Postdoctoral Scholar: Public Interest AI Audits

Updated: 17 July 2026

The University of Pennsylvania invites applications for a 2-year Postdoctoral Research Scholar position in the School of Engineering’s Computer and Information Science Department, to start in Fall 2026/Winter 2026-27. The postdoctoral fellow will work on a Ford Foundation-funded project focused on public interest audits of AI. Audited systems could include automated decision systems, online platforms, generative AI systems, and others. Current core areas for the lab include dynamic and surveillance pricing systems; generative AI political and creative speech; ads and product recommendations from generative AI systems; and longitudinal audits in the context of elections, discrimination, and other socially and politically salient areas.

The candidate will be expected to engage with all aspects of the research, with activities including: (1) problem identification and experimental design, (2) developing and deploying computational infrastructure (scrapers and AI agents) for data collection, (3) managing potential large-scale data collection from human subjects, (4) conducting statistical analyses of results, (5) creation of public-facing websites and web apps to publicize findings, and (6) explication and argumentation of research outcomes.

The ideal candidate will have prior experience in each of these areas, and in particular will have previously conducted audits of AI systems and communicated findings in academic publications. This experience could include techniques like sock puppet audits, web scraping, user-facing mobile or web tool development, and statistical analysis.

The postdoctoral scholar will work under the joint supervision of Dr. Danaé Metaxa (UPenn) and Dr. Sorelle Friedler (Haverford College), and may collaborate with and mentor graduate and undergraduate students as part of the project. The scholar may also be responsible for coordinating with collaborators outside of academia, such as those from civil rights organizations and advocacy groups. Candidates must have excellent interpersonal, writing, and research skills, strong time management and organizational skills, the ability to prioritize and meet deadlines and work both independently and as an active team member.
This is an in-person and potentially hybrid role. The postdoctoral scholar will be expected to be present in lab and attend in-person meetings in Philadelphia one to three days per week. Philadelphia is a vibrant and affordable city and also easily reached by train from other Northeast cities like New York and Washington, DC.

We seek an applicant that fits the description above for immediate consideration (while following university hiring rules and procedures). Interested candidates should contact Danaé Metaxa <metaxa@seas.upenn.edu> and Sorelle Friedler <sorelle@cs.haverford.edu> directly with the subject line “Postdoc Applicant”. Please include a CV and cover letter that describes the candidate’s expertise in each of the six research activities described above and indicates a preferred (approximate) start date. (AI-written queries will not be reviewed.)