Research Associate in Multilingual Speech and Language AI, IIT Delhi (AdiVaani Project)

Job Description

IIT Delhi is hiring five Research Associates in multilingual speech AI for the AdiVaani project. The work is on speech and language models: text-to-speech, speech-to-text, speech recognition and machine translation. The project is funded by the Ministry of Tribal Affairs and based in the Department of Electrical Engineering, New Delhi.

At a glance

• Posts: Research Associate (II) (2) and Research Associate (I) (3)
• Where: Department of Electrical Engineering, IIT Delhi, New Delhi
• Pay: RA-II: ₹61,000 a month plus 30% HRA; RA-I: ₹58,000 a month consolidated
• Duration: Contractual, up to the end of the project (31 March 2027)
• Apply by: 13 October 2026, 5:00 pm, by email

The advertisement is IITD/IRD/258/2026, dated 28 September 2026. The project is “Development and Management of AdiVaani Project” (RM00002G), funded by the Ministry of Tribal Affairs. The Principal Investigator is Prof. Sandeep Kumar of the Department of Electrical Engineering. Only Indian nationals may apply. The same advertisement also lists four Junior Project Assistant (Tech.) posts for project coordination and web work; this listing covers the research posts.

What the multilingual speech AI research associates do

• Research and development of multilingual AI and speech models
• Text-to-text and machine translation (MT) systems
• Text-to-speech (TTS) and speech-to-text (STT) systems
• Automatic speech recognition (ASR)

The advertisement calls these posts Research Associates, but its description says “Research Assistants (RAs)”. It writes “M. Teach”, which appears to mean M.Tech. The selection committee may downgrade a post if no suitable candidate is found.

Why this role matters

Most speech and translation tools cover only a few major languages. Many tribal languages in India have little written or recorded data, so standard models fail on them. The AdiVaani project is funded by the Ministry of Tribal Affairs to build language technology for these communities. The work is hard, and it reaches people current tools leave out.

Eligibility

• A PhD, MD, MS, MDS or equivalent degree; or
• Three years of research, teaching, or design and development experience after an M.Sc., M.Pharm, ME or M.Tech (the ad writes “M. Teach”), with at least one research paper in an SCI journal
• The same qualification is listed for RA-I and RA-II
• Indian nationals only; SC/ST candidates may get a 5% relaxation in marks

IIT Delhi may set higher criteria for shortlisting. Shortlisted names go up on the IRD website with the online interview details. Only shortlisted candidates are told about the interview. A retired government employee’s pay would be fixed under IRD norms.

Pay and duration

• Research Associate (II): ₹61,000 a month plus HRA at 30%
• Research Associate (I): ₹58,000 a month, consolidated (the ad does not mention HRA for this post)
• The project runs up to 31 March 2027, so the posts are short; appointments are renewable yearly or up to the project end

How to apply

Download Form No. IRD/REC-4 from the IIT Delhi IRD recruitment page. Fill it in with your marks or division and your work experience. Email it to the project address given in the advertisement, with the advertisement number, IITD/IRD/258/2026, in the subject line. The ad gives Prof. Sandeep Kumar’s address for questions about eligibility.

Key dates

• Advertisement dated 28 September 2026
• Last date for emailed applications: 13 October 2026, 5:00 pm
• Shortlist and online interview details: on the IIT Delhi IRD website
• Project end date: 31 March 2027

Please read the official IIT Delhi advertisement IITD/IRD/258/2026 (PDF) before applying, and browse more research associate jobs on ResearchJobs.in.