Job description
VASCUL-AID is a €6.3 million Horizon Europe project (2023–2029), coordinated by Amsterdam UMC, that brings together 16 partner organizations across Europe. Its goal is a trustworthy AI platform that predicts cardiovascular risk and disease progression in patients with abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) and peripheral artery disease (PAD). Both conditions are common, often silent until late, and carry a high risk of major cardiovascular events, amputation and death.
A key challenge in treating these patients is that it is still unclear which risk factors drive disease progression and the development of other cardiovascular conditions. The consortium therefore collects and integrates rich longitudinal patient data from major European clinical centres: electronic health records, proteomics, genomics, imaging (CT/MRI), wearable sensor data and clinical follow-up. These data form the basis for models that support personalized risk assessment and treatment decisions.
More information about the project: www.vascul-aid.eu.
As a postdoctoral researcher, you will lead the AI/machine-learning and multimodal data-integration work of VASCUL-AID at Amsterdam UMC. You will design, build and validate models that predict disease progression and clinical outcomes in AAA and PAD patients, using the full breadth of the consortium's data.
Your work spans the whole modelling pipeline: from harmonizing heterogeneous clinical and molecular data, to developing graph-based and foundation-model approaches, to delivering robust, uncertainty-aware models that clinicians can trust and use. You will also drive data-driven biomarker discovery together with biomedical and clinical colleagues. You will be responsible for governance of the data data, handling data (harmonization, missing data, synthetic data), coordinating data collection together with the team. You will be helping in supervising the consortium tasks and PhD-students working on prediction models.
You will be embedded in the Department of Vascular Surgery and work closely with vascular surgeons, clinical researchers, data scientists and partner institutions across Europe. This position offers a unique opportunity to translate advanced machine learning and multi-modal prediction models into real clinical impact, in a highly visible international consortium.
Requirements
- Lead the development of machine-learning models/multi-model prediction models that predict cardiovascular disease progression and outcomes in AAA and PAD patients.
- Integrate multimodal patient data: EHR, proteomics, genomics, imaging, wearables and clinical data into coherent analysis pipelines and representations.
- Apply and advance state-of-the-art methods, including graph representation learning (e.g. graph neural networks), foundation-model embeddings, and multi-omics integration.
- Develop uncertainty-aware models and rigorous validation strategies (internal and external validation, calibration, robustness across cohorts).
- Contribute to biomarker discovery by identifying predictive molecular and clinical signatures, in collaboration with biomedical and clinical partners.
- Prepare models for deployment: reproducible code, documentation, model packaging, and integration with consortium tools and clinical workflows.
- Coordinate and governance of the data collection, handling of data (work with missing data, data harmonization process and creating synthetic data)
- Coordinate the AI/ML work package activities at Amsterdam UMC and act as the technical point of contact for consortium partners.
- Supervise and support PhD candidates, master students, and junior data scientists.
- Publish in high-impact journals and conferences, present at international meetings and contribute to consortium reports and deliverables.
- Contribute to follow-up grant proposals and new research lines in AI for vascular medicine.
Qualifications
We are looking for an enthusiastic, independent researcher who wants to make a difference for patients with vascular disease. You have:
- A completed PhD in machine learning, computer science, computational science, data science, biomedical engineering, bioinformatics or a closely related field.
- Strong expertise in machine learning and deep learning, preferably including graph neural networks, foundation models, and representation learning.
- Demonstrable experience with biological, clinical and/or omics data (e.g. EHR, proteomics, genomics, imaging or wearable data).
- Excellent programming skills in Python and hands-on experience with PyTorch (or a comparable framework).
- Experience working with high-performance computing (HPC) environments and GPU-based training.
- A track record of peer-reviewed publications in AI/ML or medical informatics venues (e.g. NeurIPS, ICLR, MICCAI) and/or translational journals (e.g. npj Digital Medicine).
- Good communication skills and the ability to explain complex methods to clinicians and non-technical audiences.
- Fluency in English, spoken and written. Knowledge of Dutch is a plus.
- The ability to work in a cross-functional, international consortium, with a proactive and collaborative attitude.
- Experience with uncertainty quantification, survival or time-to-event modelling, MLOps / model deployment, or cardiovascular research is an advantage.
Conditions of employment
A meaningful position at one of the largest academic medical centres in Europe, in an interdisciplinary setting and within a strong international network. In addition, we offer:
- You will be employed by Amsterdam UMC Research BV.
- A full-time (36 hours) temporary contract, initially for [12 months / 2 years], with the intention to extend in line with the VASCUL-AID project milestones.
- Classification in salary scale 10: € 3.724 to € 5.867 gross for full-time employment (depending on experience). In addition to a good basic salary, we offer 8.3% end-of-year bonus. Calculate your net salary here.
- Holiday hours: 194.4 per year for full time and a possibility to save additional hours.
- 100% reimbursement for public transport travel costs. If you travel by foot, bicycle, or car, a mileage allowance of €0.21 per km applies (up to a maximum of 40 km one way by car).
- Do you prefer walking or cycling? Take advantage of our good bike scheme.
- Pension accrual with BeFrank, a modern, comprehensible and fairly priced pension.
Watch this video with more information about joining Amsterdam UMC Research BV.
Employer
Amsterdam UMC
You will work in the Department of Vascular Surgery at Amsterdam UMC, location AMC, in a team of vascular surgeons, technical physicians, PhD candidates, postdocs and data scientists. The team works closely with the VASCUL-AID partners across Europe.
More information about the project can be found at www.vascul-aid.eu.
Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis. The vacancy may close early once a suitable candidate has been found.
A reference check may be part of the selection procedure. If you join us, we may ask you for a Certificate of Good Conduct (VOG).
Internal candidates will be given priority over external candidates in case of equal suitability.
Acquisition in response to this vacancy is not appreciated.
Additional information
If you are interested, please use the "Apply now" button at the top of this page and upload the following documents:
- A motivation letter explaining your motivation and suitability for this position.
- A detailed curriculum vitae, including your level of English, nationality, visa requirements, programming skills, an overview of your research experience, a list of publications and your main achievements in previous research projects.
- Contact details of two academic references.
- Copies of your diplomas (MSc and PhD).
All documents are required. Incomplete applications will not be considered.
Application deadline: 2026-11-06, interviews week of 9th November. Prefered start in December 2026.
The supervisor of this position is Prof. Dr. Kak Khee Yeung, vascular surgeon and lead coordinator of VASCUL-AID. For more information about the position, please contact Dr. Venkat Ayyalasomayajula (v.s.r.k.ayyalasomayajula@amsterdamumc.nl) or Dr. Stefan Smorenburg (s.smorenburg@amsterdamumc.nl).
A reference check, screening and hiring assessment may be part of the procedure. Read here whether that applies to you. If you join us, we ask you for a VOG (Certificate of Good Conduct).
Internal candidates will be given priority over external candidates in case of equal suitability.
Acquisition in response to this vacancy will not be considered.
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