Research Associate-II in Graph Machine Learning for Network Medicine (2 Posts) at IIT Madras
Job Description
IIT Madras is hiring two Research Associate-II (ML scientist) posts in machine learning for healthcare, on a government-funded network medicine project coordinated by Dr. Pradeeba Sridar in Medical Sciences and Technology. The work focuses on graph neural networks built from patient, disease and biomedical data.
At a glance
- Positions: Research Associate-II (2 posts, contract)
- Department: Medical Sciences and Technology
- Pay: Rs 61,000 plus 30% HRA per month
- Duration: Initially one year, extendable based on performance
- Apply by: 29 September 2026, online
- Advertisement: ICSR/PR/Advt. 177/2026 (the notice’s date line also reads 29/09/2026)
Network medicine treats diseases, genes, drugs and patients as nodes in large connected networks, on the idea that related conditions sit close together. Graph neural networks can learn from these structures to predict disease links, patient risk or drug effects, which makes them a natural fit for combining biomedical and clinical datasets.
About the ML scientist role
- Develop machine learning and deep learning models for healthcare data analysis
- Develop graph-based models and graph neural networks for network medicine
- Construct and analyse patient and disease networks, using public and private biomedical and clinical datasets
Strong knowledge of Python, machine learning and deep learning is essential. Knowledge of PyTorch Geometric, NetworkX, scikit-learn, graph theory and graph neural networks is highly desirable.
Eligibility
- Ph.D. in Computer Science, Data Science, Computational Biology or a related field; or
- M.S./M.Tech in those subjects with three years of R&D experience and at least one research paper in an SCI journal
All IC&SR project positions are purely on a contract basis, and completing a contract does not confer any right to extension or regularisation. Candidates are shortlisted for a test or interview on the basis of their online application, and all correspondence is by email.
Pay and duration
- Rs 61,000 plus 30% HRA per month
- Initially one year, extendable based on performance
How to apply
Apply online only, through the IIT Madras IC&SR project recruitment portal, where this announcement is listed. Use a correct, active email address, since all communication is by email.
Key dates
- Online applications close: 29 September 2026
Please read the official IIT Madras IC&SR announcement (PDF) before applying, and browse more artificial intelligence jobs on ResearchJobs.in.
Hiring institution: Indian Institute of Technology Madras
Official advertisement: icandsr.iitm.ac.in
How to prepare for this application
- GNN fundamentals: message passing, GCN and GAT layers, and over-smoothing.
- Graph construction: how you would build a patient similarity or disease network from clinical data.
- Tools: bring a PyTorch Geometric or NetworkX project and explain your evaluation.
- Healthcare data: privacy, class imbalance and missing values in clinical datasets.
- Research record: be ready to discuss your SCI paper or thesis results in depth.
About IIT Madras
IIT Madras, founded in 1959, is one of India's oldest Indian Institutes of Technology, with a large campus in Chennai. Project staff for its sponsored research are recruited through the Office of Industrial Consultancy and Sponsored Research (IC&SR), which runs its own online application portal.
