As part of the SNSF-funded project “Responsible AI for the Swiss Judiciary”, we work on real-world applications of artificial intelligence for the Swiss judiciary in close collaboration with courts and partners across Switzerland. We are looking for a PhD Student in Applied ML and NLP. This doctoral position is part of the SNSF-funded project “Responsible AI for the Swiss Judiciary” at ETH Zurich. The project develops and evaluates AI-based prototypes to support judicial decision-making, with a focus on real-world applicability. It combines machine learning, legal applications, and empirical evaluation in collaboration with judicial partners. The project offers a unique opportunity to work on real-world, high-stakes AI systems in collaboration with courts, combining cutting-edge AI research with impactful societal applications.

Job description

The doctoral researcher will focus on the development and evaluation of AI-based research prototypes for legal applications, with a strong emphasis on technical implementation and real-world deployment.

Core responsibilities include:

Developing and implementing AI systems for legal text processing and decision support (e.g., LLMs, retrieval-augmented generation, agentic systems)
Building production-quality prototypes suitable for pilot deployment in judicial settings, including robust retrieval systems, LLM pipelines, and evaluation infrastructure
Designing and running systematic evaluations of model performance, robustness, and reliability
Building datasets, benchmarks, and pipelines for legal AI applications
Improving model architectures, prompting strategies, and retrieval systems for high-stakes environments
Conducting pilot evaluations with judicial partners to study how AI tools perform in real decision-making workflows, and translating findings into technical improvements (e.g., new embedding methods, agent architectures, prompting strategies)
Publishing research results in leading venues in artificial intelligence and computational social science
The position is designed for a cumulative PhD with a strong methodological and technical focus
Our offices are located in downtown Zurich, and the working languages are German and English

Profile

We are looking for candidates who combine strong ML/NLP fundamentals with hands-on engineering skills; someone who understands how models work under the hood and can also build reliable, deployable systems. You:

Must hold a master’s degree in computer science, data science, or a closely related field
Have strong analytical and problem-solving skills
Are able to work independently and take ownership of technical components
Are interested in applying AI methods to real-world, high-stakes domains
Are motivated to work with legal stakeholders from the Swiss judiciary
Have experience with large language models, information retrieval, evaluation of ML systems, and deploying applications; this is highly desirable
Have an excellent command of English; German language skills are a plus

Workplace

We offer

Your job with impact: Become part of ETH Zurich, which not only supports your professional development, but also actively contributes to positive change in society
You can expect numerous benefits, such as public transport season tickets and car sharing, a wide range of sports offered by the ASVZ, childcare and attractive pension benefits

We value diversity and sustainability

In line with our values, ETH Zurich encourages an inclusive culture. We promote equality of opportunity, value diversity and nurture a working and learning environment in which the rights and dignity of all our staff and students are respected. Visit our Equal Opportunities and Diversity website to find out how we ensure a fair and open environment that allows everyone to grow and flourish. Sustainability is a core value for us – we are consistently working towards a climate-neutral future.

Curious? So are we.

We look forward to receiving your online application with the following documents:

a cover letter (detailing your relevant experience for the project mentioned as well as motivation)
CV
transcripts

Further information about the Center for Law & Economics can be found on our Website. Questions regarding the position should be directed to Dr. Jakob Merane ([email protected]) (no applications).

Please note that we exclusively accept applications submitted through our online application portal. Applications via email or postal services will not be considered.

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