PhD Candidate in Post-Training, Reasoning, and Multimodal Health AI at the Hasso-Plattner-Institute 2026

The Digital Engineering Faculty of the University of Potsdam and HPI offers a computer science engineering degree program that is unique in Germany. 

In the course of its strong growth, the Hasso Plattner Institute is looking for the earliest possible start date for a PhD Candidate (f/m/x) - Post-Training, Reasoning, and Multimodal Health AI.

Table of Content

• Summary
• Benefits
• Requirements
• Application Documents
• Application Deadline
• How To Apply

Summary

• Application DeadlineApril 30, 2026
• Study LevelPhD
• SponsorHasso-Plattner-Institute
• Eligible CountryAll Countries

Benefits

• A first-class, active and inspiring research environment at the intersection of efficient AI, privacy, and health
• The opportunity to produce research that truly has an impact — our group’s mission is to build AI that empowers patients
• Collaboration with leading international partners including Mount Sinai Health System (New York) and HPI’s Digital Health Cluster
• Regular team events and workshops 
• For problems of any kind (including those in your private life), you can use our external employee counseling service free of charge
• Attractive employee offers (corporate benefits)
• Company-subsidized public transportation ticket / "Deutschlandticket"
• Possibility to work remotely (up to 2 days a week)
• 30 days of vacation plus two additional days off on Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve
• Numerous sports facilities (tennis and basketball courts, beach volleyball court, calisthenics park, and participation in running events)
• Workplace on the HPI campus in Potsdam-Babelsberg (Griebnitzsee S-Bahn station), with fast transportation connections to Berlin

Requirements

• Master’s degree (or equivalent) in computer science, machine learning, mathematics, or a closely related field
• Strong background in at least one of: post-training methods (fine-tuning, RLHF, instruction tuning), multimodal learning, data attribution, or reasoning in language models
• Familiarity with differential privacy concepts or willingness to engage deeply with privacy-preserving machine learning
• Experience with medical or biomedical data (imaging, NLP on clinical text, genomics) is a strong plus
• Proficiency in Python and modern deep learning frameworks (PyTorch preferred)
• Strong publication record or demonstrated research potential (e.g. outstanding thesis)
• Fluent English; German is welcome but not required

Application Documents

• Motivation letter
• CV
• Relevant transcripts or degree certificates
• A sample of your scientific work (e.g. thesis, excerpt or publication)
• Reference letters (if available)
• Salary requirements

Check also:
2026 Fully Funded Humboldt Research Fellowship
2026 Konrad Adenauer Foundation Scholarship

Application Deadline

How To Apply

• For more information, kindly visit the HPI webpage.