Doctoral Researcher in Privacy-Preserving Machine Learning for Personalised Medicine

The Trustworthy Machine Learning group is recruiting a PhD student funded by TeamPerMed Center for Data-Enriched Personalised Medicine. You will work with Professor Antti Honkela. You will develop privacy-preserving techniques for personalised medicine applications, covering both health record data and genetic data. The work will be based on differential privacy, that allows mathematically proving privacy preservation. The developed methods will be applied to real-world problems in collaboration with domain experts at the University of Tartu and the University of Helsinki.

A start date in early September 2026 is ideal but it is flexible. The application deadline is 14 June 2026 (at 23:59 UTC +3).

✅Requirements

• A master's degree in mathematics, statistics, computer science or a related topic
• Prior experience in machine learning and differential privacy is desirable
• Excellent English skills

In addition, according to the system of the University of Helsinki, all doctoral researchers belong to a doctoral programme. The successful candidate should apply to Doctoral Programme in Science and obtain the study right within the trial period of six months of their employment contract. Please check the admission periods and eligibility criteria athttps://www.helsinki.fi/en/admissions-and-education/apply-doctoral-programmes/how-apply-doctoral-programmes

🎁We offer

• The opportunity to do fundamental research
• A world class academic community that promotes diversity, international engagement and equality. We encourage all qualified applicants from diverse backgrounds to apply for our positions.
• 3-year full-time contract
• A starting salary of ca. 2800 euros/month. The salary will develop in accordance with the progress.
• Occupational health care and other social benefits
• Support for internationally recruited employees with their transition to work and live in Finland
• A chance to live in Helsinki and Finland renowned for their high-quality of life, services, and work-life balance

📨Application instructions

Applications shall be submitted through the University of Helsinki´s recruitment system and include the following documents

• CV
• Transcripts from previous degrees
• A motivation letter (max 2 pages)
• Contact information of two referees to provide reference letters upon request

External applicants, please submit your application via the Apply Now button.

Internal applicants, who have a helsinki.fi username and a valid employment/grant/visitor contract, please submit your application via the Employee login button.

Additional information For more information on the position, please contact Professor Antti Honkela (antti.honkela@helsinki.fi).

With technical questions related to the recruitment system, please contact recruitment@helsinki.fi.

*** The Department of Computer Science is a leading unit in Finland in its area and responsible for the teaching and research in computer science at the University of Helsinki. The main research fields at the department are artificial intelligence, big data frameworks, bioinformatics, data analysis, data science, discrete and machine learning algorithms, distributed, intelligent, and interactive systems, networks, security, and software and database systems. The department has extensive international collaboration with companies and universities. Within teaching, the departments professors and staff are in charge of the Bachelors, Masters, and Doctoral Programmes in Computer Science, as well as the separate Masters Programme in Data Science, in which other departments also participate.