Vacancy: Postdoc Position

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Topic: Robot Learning

Summary:

  • Position: postdoc
  • Location: KU Leuven, Belgium
  • Starting Date: Spring/summer 2026
  • Duration: 2-3Y
  • Supervisor: Renaud Detry
  • Announcement Posted On: January 19, 2026
  • Status: open

Project

KU Leuven’s robot-learning group is seeking a highly motivated postdoc to work on problems at the intersection of machine learning and robotics, of a nature similar to recent publications of the group.

Offer

KU Leuven is Belgium’s largest university and a leading higher education and research institution, ranked among the top 100 universities worldwide. The offer includes:

  • A fully funded position at one of Europe’s top universities,
  • A competitive salary or tax-free scholarship,
  • State-provided health insurance,
  • Working with two thriving research teams: group PSI (Electrical Engineering) and group RAM (Mechanical Engineering),
  • Working in Leuven, a charming city located a short 20-min train ride from Brussels.

Responsibilities

  • Carry out research and publish findings in top-tier robotics, computer-vision and machine-learning journals and conferences,
  • Co-supervise Ph.D. students.

Profile

The successful candidate must:

  • Hold a Ph.D. in engineering, physics, math, computer science, or a related field,
  • Demonstrate a strong track record in machine learning, data-driven computer vision, or robot learning.

Application

Applicants must submit the following files:

  • A cover letter (cover-letter.md), produced by filling this form (submitted as Markdown, not PDF),
  • A curriculum vitae (cv.pdf). There will be redundancy between the CV and the cover letter, that’s ok. In your CV, please highlight in yellow at most 3 items that you feel make you stand out, such as:
    • a scientific paper you have published,
    • recognition of excellence/award,
    • the competitive nature of your Ph.D. program,
    • or any other achievement that makes your profile particularly relevant for the role.
  • Proof of English proficiency (if available) (language-cert.pdf), see Language Requirements.

Do not bundle these files in a compressed archive (no .zip, no .rar). Instead, process each PDF with Ghostscript using the following command:

gs -q -dNOPAUSE -dBATCH -dSAFER -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -dPDFSETTINGS=/ebook -sOutputFile=output.pdf input1.pdf input2.pdf [...]

Applications should be submitted by email to kuleuven-postdoc-2026a@renaud-detry.net. Questions can be directed to the same address.

Please note that this vacancy is also announced on KU Leuven’s Jobsite. Do not apply via the university’s jobsite, i.e., do not click on the blue “Apply for this position” button nor the “online application tool” link of this page. Instead, submit your application by email as instructed above.

Applications can be sent immediately and will be evaluated until the position is filled.

Applications submitted before April 15, 2026, will be given preference.