Job Description

UE07: 41,064.00 - 48,822.00 Per Annum.

CSG / School of Informatics.

Full Time - 35 Hours Per Week.

Fixed Term Contract - Temporary.

The Opportunity:

The project is fully funded by the AI for Math Fund from Renaissance Philanthropy and XTX Markets. Its central goal is the development of Sketchpad, an AI-powered system that enables users to navigate semi-formal proofs (i.e., formal sketches), with Lean and Isabelle serving as the formal backends.


The PDRA will be jointly supervised by Dr Wenda Li (AI for Mathematics) and Dr Mai Luo (ML Systems), and will collaborate with team members based at the School of Informatics, University of Edinburgh, and the University of Cambridge.


The role involves:


1) Conducting cutting-edge research on the design of semi-formal proofs that effectively interface LLMs with proof assistants;


2) Designing and implementing an RL/agentic framework to leverage multiple forms of feedback within a theorem-proving environment. This position includes funding for international travel to attend leading conferences.


This post is advertised as full-time (35 hours per week), however, we are open to considering part-time or flexible working patterns. We are also open to considering requests for hybrid working (on a non-contractual basis) that combines a mix of remote and regular on-campus working.

Please include the following documents in your application:

CV

1-page cover letter

A maximum of 3 scientific papers and a link to a codebase that illustrate the research quality of the candidate and their affinity with the research topic

Your skills and attributes for success:

A PhD or near completion in PL, Formal Verification, NLP, ML, or related areas of computer science / engineering / mathematics. Track record of research excellence, evidenced by e.g. preprints / publication record. Experience in working with large formalisation project or implementation of foundation models / LLMs, evidenced by e.g. projects on Github. Willingness to explore and adapt to new tasks (both LLM and AI4Math are new fields, and so much to learn from scratch). Good written and communication skills.

Click to view a copy of the full job description

(opens new browser tab)


Grade: UE07 41,064- 48,822 per annum


Contact details for enquiries Wenda Li Wenda.Li@ed.ac.uk


Feedback is only provided to interviewed candidates.

As a valued member of our team you can expect:

A competitive salary An exciting, positive, creative, challenging and rewarding place to work. To be part of a diverse and vibrant international community Comprehensive Staff Benefits, such as a generous holiday entitlement, competitive pension schemes, staff discounts, and family-friendly initiatives. Check out the full list on our

staff benefits page

(opens in a new tab) and use our reward calculator to discover the total value of your pay and benefits

Championing equality, diversity and inclusion

The University of Edinburgh holds a Silver Athena SWAN award in recognition of our commitment to advance gender equality in higher education. We are members of the Race Equality Charter and we are also Stonewall Scotland Diversity Champions, actively promoting LGBT equality.


Prior to any employment commencing with the University you will be required to evidence your right to work in the UK. Further information is available on our

right to work webpages

(opens new browser tab)

Key dates to note

The closing date for applications is

20 October 2025.

Unless stated otherwise the closing time for applications is 11:59pm GMT. If you are applying outside the UK the closing time on our adverts automatically adjusts to your browsers local time zone.


The University may be able to sponsor the employment of international workers in this role. This will depend on a number of factors specific to the successful applicant.