The Department of Politics at Princeton University invites applications for a postdoctoral research associate position.

The individual, who will work with Professor Nicholas Kuipers, and collaborate with Professor Alexander Sahn (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill), will participate in a research project on historical transformations in local state capacity and public service delivery in the United States during the twentieth century. The postdoctoral research associate will oversee the construction of a longitudinal dataset based on newly digitized yearly municipal records. In particular, the postdoctoral researcher will oversee the project's data-processing pipeline, including the digitization, extraction, cleaning, validation, and standardization of information from historical sources. The project will make extensive use of large language models and other computational tools to extract structured information from historical documents. The postdoctoral research associate will also conduct statistical analyses using the resulting data and contribute to the preparation of research papers, reports, and other project materials.

The successful candidate will have a PhD and should be able to work independently while collaborating closely with the principal investigators. The candidate should take initiative, be creative and well organized, attend carefully to data quality and reproducibility, and be able to manage multiple components of a large-scale research project while meeting deadlines in a timely fashion. Experience using large language models, either locally or through APIs, is highly desirable, particularly for document processing, information extraction, classification, or data cleaning. Experience working with OCR, historical or administrative records, large relational databases, record linkage, or other forms of computational data construction would also be valuable.

Applicants must apply with a cover letter, CV, and contact information for two recommendations, one of which should be from the principal advisor of the doctorate program. The appointment is for one year with the possibility of an extension pending eligibility, satisfactory performance, and continued funding. This position is subject to the university's background check policy. The work location for this position is in-person on campus at Princeton University. We will begin reviewing applications on September 15, 2026. The selected candidate is expected to begin on January 1, 2027.

This position is not eligible for sponsorship of an H-1B visa requiring consular processing; other visa sponsorships (including H-1B visas not requiring consular processing) may be available, as appropriate.