm Geofield