Open Postdoctoral position, faculty mentor Robb Willer

Important Info

Faculty Sponsor First name:

Robb

Faculty Sponsor Last Name:

Willer

Stanford Departments and Centers:

Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (HAI)

Postdoc Appointment Term:

This is a full-time position based at Stanford University. The initial appointment runs for one year from the position start date. The position is intended to continue for a second year; any reappointment is contingent on satisfactory progress, program need, continued funding, and Stanford University approval. The appointment includes eligible medical, dental, vision, and life-insurance coverage through Stanford's benefits provisions for postdoctoral scholars. The final appointment and characterization of support will be issued through Stanford's Office of Postdoctoral Affairs.

Appointment Start Date:

Flexible, but no later than Fall 2027.

Group or Departmental Website:

https://ai4pb.stanford.edu/

https://www.pascl.stanford.edu/

How to Submit Application Materials:

Please submit your application using this link.

Does this position pay above the required minimum?:

Yes. The expected base pay range for this position is listed in Pay Range field. The pay offered to the selected candidate will be determined based on factors including (but not limited to) the qualifications of the selected candidate, budget availability, and internal equity.

Pay Range:

$80,000 - $90,000

About the opportunity

Stanford University's Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (HAI), in partnership with the AI for Public Benefit Lab (AI4PB), invites applications for a full-time postdoctoral fellow under the mentorship of Professor Robb Willer (Stanford Sociology, Psychology, and Organizational Behavior). The fellow will be the inaugural dedicated postdoctoral scholar in AI4PB and will play a formative role in a growing interdisciplinary research program, with substantial leeway to lead multiple projects. The position also includes a secondary home in the Politics and Social Change Lab (PASCL). Many aspects of the position are flexible, including start date and research focus.

Research program

Generative AI is transforming many aspects of society. It creates new opportunities for positive social change, along with many threats and challenges. AI4PB studies, designs, and evaluates AI with the goal of improving human welfare, especially for those in need, while also identifying and evaluating ways to address important threats to well-being. Our approach is flexible and pragmatic: we identify and invest in potentially beneficial, tractable research projects with a discernible path to impact.

The fellow will lead research on applications of AI for public benefit. Projects may fall within one or more of the lab's core research areas: building scientific knowledge, safety and alignment, social service delivery, democracy, emotional well-being, and persuasion. There will be substantial room for the fellow to pursue independent work at the intersection of AI and public benefit.

Recent work includes our paper in Nature showing that large language models can predict the results of social science experiments, and research on AI persuasion featured in Science. Prospective applicants can review our recent papers at ai4pb.stanford.edu/papers for a fuller sense of the lab's projects and interests.

We welcome applicants from psychology, computer science, political science, sociology, economics, human-computer interaction, data science, cognitive science, and related fields.

Key responsibilities

Research leadership. Lead research at the intersection of AI and the social and behavioral sciences, co-designing and co-leading projects from study conception through dissemination.
Technical development. Advance methods such as retrieval-augmented generation, source-grounding, and evaluation infrastructure in collaboration with technical team members and external partners.
Evaluation. Develop rigorous approaches to assessing the impact of AI on people and communities, including accuracy, reliability, neutrality, trustworthiness, and other dimensions of responsible AI performance.
Experimental research. Design and execute large-scale field and survey experiments.
Analysis and publication. Analyze complex data and lead manuscripts for leading peer-reviewed journals and conferences in human-centered AI and the social sciences.
Collaboration and translation. Work effectively with multidisciplinary researchers and civic partners, and communicate findings to academic, practitioner, and policy audiences.
Program development. Contribute to new research projects and grant proposals while pursuing complementary independent work at the intersection of AI and public benefit.

Mentorship, community, and professional development

The fellow will receive close mentorship from Professor Willer spanning research design, publication strategy, project leadership, and preparation for the academic or applied job market. Mentorship will be tailored to the fellow's research and professional goals. The fellow will complete an Individual Development Plan during the first month and meet regularly with the faculty mentor to review research progress and career development.

The fellow will participate in HAI, AI4PB, and PASCL seminars, workshops, conferences, and lab training, and will collaborate with PhD students, postdoctoral scholars, faculty, research staff, and external partners. The lab draws on a network of affiliated faculty and past and present collaborators from Stanford, Harvard, MIT, Cornell, Carnegie Mellon, and beyond, and we are eager to facilitate projects across this network. Stanford collaborators include HAI, the Stanford Technology, Impact, and Policy Center, and the Institute for Research in the Social Sciences; external partners include Ipsos. Stanford computational infrastructure will support the work.

Our lab is a supportive and diverse community of scholars. We encourage a culture of rigor, discovery, fun, and solidarity, and we aspire to do work that has meaningful social impact.

The fellow will also prepare brief quarterly fellowship reports describing research, writing, and presentation activities and will engage with relevant HAI programming throughout the appointment.

Appointment and review

This is a full-time postdoctoral fellowship with a competitive salary and benefits package. The start date is flexible, as early as January 2027 and no later than September 2027. Applications received by October 31, 2026 will receive full consideration. We will continue reviewing applications on a rolling basis until the position is filled, so later applications are welcome.

Questions may be directed to Izzy Gainsburg (ibg@stanford.edu).

Required Qualifications:

PhD completed by the appointment start date in computer science, data science, human-computer interaction, psychology, sociology, political science, communication, economics, or a related field.
A record of rigorous, creative research and the ability to lead projects from design through analysis and publication.
Strong quantitative or computational research skills relevant to field experiments, survey experiments, causal inference, text analysis, machine learning, or related methods.
Excellent written and oral communication skills, including interest in communicating research to non-academic audiences.
Demonstrated ability to work collaboratively across disciplines and organizations while exercising intellectual and practical autonomy.
Strong organizational and interpersonal skills and the ability to prioritize effectively in a fast-moving research environment.

Preferred Qualifications:

Experience with large language models, natural language processing, transformer-based models, retrieval-augmented generation, or LLM application programming interfaces.
Proficiency in Python or comparable programming experience for implementing computational studies and working with large, complex datasets.
Experience evaluating political bias, fairness, neutrality, trustworthiness, safety, or source fidelity in AI systems.
Experience conducting large-scale online or field experiments, working with administrative or voter-file data, or collaborating on public-facing civic technology.
A strong publication record and demonstrated interest in the societal impacts of AI.

Required Application Materials:

Curriculum vitae.
A statement of interest of no more than 1.5 pages describing relevant research, methodological and technical experience, fit with the project, and professional goals.
Two or three published or unpublished research papers or other writing samples.
Names and contact information for three references. Letters may be requested separately during the review process.