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We offer a fantastic range of benefits including a highly competitive annual leave entitlement (with the ability to purchase more), a generous pensions scheme, flexible working opportunities, a commitment to your development and wellbeing, a wide range of retail discounts, and much more.

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Overview

As a Lecturer in Computational Social Media Analysis and Natural Language Processing (NLP), you will conduct high-standard research, secure funding, publish in leading journals and conferences, supervise students, and manage research projects. Your work will enhance our multidisciplinary research portfolio in the School of Computer Science.

You will join the NLP Research Group, led by Professor Nikos Aletras, which collaborates with others in the University, such as the Information School, in areas like data journalism, digital humanities and biomedical applications.

We seek a new Lecturer to advance our computational social media analysis and NLP  research agenda and enhance our reputation nationally and internationally. You will also maintain high-quality teaching by designing and delivering undergraduate and postgraduate courses in NLP and related computer science topics.

Main duties and responsibilities

• Conduct innovative research and scholarship that is recognised nationally/internationally in terms of its originality, significance and rigour.
• Develop funding strategies, pursue income generation and manage a portfolio of external research grants.
• Disseminate research findings through conference presentations and publications in recognised high-quality journals.
• Ensure research impact through activities that demonstrate an effect on, change or benefit to the economy, society, culture, public policy or services, health, the environment, or quality of life beyond academia. Activity that supports this includes undertaking meaningful public engagement activity, patent applications, consultancy contracts for institutional benefit, two-way engagement with policy makers in their own research area etc.
• Lead, manage, supervise and develop a team of research staff and research students, within a supportive culture.
• Develop and deliver high-quality teaching as required.
• Contribute to the development of teaching policy and strategy as well as contributing to curriculum development.
• Supervise undergraduate and postgraduate projects.
• Carry out school administrative roles as required and meet the required objectives.
• Participate in and develop links with external contacts (within academia, professions or with industry) to foster collaboration.
• Maintain substantial international recognition through an extensive range of professional activities, such as reviewing papers, editing journals, reviewing research grants, external examining, organising conferences, committee membership and involvement with professional bodies.
• Make a full and active contribution to the principles of the “Sheffield Academic”. These include the achievement of excellence in applied teaching and research, and scholarly pursuits to make a genuine difference in the subject area and to the University’s achievements as a whole.
• Make ethical decisions in your role, embedding the University sustainability strategy into your working activities wherever possible.
• Carry out other duties commensurate with the grade and remit of the post.

Essential criteria

• PhD in Computer Science or related field (or equivalent). (assessed at: application)
• Ability to design and deliver high-quality, research-led, teaching programmes to ensure effective learning.  (assessed at: application/presentation/interview)
• A track record of undertaking a programme of high-quality research in computational social media analysis and natural language processing, with a clear vision for future research direction and the ability to generate research income.  (assessed at: application/presentation/interview)
• Proven track record of high-quality research outputs  in relevant conferences and journals in computational social science and NLP, e.g. ICWSM, WWW, *ACL, EMNLP, Nature Human Behaviour, Social Media and Society, TACL, CL.  (assessed at: application)
• Ability to work both collaboratively and independently with a high degree of personal effectiveness.  (assessed at: application/interview)
• Consistently make creative and accountable decisions.  (assessed at: interview)
• Ability to foster effective relationships both within and outside the University (e.g. with industry partners).   (assessed at: application/presentation/interview)
• Effective communication skills, both written and verbal and ability to explain complex ideas to a variety of audiences.  (assessed at: application/presentation)

Desirable criteria

• A track record of research income generation, in line with disciplinary norms.   (assessed at: application/presentation/interview)
• Evidence of research impact through activities that demonstrate an effect beyond academia, for example, via public engagement activities, patent applications, consultancy, etc.   (assessed at: application/presentation/interview)
• Ability to bring about positive change by constructively challenging established practice, structure and process.  (assessed at: application/presentation/interview)

Further Information

Grade: 8

Line manager: Head of School

Direct reports: None.

Our website: https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/cs

For informal enquiries about this job contact Prof Nikos Aletras, Head of the Natural Language Processing research group, at N.Aletras@sheffield.ac.uk or on +44 114-222 1911.

Next steps in the recruitment process

It is anticipated that the selection process will take place on 7th March 2025. This will consist of a presentation.  Successful candidates will then be invited to attend an interview on 25th March 2025. Contact com-recruiters@sheffield.ac.uk if you require any reasonable adjustments.

Our vision and strategic plan

We are the University of Sheffield. This is our vision: sheffield.ac.uk/vision (opens in new window).
 

What we offer

• A minimum of 41 days annual leave including bank holiday and closure days (pro rata) with the ability to purchase more.
• Flexible working opportunities, including hybrid working for some roles.
• Generous pension scheme.
• A wide range of discounts and rewards on shopping, eating out and travel.
• A variety of staff networks, providing opportunities for social interaction, peer support and personal development (for example, Race Equality, LGBT+, Women’s and Parent’s networks).
• Recognition Awards to reward staff who go above and beyond in their role.
• A commitment to your development access to learning and mentoring schemes; integrated with our Academic Career Pathways
• A range of generous family-friendly policies
  • paid time off for parenting and caring emergencies
  • support for those going through the menopause
  • paid time off and support for fertility treatment
  • and more

More details can be found on our benefits page: sheffield.ac.uk/jobs/benefits (opens in a new window).

We are a Disability Confident Employer. If you have a disability and meet the essential criteria for this job you will be invited to take part in the next stage of the selection process.

We are a research university with a global reputation for excellence. Our ideas and expertise change the world for the better, making a real difference to society.
We know that when people come together with different views, approaches and insights it can lead to richer, more creative and innovative teaching and research and the highest levels of student experience. Our University Vision (www.sheffield.ac.uk/vision) outlines our commitment to building a diverse community of staff and students that recognizes and values the abilities, backgrounds, beliefs and ways of living for everyone.