Postdoctoral Associate

Work Arrangement: On-Site

Requisition Number: 275245

Regular or Temporary: Regular

Location:

Durham, NC, US, 27710

Personnel Area: MEDICAL CENTER

Date: Sep 22, 2026

School of Medicine Established in 1930, Duke University School of Medicine is the youngest of the nation's top medical schools. Ranked sixth among medical schools in the nation, the School takes pride in being an inclusive community of outstanding learners, investigators, clinicians, and staff where interdisciplinary collaboration is embraced and great ideas accelerate translation of fundamental scientific discoveries to improve human health locally and around the globe. Composed of more than 2,600 faculty physicians and researchers, nearly 2,000 students, and more than 6,200 staff, the Duke University School of Medicine along with the Duke University School of Nursing, and Duke University Health System comprise Duke Health, a world-class academic medical center. The Health System encompasses Duke University Hospital, Duke Regional Hospital, Duke Raleigh Hospital, Duke Health Integrated Practice, Duke Primary Care, Duke Home Care and Hospice, Duke Health and Wellness, and multiple affiliations.

Be You. Be Bold. Choose Duke.

Postdoctoral Associate, Computational Behavioral Analysis & Digital Autism Research

Be You.

At Duke, we celebrate individuality, innovation, and the unique perspectives that each member of our community brings. As a Postdoctoral Associate, you will join the nationally recognized Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, one of the largest and most impactful departments within the Duke University School of Medicine.

Founded in 1943, the department includes more than 500 faculty, staff, and trainees who are dedicated to helping people with behavioral health challenges live their best lives. Through outstanding patient care, groundbreaking research, and exceptional education, we are advancing the future of behavioral health and developmental science.

In this role, you will collaborate with leading experts in autism research, computer vision, machine learning, psychiatry, and developmental science to develop innovative technologies that improve how caregiver-child interactions and developmental behaviors are measured and understood.

Be Bold.

As a Postdoctoral Associate, you will conduct cutting-edge research at the intersection of:

Computer Vision
Artificial Intelligence
Multimodal Machine Learning
Developmental Science
Autism Research
Digital Behavioral Assessment

Working under the mentorship of Dr. Lauren Franz, Director of the Duke Center for Autism and Brain Development, you will contribute to transformative research initiatives including the SenseToKnow program and collaborate with renowned investigators including Dr. Geraldine Dawson and Dr. Guillermo Sapiro.

Your work will help create objective, reliable, and scalable methods for measuring behaviors that support communication, learning, social engagement, and developmental outcomes for children and families.

What You'll Do

Advance Computational Behavioral Analysis

Develop and validate automated methods for analyzing caregiver-child interactions using computer vision, multimodal machine learning, and artificial intelligence.
Create scalable approaches to measure shared visual attention, caregiver positioning, speech, and dyadic engagement using video, audio, pose, and object information.
Design, implement, and evaluate computational models and reproducible analytical pipelines.
Validate automated behavioral measures against expert human coding standards.
Develop approaches that support objective measurement of caregiver intervention fidelity and child behavioral outcomes within Naturalistic Developmental Behavioral Interventions (NDBIs).

Drive Innovation Through SenseToKnow Research

Contribute to ongoing computational method development and behavioral feature extraction efforts.
Develop and refine computational models that support digital behavioral assessment and autism identification.
Collaborate with multidisciplinary researchers on ongoing studies, publications, and future research initiatives.
Support the translation of advanced computational methods into scalable real-world applications.

Collaborate Across Disciplines

Partner with experts in child development, psychiatry, engineering, computer vision, and machine learning.
Contribute to study design, scientific strategy, and interdisciplinary research planning.
Work closely with clinical, scientific, and technical teams to advance caregiver-child interaction research and digital behavioral assessment.

Share Discoveries and Grow Professionally

Prepare manuscripts for publication in peer-reviewed journals.
Present findings at scientific meetings and conferences.
Contribute to grant proposals and future research opportunities.
Mentor students and research staff, as appropriate.
Conduct independent research that supports progression toward an academic or research-focused career.
Maintain research records and ensure compliance with Duke research policies and standards.

What You'll Bring

Required Qualifications

PhD or equivalent doctoral degree (ScD, MD, DVM, or related terminal degree).
Strong background in one or more of the following:
- Computer Vision
- Machine Learning
- Artificial Intelligence
- Computational Behavioral Science
- Data Science
- Biomedical Engineering
- Computational Psychology
- Related quantitative disciplines
Demonstrated ability to conduct independent research and contribute to collaborative scientific initiatives.
Excellent analytical, communication, and problem-solving skills.

Preferred Qualifications

Experience working with multimodal data sources such as video, audio, pose, sensor, or behavioral data.
Experience developing machine learning models for human behavior analysis.
Interest in autism research, developmental science, digital health, or behavioral assessment.
Publication record demonstrating scholarly productivity.
Experience working within interdisciplinary research environments.

Why This Role Matters

Caregiver-child interactions are among the most important drivers of developmental learning, communication, and engagement. Traditional methods for evaluating these interactions require extensive human observation and coding, limiting scalability and accessibility.

In this role, you will help create next-generation computational tools that make behavioral assessment more objective, efficient, and widely available. Your work has the potential to improve autism identification, enhance intervention research, and expand access to evidence-based developmental supports for children and families worldwide.

Choose Duke.

At Duke, you'll find more than a job. You'll find a collaborative academic community committed to excellence, innovation, inclusion, and impact.

Duke is an Equal Opportunity Employer committed to providing employment opportunity without regard to an individual's age, color, disability, gender, gender expression, gender identity, genetic information, national origin, race, religion, sex (including pregnancy and pregnancy related conditions), sexual orientation or military status.

Duke aspires to create a community built on collaboration, innovation, creativity, and belonging. Our collective success depends on the robust exchange of ideas—an exchange that is best when the rich diversity of our perspectives, backgrounds, and experiences flourishes. To achieve this exchange, it is essential that all members of the community feel secure and welcome, that the contributions of all individuals are respected, and that all voices are heard. All members of our community have a responsibility to uphold these values.

Essential Physical Job Functions:

Certain jobs at Duke University and Duke University Health System may include essential job functions that require specific physical and/or mental abilities. Additional information and provision for requests for reasonable accommodation will be provided by each hiring department.