Postdoctoral Associate—Florida Digital Twin (FLDT)

Postdoctoral Associate

The appointee shall have received the doctorate in a field appropriate to the assigned duties and responsibilities.

The JaxLab program of the School of Architecture (SoA) at the University of Florida (UF) is hiring two Postdoctoral Associates as part of a coordinated team effort each with a distinct focus but both contributing to the advancement of the FLDT mission.

About the JaxLab and the Florida Digital Twin (FLDT)

JaxLab is an applied research and teaching program operated by UF SoA in Jacksonville Florida delivering the Master of Architecture degree. It serves as a place-based design and innovation hubembedding faculty students and researchers within the dynamic urban fabric of Jacksonville. JaxLabs mission centers on community-engaged scholarship transdisciplinary collaboration and real-world impact with an emphasis on resilient equitable and design-driven futures.

The Florida Digital Twin (FLDT) is a flagship research initiative funded by the UF Office of Research that leverages high-performance computing AI and geospatial modeling to build AI-powered replicas of the built and natural environment. FLDT enables real-time monitoring predictive modeling and scenario testing for Floridas most pressing planning environmental and infrastructure challenges. JaxLab plays a pivotal role in translating this statewide initiative into community-centered applications with a focus on the Jacksonville region and beyond.

Position 1: Postdoctoral Associate Software Engineering & Technical Development

This position focuses on the technical development of FLDT. The postdoc will help develop build and maintain a suite of geospatial tools and data infrastructure that support large-scale 3D modeling spatial data integration and public-facing decision-support applications. Position will teach AI coding or other related course.

Responsibilities:

• Design implement and maintain ETL pipelines APIs and geospatial data services using UFs HiPerGator supercomputing environment.
• Support integration of diverse datasets across partner systems (e.g. JTA FDEP UF GeoPlan).
• Co-develop resource description framework (RDF) and knowledge graph databases that supports semantic query.
• Contribute to publications and white papers documenting system design workflows and findings.
• Develop technical documentation to support scalability and reproducibility.
• Assist when needed to help with the administrative development of the JaxLab program.
• Teach 1 course per year in JaxLab.

Position 2: Postdoctoral Associate Community Engagement & Teaching

This position focuses on community and urban design hazard resilience and/or stakeholder engagement. The post-doc will assist and/or teach related courses. The postdoc will work closely with community partners faculty and students to ensure that the Florida Digital Twin reflects local priorities values and lived experiencesespecially within Jacksonville and surrounding areas.

Responsibilities:

• Lead community engagement activities including public forums stakeholder interviews and participatory mapping.
• Translate technical outcomes from FLDT into accessible materials and prepare high-quality content (document image case study) for FLDTs landing webpage.
• Teach one course per year (studio or seminar) with themes such as urban design hazard resilience civic technology or digital twins.
• Collaborate with researchers to incorporate community feedback into model development and decision workflows.
• Contribute to proposal writing and documentation that reflect community outcomes and impact.

Expectations & Duties

Each postdoc will be expected to:

• Collaborate with interdisciplinary faculty across the FLDT and JaxLab programs.
• Deliver tangible outputs within their domain (e.g. a working prototype or public-facing workshop series).
• Support documentation and publication efforts.
• Help build sustainable scalable processes that benefit UF and partner communities.

Location & Logistics

These positions are based in Jacksonville Florida with frequent interaction with UFs main campus in Gainesville. Travel support computing resources (including access to HiPerGator) and collaborative workspace will be provided.

Commensurate with education and experience.

Position 1: Postdoctoral Associate Software Engineering & Technical Development

• Required to have a terminal degree in Urban and Regional Planning Architecture or a closely related field. Masters degree in Computer Science Geoinformatics Data Science is preferred.

Position 2: Postdoctoral Associate Community Engagement & Teaching

• Required to have Terminal degree in Architecture Landscape Architecture Urban Planning Public Policy or related field.

Position 1: Postdoctoral Associate Software Engineering & Technical Development

• Proficiency in Python geospatial libraries API design (e.g. FastAPI) and cloud/HPC environments.
• Experience with containerization tools and orchestration platforms (Docker Podman Kubernetes) spatial databases (e.g. PostGIS) or 3D modeling workflows.
• Familiarity with GIS platforms (ArcGIS QGIS) and web-based data visualization.
• Knowledge with Apache Jena Neo4j and Cloud Platform (e.g. GCP AWS).

Position 2: Postdoctoral Associate Community Engagement & Teaching

• Demonstrated experience in community engagement participatory methods or public-interest design.
• Teaching or curriculum development experience in a university setting.
• Excellent facilitation writing and communication skills.
• Interest in digital tools for resilience equity or urban systems.

Interested applicants should submit:

1. A cover letter indicating which position they are applying for
2. Curriculum Vitae
3. Contact information for three references
4. (Optional) Portfolio or links to relevant work (e.g. GitHub design projects publications)

This position is open until filled.