Job Title: Research Fellow
Post Status: Specific Purpose Contract – 13 months
Research Group/School/Dept: Learnovate Technology Centre, Trinity College Dublin, the University of Dublin
Location: Unit 28, TTEC, Grand Canal Quay, Dublin 2, D02 N638, Ireland
Job Category and Level: Appointment will be made on the IUA Post -doctoral Researcher Salary Scale (Research Fellow, Point 2: €69,163)
Hours of Work: 9am – 5pm, blended working

We’re looking for a talented, driven researcher with strong software development and architecting skills. The role will report to the project PI and work as part of a multidisciplinary team of edtech innovators, researchers, technologists and user experience experts.

The Research Fellow will design and implement a specific research programme/s in association with the Principal Investigator. Under the mentorship of the Principal Investigator, the Research Fellow’s work will be performed in accordance with the university’s research integrity policy and all other relevant policies. The Research Fellow will manage the responsibilities in terms of the research project as well as develop skills and competencies with respect to the role and their future career options. The training and development relevant to this position will be completed within the period of the contract.

This is a list of the tasks, duties and responsibilities for the role is not intended to be exclusive and may be adjusted dependent on the area of research.

• Conduct individual and/or collaborative research to the highest ethical standards in a variety of settings
• Engage in the dissemination of the results of the research in which you are engaged in to the relevant research stakeholders in the appropriate form
• Engage in the wider research and scholarly activities of your research group, centre or unit and contribute to its profile by participating in promotion activity
• Take responsibility for, manage and conduct administrative and management tasks associated with the research programme
• A commitment to ongoing research and publications
• Work closely with the Learnovate Technology Lead to develop and implement the AccuRxy technology
• Actively develop end user applications and backend technologies that have a real impact on future educational student learning outcomes
• Help to manage and maintain cloud-based infrastructure to support the development, testing and deployment of AccuRxy

This section sets out the knowledge, skills and attributes the post-holder will need for successful performance in the role. 

Qualifications

• PHD (or 4 years’ relevant research experience) and significant industrial experience

Knowledge & Experience (Essential & Desirable)

• Have experience building:

• web based tools using Javascript (REACT, Angular)  (essential)
• backend development and APIs using Javascript (Express.js, Nest.js, Loopback) or similar backend technologies  (essential)
• relational and NoSQL databases using MySQL, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, etc.  (essential)

• Experience of working in an agile environment and adapting to change (desirable)

Skills & Competencies

• Demonstrable experience working across frontend, backend and infrastructure management (dev/ops)
• Demonstrate a desire to work in a startup type environment with a broad scope of ownership and high degree of autonomy.
• Communicate effectively with diverse groups:  entrepreneurs, managers, potential users, scientists.
• ‘AI-Adjacent Engineering’
  • AI Orchestration & Integration
    • Model Implementation: Familiarity with integrating major LLM APIs (e.g., OpenAI, Anthropic, Google Gemini, or Hugging Face) into production environments.
    • LLM Frameworks: Experience with orchestration tools like LangChain, LlamaIndex, or Haystack to build complex AI workflows.
    • RAG Architecture: Understanding of Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG)—specifically, how to connect LLMs to external data sources to provide grounded, factual responses.
  • AI-Specific Engineering Patterns:
    • Prompt Engineering: Ability to design, test, and iterate on system prompts to ensure reliable, high-quality model outputs.
  • Data & Vector Management
    • Vector Databases: Familiarity with vector storage and search engines such as Pinecone, ChromaDB, etc..
    • Embeddings: A basic understanding of text embeddings and how they are used for semantic search and similarity matching.
  • Have familiarity with:Version control tools such as git and Gitlab, Github, etc.
  • Build automation / continuous integration tools such as Github Actions or Jenkins
  • Containerisation concepts and technologies such as Docker
  • Cloud computing environments such as AWS
  • API development and testing tools such as Postman, Insomnia, Swagger, etc. 
• Show an understanding of:
  • Service oriented architecture
  • RESTful APIs
  • Unit and functional testing
• Demonstrate a learning and growth-focused mindset and a strong desire to share your skills and learn from those around you
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills
• Strong written and verbal English proficiency

• The ability to generate new ideas and build on existing to generate unique concepts and solutions with
  integrity
• The ability to contribute to broader organisational and management processes
• The ability to manage self, time, resources and people
• The capacity to work independently on research projects as well as part of a team
• If you require a visa to work in Ireland this must already be in place

This role is based in Dublin, Ireland.