Director and Chief Scientific Officer

The Johns Hopkins University [JHU] Human Language Technology Center of Excellence [HLTCOE] is a world-class research organization that addresses a unique set of exciting challenge problems to advance the state of the art in human language technologies.

The JHU HLTCOE seeks a highly respected, peer-recognized, leading researcher to serve as its Director and Chief Scientific Officer. Reporting to the School of Engineering's vice dean for research, the director is charged with leading the research activities of the HLTCOE to ensure it both maintains its leadership position and aligns with the needs of its government sponsor. This includes working collaboratively with HLTCOE researchers to extend their significant record of technical accomplishments, setting strategic directions, and identifying, recruiting, and mentoring new research staff.

HLTCOE researchers develop advanced algorithms for analyzing speech, text, and multimodal data in multiple languages, extracting useful information from massive amounts of text and speech over a wide range of languages and genres, striving to advance the state of the art in HLT in speech and text. Current problems focus on improvements in speech-to-text, automatic speaker and language identification, machine translation, multilingual and multimodal information retrieval and retrieval-augmented generation, entity extraction, and related topics.

Established in 2007, the HLTCOE is an integral component of JHU's wide-ranging research leadership in Data Science and Artificial Intelligence [DSAI]. Notably, the HLTCOE collaborates closely with the JHU Center for Language and Speech Processing, and is connected to the larger DSAI community including the Center for Imaging Science, the Mathematical Institute for Data Science, and the Laboratory for Computational Sensing and Robotics, to name but a few.

Qualifications

• Extensive experience in a related and relevant role
• Doctorate in an HLT-related field
• Proven leadership directing applied and theoretical efforts and managing research organizations
• Excellent communication skills for broad-ranging audiences
• Strong networking skills
• Ability to recognize, recruit, and mentor high quality researchers and staff
• Ability to instill and maintain a highly collaborative work environment that values employees
• Experienced in building consensus through engagement
• Has a current or recent TS/SCI clearance with full-scope polygraph (will consider candidates with a current or recent TS clearance)

Application Instructions

We are open to applicants from a variety of career trajectories including government, industry, and academia. Depending on their background, applicants may be appointed either in our Research Scientist track or as a professor in a relevant department.

Applications should be submitted to INTERFOLIO.For full consideration, applicants should submit their curriculum vitae and a cover letter that discusses background, qualifications, and interest in the position by June 30, 2026.

To ask general questions, request a preliminary discussion, or to nominate candidates, please contact Ed Scheinerman, interim director: View email address on click.appcast.io

This is a full-time position located in Baltimore, Maryland. Starting date to be negotiated on availability. Johns Hopkins is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer.

Salary Range

The referenced salary range represents the minimum and maximum salaries for this position and is based on Johns Hopkins University's good faith belief at the time of posting. Not all candidates will be eligible for the upper end of the salary range. The actual compensation offered to the selected candidate may vary and will ultimately depend on multiple factors, which may include the successful candidate's geographic location, skills, work experience, internal equity, market conditions, education/training and other factors, as reasonably determined by the University.

Total Rewards

Johns Hopkins offers a total rewards package that supports our employees' health, life, career and retirement. More information can be found here:

Equal Opportunity Employer

The Johns Hopkins University is committed to equal opportunity for its faculty, staff, and students. To that end, the university does not discriminate on the basis of sex, gender, marital status, pregnancy, race, color, ethnicity, national origin, age, disability, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, veteran status or other legally protected characteristics. The university is committed to providing qualified individuals access to all academic and employment programs, benefits and activities on the basis of demonstrated ability, performance and merit without regard to personal factors or demographic characteristics that are irrelevant to the program involved.

Pre-Employment Information

If you are interested in applying for employment with Johns Hopkins University and require special assistance or accommodation during any part of the pre-employment process, please contact the HR Business Services Office at View email address on click.appcast.io. For TTY users, call via Maryland Relay or dial 711. For more information about workplace accommodations at Johns Hopkins University for disabilities, medical conditions (including medical conditions related to pregnancy or childbirth), accessibility, or religious reasons, please visit accessibility.jhu.edu.

Background Checks

After receiving a conditional offer, the successful candidate(s) for this position will be subject to a pre-employment background check including education verification. When deciding whether a candidate's conviction history is job-disqualifying, the University considers the nature and gravity of the offense, the time that has passed since the conviction, and the nature of the job being sought.

EEO is the Law

Vaccine Requirements

Johns Hopkins University strongly encourages, but no longer requires, at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. This change does not apply to the School of Medicine (SOM). SOM hires must be fully vaccinated with an FDA COVID-19 vaccination and provide proof of vaccination status. We still require all faculty, staff, and students to receive the seasonal flu vaccine.

Exceptions to the seasonal flu vaccine or COVID-19 vaccine (for SOM) requirement(s) may be provided to individuals with sincerely held religious beliefs or medical conditions that preclude them from receiving the vaccine. Requests for an exception must be submitted to the JHU vaccination registry. For additional information, applicants for SOM positions should visit and all other JHU applicants should visit

The following additional vaccine requirements may apply, depending upon your campus. Please contact the hiring department for more information.

The pre-employment physical for positions in clinical areas, laboratories, working with research subjects, or involving community contact requires documentation of immune status against Rubella (German measles), Rubeola (Measles), Mumps, Varicella (chickenpox), Hepatitis B and documentation of having received the Tdap (Tetanus, diphtheria, pertussis) vaccination. This may include documentation of having two (2) MMR vaccines; two (2) Varicella vaccines; or antibody status to these diseases from laboratory testing. Blood tests for immunities to these diseases are ordinarily included in the pre-employment physical exam except for those candidates who provide results of blood tests or immunization documentation from their own health care providers. Any vaccinations required for these diseases will be given at no cost in our Occupational Health office.