About NII

Academic Employment Opportunities at the NII, Research and Development Center for Large Language Models, Project Researcher (Specified fixed-term employment)

2024/09/27

1. Job title：

Project Researcher (Specified fixed-term employment)

*Note: Depending on achievements, the title of Project Professor, Project Associate Professor or Project Assistant Professor may be awarded additionally.

2. Number of recruits：

Around 5

3. Work location：

Research and Development Center for Large Language Models (LLMC) (in the Palace Side Building, 1-1-1 Hitotsubashi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo)
Direct connection from Takebashi Station of Tokyo Metro, 5 min. walk from Exit A9 of Jimbocho Station of Toei Subway and Tokyo Metro.　

4. Affiliation：

LLMC, National Institute of Informatics (NII)

5. Job description：

Since May 2023, the NII has launched the LLM-jp (LLM Research Group) (https://llm-jp.nii.ac.jp/), advancing the construction of open large language models (LLMs) strong in Japanese language and related research and development. In October 2023, it released 13 billion parameter LLMs, and work is currently underway on a 175 billion parameter LLM.

Building on such achievements, the NII has become the organization implementing the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology's project "Formation of a Research and Development Hub for Ensuring Transparency and Reliability of Generative AI Models."

Project researchers will conduct research or development on any of the 12 R&D topics listed as the LLMC's mission, as well as the "Research and Development on Multimodal LLMs" which will be a new topic from next fiscal year.

Applicants should check the R&D topics listed in the "Project Structure/Research Issues" section of our website (https://llmc.nii.ac.jp/en/overview/#Research-Issues), select one or more of the topics (1) to (12) they are interested in, and write the topic number(s) on their resumes (multiple selections allowed). If you wish to be engaged in "Research and Development on Multimodal LLMs," please clearly state that on your resume. Please note that after being hired, you may be asked to work on topics other than you select depending on the LLMC's R&D status).

6. Requirements：

For those who will be engaged in Research:

• Doctorate holders (or expected to obtain by the hiring date).
• Proficiency in at least one of the R&D topics in Section 5 and desirable to have knowledge in multiple topics.
• Communication and document creation abilities in both Japanese and English.

For those who will be engaged in Development:

• Holders of Doctoral or Master's degrees (or expected to obtain), or Bachelor's degree (or expected to graduate by the hiring date), or equivalent development work experience.
• Proficiency in at least one of the R&D topics in Section 5 and desirable to have knowledge in multiple topics.
• Communication and document creation abilities in both Japanese and English.

7. Period of employment：

From November 1, 2024, onwards to March 31, 2025.

*If outstanding performance is achieved, the contract will be actively renewed, and a salary increase will also be considered.
However, the maximum extension of the contract will be until March 31, 2029, and the contract will be renewed on an annual basis.

8. Workdays：

Five days a week, Monday through Friday

Days off: Saturdays, Sundays, public holidays, and year-end and New Year's holidays (December 29 - January 3).
Summer vacation: Any two consecutive days between August 12 and 18, excluding Saturdays and Sundays.
Remote work may be allowed depending on the situation.

9. Working hours：

Discretionary work system (considered as 7 hours and 45 minutes of work per day).

10. Leave of absence：

Conferred in accordance with regulations:

Annual paid leave
Vacation other than annual paid leave

11. Salary：

• Basic salary: From 520,000 JPY per month (calculated based on experience and expertise).
  [Model Cases (subject to change based on experience and abilities)]
  27 years old (Researcher level): Approx. 628,000 JPY per month.
  30 years old (Assistant Professor level): Approx. 706,000 JPY per month.
  40 years old (Associate Professor level): Approx. 960,000 JPY per month.
• Commuting allowance: Actual expense within a limit, if eligibility criteria are met.
• Payday: At month-end closing, generally on the 17th of the same month.

12. Insurance：

Employment and workers' compensation insurance covered by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Mutual Aid Association in accordance with laws and regulations.

13. Application document：

Send the following documents in PDF format electronically to llm-job-offer(at)nii.ac.jp (replace (at) with @), with the subject: "Application for NII LLMC Project Researcher."

• Resume in the format specified by ROIS (with photo and signature; include phone number and email address).
• List of R&D achievements (free format; classify by paper/presentation, with/without peer review; include development achievements; URL of homepage if available).
• Copies of up to 3 major academic papers.
• Summary of past R&D and future aspirations (about 1 page A4 paper).
• Contact information of one referee.

14. Selection procedure：

After document screening, applicants will be contacted for an interview date, if necessary. Interviews may be conducted online.
Please kindly note that any travel expenses for face-to-face interviews or data communication charges for online interviews incurred will not be reimbursed.

15. Notification of application results：

Applicants will be notified as soon as the decision is made.

16. Deadline of application：

Applications will be considered at any time. Recruitment will close once positions are filled.

17. Inquires and address to send applications：

For document submission & inquiries about job content:

LLMC Office, Attention: Kobayashi
E-mail: llm-job-offer (at) nii.ac.jp (replace (at) with @).

For inquiries about working conditions:

General Affairs Division, Personnel Team, Attention: Sato
TEL: (03)4212-2018
E-mail: jinji (at) nii.ac.jp (replace (at) with @).

18. Employer：

Inter-University Research Institute Corporation
Research Organization of Information and Systems
President Masaru Kitsuregawa

19. Miscellaneous：

Any questions shall be addressed to the email address mentioned in Section 17, with the subject: "Inquiry for NII LLMC Project Researcher Application".

Personal information submitted for this recruitment will be used only for selection purposes and will be destroyed responsibly after the selection process, except for those hired. Please note that personal information of the hired person will be used for recruitment procedures such as personnel affairs, labor, salary-related processing, and various procedures in the office.

NII actively promotes female researchers as a part of gender equality. In this recruitment, women will be actively hired if they are deemed equal in performance (research and development achievements, educational achievements, social contributions, etc.).