Position Title: Postdoctral Researcher (Adjunct Appointment)

Project title: AI Pathologist for Diverse Medical Diagnosis

Position Type: Adjunct Appointment- Contract duration 10 months(can be extended with a break between the two contracts)

Start Date: Ideally by Mid-March 2026

About Heriot-Watt University

Heriot-Watt University (HWU) has five campuses: three in the UK (Edinburgh, Scottish Borders and Orkney), one in Dubai and one in Malaysia. The University offers a highly distinctive range of degree programmes in the specialist areas of science, engineering, design, business, and languages.

With a history dating back to 1821, Heriot-Watt University has established a reputation for world-class teaching and practical, leading-edge research, which has made it one of the top UK universities for business and industry. We connect with industry at every level and develop programmes to match their needs – so employers get work-ready industry-fit graduates.

Heriot-Watt is also Scotland's most international university, boasting the largest international student cohort.

We have an established set of values that help us to nurture innovation and leadership and show our commitment to continuous improvement and development in all our activities.

About School of Engineering and Physical Sciences

The School of Engineering & Physical Sciences (EPS) is a community of over 340 staff and around 3,000 students across three campuses in Scotland, Dubai and Malaysia. The School is recognised as an international leader in education, research and the application of knowledge to benefit society globally. We are striving to establish ourselves as partners of choice for world leading institutions, consistently delivering an environmentally and financially sustainable growth by aligning to the opportunities and requirements of our modern times to address local and global needs.

Heriot Watt holds an Institutional Athena Swan Bronze Award, as does the School of Engineering and Physical Sciences, recognising excellence in championing employment of women in the field of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. We offer a range of family friendly, inclusive employment policies, flexible working arrangements, staff engagement forums, campus facilities and services to support staff from different backgrounds.

About our Team

Heriot-Watt University established a campus in Dubai International Academic City (DIAC) in 2005 and moved in 2020 to a state of the art, digitally enabled campus within Dubai Knowledge Park. The Dubai campus now has nearly 4500 students. The School of Engineering and Physical Sciences (EPS) in Heriot-Watt University Dubai offers a range of undergraduate and postgraduate degree programmes in Automotive, Chemical, Mechanical, Energy, Renewable Energy, Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Robotics, Autonomous and Interactive Systems, and Global Sustainability Engineering. 

Project Overview

The AI Pathologist project is an interdisciplinary initiative aimed at developing an advanced AI-driven diagnostic system using 3D medical imaging modalities (CT, MRI, PET) and explainable AI (XAI) techniques to support medical professionals in improving diagnostic accuracy, reducing workload, and enhancing patient outcomes. The Postdoc Researcher will play a key role in implementing system prototypes, managing data pipelines, and supporting the development and validation of AI models in collaboration with clinicians and engineers.

Key Responsibilities

1. AI Model Development & Testing

• Assist in developing machine learning and deep learning models for medical imaging analysis.
• Implement and fine-tune models using PyTorch, TensorFlow, or related frameworks.
• Run experiments, perform hyperparameter tuning, and maintain organized experiment logs.

2. Medical Imaging Data Management

• Support data preprocessing, annotation preparation, and dataset organization.
• Handle CT, MRI, PET, and histopathology images, ensuring proper anonymization and compliance with ethical guidelines.
• Collaborate with clinicians to understand imaging structures and diagnostic targets.

3. Explainable AI Implementation

• Integrate XAI methods (e.g., Grad-CAM, Guided Backprop, SHAP) into the system.
• Generate and interpret visual explanations for model outputs.

4. System Prototyping & Software Development

• Contribute to the development of the AI Pathologist prototype, including UI/UX, backend integration, and workflow automation.
• Support deployment of models using Docker, APIs, or cloud environments.

5. Documentation & Reporting

• Prepare technical documentation, coding standards, and user guides.
• Assist in preparing project reports, research papers, and meeting presentations.

