Lab Manager at the Multimodal Language Department

The Multimodal Language Department (MLD) at the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics (MPI) is seeking a dedicated and skilled Lab Manager to join our dynamic and growing team. This is an exciting opportunity to work at the forefront of psycholinguistic research and play a pivotal role in supporting cutting-edge studies on multimodal language and communication.

Job description

The MLD is dedicated to audio and video analysis of multimodal language behavior and uses experimental, corpus, and machine learning methods to study how humans and virtual avatars use gestures, faces, and hands during language use in spoken and signed languages. In order to assist our research in a growing department with national and international partners, we are looking for a skilled lab manager. 

The activities require:

• Project Coordination: Support the planning and execution of research projects, ensuring effective organization and communication.
• Ethics and Compliance: Assist researchers in meeting ethical requirements for experiments, ensuring compliance with GDPR and other data privacy regulations.
• Data Management: Help organize, archive, and maintain research data, ensuring accessibility when needed.
• Team Onboarding and Training: Support new team members in integrating into the institute’s research environment and provide guidance on relevant tools and protocols.
• Study Design and Technical Support: Work with researchers to develop study designs and make use of the institute’s facilities, including fieldwork and data collection labs.
• Liaison Role: Facilitate communication between researchers and the MPI Technical Group to ensure efficient use of resources such as high-performance computing clusters.
• Experiment Facilitation: Assist with running experiments, creating advertisements to recruit participants, ensuring the smooth operation of experimental procedures, and providing support for coding and statistical analyses (e.g., speech, gesture, sign, and eye gaze) using tools like ELAN.
• External Collaboration: Coordinate research activities with collaborative partners outside the Netherlands.
• Event Preparation: Support researchers in organizing workshops, conferences, and other events.
• Supervisory Tasks: Manage and schedule student and research assistants effectively.

Requirements

Essential

• PhD or Master’s with prior multimodal research or research management experience in experimental psycholinguistics, language sciences, cognitive science, or a related field.
• Hands-on experience in multimodal language research (e.g., gestures, speech, eye gaze, sign language).
• Strong communication skills and adaptability to work in an international and collaborative environment.
• Excellent proficiency in written and spoken English.
• Exceptional organizational abilities.
• Knowledge of experimental design, multimodal research methods, statistical analysis, and programming (e.g., R, Python) and a keen interest in AI tools.
• Eager to learn new skills and tools.

Desirable

• Previous experience in a similar role or in managing responsibilities outlined above.
• Knowledge of Dutch and a willingness to learn sign language.
• Strong presentation and communication skills.
• Familiarity with organizational and management tools such as Mattermost and Qualtrics.
• Experience with visual methods like eye tracking, OpenPose, ELAN, and Mediapipe.

What we offer you

• Position available from 1st July 2025, though start date is negotiable.
• Term of appointment of 12 months initially, with the possibility of extension.
• The salary is in accordance with the German collective labour agreement TVöD (Tarifvertrag für den öffentlichen Dienst) and is classified in salary group E12. Depending on the experience of the applicant, the salary is between EUR 4.170,32 and EUR 5.061,67 gross per month (based on a full-time employment), plus a holiday bonus of 8% of the gross salary. This equates to EUR 54.047,35 - EUR 65.599,24 per year, including holiday bonus.
• Pension scheme.
• Thirty days of leave per year (full-time employment).

Application procedure

The deadline for applications is 23:59 on 15 May 2025. We encourage you to apply if you meet the above criteria and are excited about contributing to our research endeavors. Join us in advancing our understanding of language and communication in one of the world’s most renowned research settings.

Please submit your application directly via this link on our recruitment portal. 

Applications should include:

• A cover letter outlining your motivation to apply and detailing how you fit the requirements above.
• A current CV listing relevant experience, including the names of two referees. 
   

For more information about the Multimodal Language Department, and the role of Lab Manager within the Multimodal Language team, please contact the Scientific Director of the Department: Prof. Asli Özyürek (Asli.Ozyurek [at] mpi.nl (Asli[dot]Ozyurek[at]mpi[dot]nl)). For administrative questions please contact the Department secretary: Brigit van Loon (Brigit.vanLoon [at] mpi.nl (Brigit[dot]vanLoon[at]mpi[dot]nl)).

The employer

About our institute

The Max Planck Institute (MPI) for Psycholinguistics is a world-leading research institute devoted to interdisciplinary studies of the science of language and communication, including departments on genetics, psychology, development, neurobiology, and multimodality of these fundamental human abilities.

We investigate how children and adults acquire their language(s), how speaking and listening happen in real-time, how the brain processes language, how the human genome contributes to building a language-ready brain, how multiple modalities (as in speech, gesture, and sign) shape language and its use in diverse languages and how language is related to cognition and culture, and shaped by evolution.

We are part of the Max Planck Society, an independent non-governmental association of German-funded research institutes dedicated to fundamental research in the natural sciences, life sciences, social sciences, and the humanities.

The Max Planck Society is an equal opportunities employer. We recognize the positive value of diversity and inclusion, promote equity and challenge discrimination. We aim to provide a working environment with room for differences, where everyone feels a sense of belonging. Therefore, we welcome applications from all suitably qualified candidates.

Our institute is situated on the campus of the Radboud University and has close collaborative links with the Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behavior and the Centre for Language Studies at the Radboud University. We also work closely with other child development researchers as part of the Baby & Child Research Center.

Staff and students at the MPI have access to state-of-the-art research and training facilities.

About the Multimodal Language Department

The Multimodal Language Department in particular aims to understand the cognitive and social foundations of the human ability for language and its evolution by focusing on its multimodal aspect and crosslinguistic diversity. The research at the department combines multiple methods including corpus and computational linguistics, psycho- and neuro-linguistics, machine learning, AI and virtual reality, and is concerned with various populations ranging from speakers of signed and spoken languages, young and older subjects from typical and atypical populations. The department provides opportunities for training in a range of linguistic, and conversational state of the art multimodal language analysis (such as motion capture and automatic speech recognition), as well as neuropsychological, psychological methods related to multimodal language and frequent research and public engagement meetings, and support from an excellent team of researchers in linguistics and psycholinguistics.