Institution: Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland (FIMM), Helsinki Institute of Life Science (HiLIFE), University of Helsinki

• Position: Postdoctoral Researcher
• Field: Multimodal AI for Population Health
• Employment Type: Full-time
• Contract Duration: Initial 2-year appointment (with possible extension)
• Trial Period: 6 months
• Application Deadline: 16 August 2026 (23:59 Europe/Helsinki time)
• Working Unit: Helsinki Institute of Life Science (HiLIFE)
• Sub-unit: Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland (FIMM)
• Position ID: 5083

About the Position

The Machine Learning for Health team at the Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland (FIMM), University of Helsinki, is seeking a highly motivated Postdoctoral Researcher to join its research team.

Project Overview

Healthcare systems routinely collect vast amounts of heterogeneous data through interactions with individuals. The team's mission is to use machine learning and data science to develop better approaches for utilizing these data in healthcare planning, personalized medicine, and targeted recall studies.

In this position, you will join an expanding multidisciplinary team working alongside clinicians to solve challenging and impactful problems. You will work with multimodal nationwide Finnish health data from approximately 7 million individuals, including:

• Medication purchases.
• Laboratory measurements.
• Clinical notes.
• Medical imaging.

Your primary project will focus on developing and studying multimodal health trajectories at a nationwide scale to identify increasing disease risk as early as possible.

The available datasets, together with similar datasets from collaborators across the Nordic countries, the Baltics and Europe, also provide opportunities to pursue independent research. Additional research directions include:

• Privacy of AI models trained on health data.
• Cross-border training of AI models using international health datasets.

Key Responsibilities

• Design, implement and benchmark machine learning models for large-scale health datasets containing:Collaborate closely with research team members and national and international collaborators.
  • Structured medical history.
  • Demographic information.
  • Clinical notes.
  • Laboratory measurements.
  • Omics data.
  • Genetic data.
• Assist with experiment planning, data processing and interpretation of results.
• Contribute to:Participate in open science and code sharing initiatives.
  • Scientific publications.
  • Conference presentations.
  • Grant applications.
  • Supervision of Master's students and PhD researchers.

Skills, Expertise and Qualifications

Applicants should have:

• A PhD in Computational Biology, Machine Learning, Computer Science, Data Science, Bioinformatics or a related discipline.
• Demonstrated machine learning experience through high-quality scientific publications.
• Experience working with real-world health data is an advantage.
• Proficiency in Python.
• Experience working in Linux-based HPC environments or cloud computing platforms.
• Proven experience with deep learning frameworks such as PyTorch.
• Familiarity with multimodal data fusion is highly desirable.
• Ability to work independently and collaboratively within interdisciplinary and international research teams.
• Willingness to supervise junior researchers and further develop supervision skills.
• Excellent written and spoken English.

Research Group

The Machine Learning for Health team applies artificial intelligence to derive meaningful insights from large-scale real-world health and biomedical datasets.

The team is led by Dr. Tuomo Hartonen.

The group maintains active collaborations with leading researchers across the European Union, the United Kingdom and the United States, offering opportunities for international research visits during employment.

The team collaborates closely with several research groups at FIMM and the ELLIS Institute Finland, and works with international datasets including:

• Finnish national health registries.
• French national health registries.
• FinnGen (Finland).
• UK Biobank (United Kingdom).
• All of Us (United States).

Contract and Salary

• Initial appointment of 2 years, with the possibility of extension.
• Six-month trial period.
• Starting salary of approximately €3,900–€4,100 per month, depending on qualifications and experience.
• Salary is based on the University of Helsinki salary system.

The University of Helsinki provides comprehensive employee benefits, including:

• Occupational health care.
• Access to high-quality sports facilities.
• Extensive professional development opportunities.
• Standard Finnish pension benefits.

How to Apply

Applications must be submitted through the University of Helsinki electronic recruitment system by 16 August 2026.

Current employees of the University of Helsinki should submit applications through SAP Fiori.

The application must include:

• A one-page motivation letter.
• A maximum two-page CV.
• A list of scientific publications.
• An official copy of the PhD degree certificate.
• Contact information for two references (name, relationship to the applicant, email address and telephone number) who have agreed to provide a written reference if requested.

References will only be contacted at a later stage of the recruitment process.

Applicants are asked to submit applications that reflect their own work and writing. Applications generated by AI do not meet the University's expectations.

For further information about the position, please contact:

Dr. Tuomo Hartonen
Email: tuomo.hartonen@helsinki.fi

About FIMM

The Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland (FIMM) is an international research institute specializing in human genomics and personalized medicine within the Helsinki Institute of Life Science (HiLIFE) at the University of Helsinki.

Located at the Academic Medical Center Helsinki on the Meilahti campus, FIMM collaborates closely with:

• Faculty of Medicine.
• Helsinki University Hospital.
• National Institute for Health and Welfare.

FIMM is also part of the Nordic EMBL Partnership for Molecular Medicine, comprising the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) and centres for molecular medicine in Norway, Sweden and Denmark, as well as the EU-LIFE Community.

Diversity and Inclusion

The University of Helsinki is committed to fostering a diverse, equitable and inclusive study and work environment.

Applications are encouraged from all qualified candidates regardless of background.

About the University of Helsinki

The University of Helsinki is one of the world's leading research universities, with more than 30,000 students and 8,000 employees.

The University promotes multidisciplinary research, international collaboration and innovation to address global challenges.

Its core values are:

• Truth.
• Bildung.
• Freedom.
• Inclusivity.

The University is committed to building a better and more sustainable future through research, education and societal impact.

Application Deadline

Applications close: 16 August 2026 (23:59 Europe/Helsinki time)