6. Collaboration

• Work closely with radiologists, pathologists, and clinicians to understand requirements and validate outputs.
• Attend project meetings and provide weekly progress updates.

Minimum Requirements (Essential)

Education

• PhD in Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, Data Science, Computer Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, or a related field.

Technical Skills

• Experience with Python and machine learning libraries (PyTorch, TensorFlow, scikit-learn).
• Understanding of deep learning, CNNs, Capsule Networks, and image processing fundamentals.
• Basic knowledge of handling medical images (e.g., DICOM).
• Familiarity with version control (Git/GitHub).

Soft Skills

• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Good communication and teamwork ability.
• Ability to document work clearly and follow research procedures.

Preferred Requirements (Highly Desirable)

Technical Skills

• Experience with:
  • 3D imaging models (3D CNNs, UNet variants, VNet)
  • Explainable AI tools (Grad-CAM, LIME, SHAP)
  • Medical imaging workflows, PACS systems
  • Docker, APIs, and model deployment
  • Cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP)
• Experience working on healthcare-related AI projects.

Clinical Collaboration

• Previous collaboration with hospitals or medical researchers.
• Understanding of radiology/pathology imaging interpretation.

Other Advantages

• Publications or strong project portfolio in computer vision/medical AI.
• Experience with data annotation tools.
• Knowledge of cybersecurity and data governance in healthcare.

About the University

With a history dating back to 1821, Heriot-Watt University has established a reputation for world-class teaching and professionally relevant, leading-edge research and enterprise, which has made it one of the top UK universities for business and industry.

We are a vibrant, forward-looking university, well known for the quality of our degrees, with employers actively seeking out our graduates. Heriot-Watt is also Scotland’s international university with an unsurpassed international in-country presence. We deliver degree programmes to circa 30,000 students in 143 countries worldwide, have a further overseas campus in Dubai and boast the most significant international student cohort in Scotland.

At Heriot-Watt we’ve created an environment that nurtures innovation and leadership - where our researchers, teachers, staff and students can realise their potential and develop their ambitions.

We are proud of our collegiate atmosphere and integrated teaching and research approach which has helped to build a community of committed academics and highly motivated students.  Our focus on careers delivers results and we’ve an excellent reputation for graduate employability.

In addition to the Edinburgh campus, we currently have campuses in the Scottish Borders, Orkney, Dubai, and Malaysia.  For all our campuses we aim to provide stimulating, supportive environments conducive to effective learning and research, where staff and students can excel. At Heriot-Watt, we have an established set of values that help us to nurture innovation and leadership and show our commitment to continuous improvement and development in all our activities. Our values describe our deeply held beliefs and our community spirit. They characterise not only how we are as a higher education institution but also frame how we want to be. 

Our values are: 

• Belong
• Collaborate
• Inspire
• Celebrate

As a learning, living, and working institution, we use our values as the building blocks of how we go about doing our work and how we each conduct ourselves as members of Heriot-Watt University. They represent what binds us together as a university community and help us to become the best at what we do. For full details on our university, please view our website https://www.hw.ac.uk/about.htm

‘How to Apply’

Interested applicants must submit via the Heriot-Watt on-line recruitment system a Cover letter describing their interest and suitability for the post and an updated CV. 

At Heriot Watt we are passionate about our values and look to them to connect our people globally and to help us collaborate and celebrate our success through working together. Our research programmes can deliver real world impact which is achieved through the diversity of our international community and the recognition of creative talent that connects our global team. 

Our flourishing community will give you the freedom to challenge and to bring your enterprising mind and to help our partners with solutions that can be applied now and in the future. Join us and Heriot Watt will provide you with a platform to thrive and work in a way that also helps you live your life in balance with well-being and inclusiveness at the heart of our global community.

Heriot-Watt University Dubai is CAA Licensed; therefore, successful candidates will need to provide terminal degrees attested from a UAE institution accredited by CAA. Degrees which are not from a UAE Institution will need to have MoE equivalency. The successful candidate is responsible for getting their degree attestations done.