Bruno Kessler Foundation (FBK) is a private research institution devoted to excellence in research in numerous disciplines and designated to the role of keeping the Autonomous Province of Trento in the mainstream of European and international research. Each research area is assigned to a specific research centre, of which there are eleven totals. Information regarding the research centres, their activities and production is available at http://www.fbk.eu/research-centers.
The Digital Industry Center is one of the Centers of FBK. It focuses its research on digital technologies for the various domains in industry (e.g., manufacturing, aerospace, railway, automotive, energy, agriculture, manufacturing) by creating applications for critical systems, adaptive and autonomous systems, advanced perception, diagnostics, quality control, and prediction systems. Further research areas include translation, precision farming, robotics, metrology, cultural heritage, and geomatics.
The Machine Translation (MT) unit pursues research in the field of automatic translation, both from text and speech, to enable multilingual communication across modalities. Its core activities include the creation of advanced models and their adaptation to diverse contexts, domains, and applications (e.g. simultaneous speech translation and subtitling), leveraging the latest technology, including LLMs and foundation models. The unit also conducts fundamental and applied research that focuses on the ethical and societal impact of translation technology, with a long history in the design of evaluation methods, resources and studies that include human participants (e.g. gender inclusive and human-centered AI).
Job Description
The purpose of FBK’s Tenure Track program is to offer high-level professionals the opportunity to pursue a structured career path to become tenured researchers contributing to the organization's long-term strategy. Within this framework, FBK is looking to cover two positions with dynamic, highly motivated, independent researchers; the candidates will work within the MT research unit of DICenter, reporting directly to the head of the research unit. These positions provide the opportunity to contribute to the design and development of innovative methods for building and evaluating multimodal translation solutions that not only achieve state-of-the-art performance with robust architectures, but also meet key requirements of trustworthiness, safety, and ethical responsibility.
The candidates will conduct high-quality research activities in accordance with the objectives of the research unit and participate in and guide the writing of scientific papers. The two positions represent distinct but complementary profiles.
Profile A – Modeling and Algorithms. The successful candidate is expected to research, design and develop advanced models for multimodal translation, with a focus on novel architectures, learning paradigms, integration of speech and text modalities, and optimization for computational efficiency. The candidate will also contribute to the evaluation, fine-tuning, and integration of translation solutions in real-world use cases.
Profile B – Human-Centered and Responsible AI. The successful candidate is expected to conduct research on human-centered AI, including the design and creation of datasets, techniques, and interdisciplinary frameworks for the assessment of reliable, safe, and inclusive translation systems. The candidate will also evaluate translation quality, robustness, and efficiency, ensure trustworthiness, ethical compliance, and inclusivity in real-world use cases.
The candidates will work closely with other members of the MT unit and partners involved in MT research and industrial projects. The candidates are also expected to contribute to proposals for funded activities, including reporting and dissemination of results (both in academic and popular venues).
FBK actively seeks diversity and inclusion in the workplace and is also committed to promoting gender equality.
Position A
Job requirements
- PhD Degree in areas related to Computer Science;
- Minimum of two years of postdoctoral experience;
- Solid background in automatic (text and speech) translation;
- Excellent programming skills;
- Expertise in working in large-scale projects and distributed environments;
- Ability in designing efficient deep learning architectures featuring low computational demand;
- Ability to develop and manage a research agenda, including contributing to research proposals and mentoring students or junior researchers;
- Strong publication record (major conferences and top-ranked journals) in one or more of the following fields: machine translation, speech translation, computational linguistics;
- Good knowledge and proficiency in the English language.
Additional requirements:
- Teamwork approach, good communication, and relational skills;
- Good self-organization and autonomous operation;
- Capability to work in a project-oriented manner, with a strong commitment to achieve the assigned objectives;
- Experience in the preparation and management of research and industrial project proposals;
- Experience in working on research and industrial projects with national and international partners.
- Dissemination of research outcomes to scientific audiences.
Position B
Job requirements
- PhD Degree in areas related to Linguistics or Computational Linguistics;
- Minimum of two years of postdoctoral experience;
- Solid background in automatic (text and speech) translation and its evaluation;
- Expertise in social and ethical impact of language technologies and human-centered frameworks;
- Experience in creating and managing multilingual datasets as well as conducting large scale automatic and human evaluations;
- Capacity to conduct interdisciplinary research and experience in initiating, leading, and sustaining interdisciplinary and international research collaborations;
- Ability to develop and manage a research agenda, including contributing to research proposals and mentoring students or junior researchers;
- Strong publication record (major conferences and top-ranked journals) in one or more of the following fields: computational linguistics, machine translation, speech translation, fairness and bias in AI;
- Good knowledge and proficiency in the English language.
Additional requirements:
- Expertise in computational text and speech analysis;
- Teamwork approach, good communication, and relational skills;
- Good self-organization and autonomous operation;
- Capability to work in a project-oriented manner, with a strong commitment to achieve the assigned objectives;
- Experience in the preparation and management of research and industrial project proposals;
- Experience in working on research and industrial projects with national and international partners;
- Dissemination of research outcomes to broader audiences.
Employment
Type of contract: Tenure Track position leading to an FBK 3rd Level Researcher (R3) permanent contract.
Duration: The duration of the Tenure Track contract will be determined by the Committee based on the assigned KPIs (at least one year, which may be reduced in accordance with the Committee assessment on the candidate's abilities and skills). If the final assessment of the Tenure Track experience is positive, the selected candidate for the tenure track position will be offered a permanent R3 contract.
Working hours: full time (38 h per week).
Gross annual salary: 44.000 € (plus objectives achievement bonus).
Start date: January 2026
Workplace: Povo, Trento (Italy).
Benefits: flexi-time, company subsidised cafeteria or meal vouchers, internal car park, welcome office support for visa formalities, accommodation, supplementary pension and health found, training courses, public transport, sports facilities, language courses fees. Further details at https://www.fbk.eu/en/work-with-us/.
The Bruno Kessler Foundation invests in people’s growth and promotes a stimulating environment that values talent. Through the Talent Development Program, each participant will be engaged in a tailored experiential journey designed to enhance skills, attitudes, and aspirations. Concrete tools for professional growth will be available, including personalized assessments to understand and develop individual potential, structured career paths to help shape the future, and development strategies within a dynamic and innovative scientific environment.
Application
Interested candidates are requested to submit their application by completing the online form (https://jobs.fbk.eu/). Please make sure that your application contains the following attachments (in pdf format):
- Detailed CV;
- Motivational letter
- Statement of Research Interests
Application deadline: 21st of October 2025
Please read our Regulations “Guidelines for Tenure Track positions” before completing your application.
For further information or technical issues regarding the application, please contact the Human Resources Service at tenuretrack@fbk.eu.