Scientist LLM's and agentic AI

Want to make your mark on our time? Become a Scientist LLM's and agentic AI at TNO in The Hague!

About this position

Worldwide, conflicts, crime, and subversive activities threaten our safety. To counter these threats, TNO conducts innovative research and applies it in collaboration with our security partners. For example, we support the Ministry of Defence and the Police in making the best-informed decisions and executing (semi-)automated actions they can rely on. We achieve this by conducting applied research, generating innovative ideas, and developing them further. Examples include leveraging intelligence for Defence, creating decision-support models for the Public Prosecution Service, and applying NLP to analyze criminal messages. In this role, you will join the Intelligence & Decision Support research group. This driven team of over 35 colleagues brings together diverse expertise and backgrounds and is part of the Defence, Safety & Security unit.

What will be your role?

As a scientist, you will contribute to research projects on LLMs and agentic AI for decision support for partners in the defence and security domain. Working in multidisciplinary teams, you will tackle various research questions, helping to define approaches and methodologies. Based on scientific research, established methods, and best practices, you will develop concepts with your team, where modeling and programming around LLMs are essential parts of your work.

Your deliverables may include proofs of concept, always keeping in mind the impact of the tools you develop on the daily operations of our partners. You will communicate project results to partners and act as a valuable discussion partner for colleagues.

Examples of projects include:

• Developing an LLM concept for decision support for the Police.
• Creating a proof of concept for mission planning for Defence.
• Contributing to a Dutch LLM.
• Demonstrating the feasibility of agentic AI for security partners.

At TNO, you’ll have plenty of opportunities to explore new AI tools, attend conferences, and pursue new research directions. You can also initiate internal research lines and contribute to project acquisition and collaboration proposals. In addition to projects, you can take on various side activities aligned with your interests and development goals, such as coordinating internships, organizing technical or social events, and mentoring new colleagues.

What we expect from you

You are motivated to contribute to the military and security domain and eager to learn so your work increasingly aligns with partners’ needs. You can handle sensitive information and are open to joining exercises or working on-site with partners to build valuable domain knowledge. Your curiosity drives you to seek out the information you need for your assignments. You are analytically strong and can help translate science into practice.

You thrive in working on multiple projects and teams simultaneously and can switch between them effectively. You enjoy collaboration and use your communication skills while planning your work autonomously and taking initiative. You can present conclusions clearly in text, presentations, diagrams, and data visualizations, and you are comfortable facilitating expert workshops.

You love working with AI, especially LLMs, and want to deepen your expertise in the coming years. Beyond prompt engineering, you are interested in fine-tuning, explainability, robustness, adversarial attacks, and other topics to build reliable systems. You enjoy diving deep into tasks such as fine-tuning smaller models and developing specialized applications. You are eager to learn, share knowledge with colleagues, and work as a team player.

What You Bring

• An academic Master’s or PhD in fields such as Artificial Intelligence, Applied Mathematics, Data Science, or Operations Research.
• Excellent communication skills in Dutch and English, both spoken and written.
• Solid programming experience in Python (and possibly other relevant languages).
• Experience with common LLM workflows, such as RAG pipelines, fine-tuning/LoRA, and model adaptation.
• Familiarity with modern LLM tools, e.g., HuggingFace, LangChain, or LlamaIndex. Experience with enterprise models and APIs (Azure AI / Foundry or OpenAI GPT API) is a plus, especially if you’ve built applications interacting with LLMs.
• Experience with data analysis and visualization/user interfaces (e.g., Vue.js and React).
• Demonstrable affinity with the security and defence domain; experience in this field is a plus.

What you'll get in return

Challenging and varied work with a real impact. And plenty of opportunities as, at TNO, you are in charge of shaping your career. We offer a gross monthly salary between € 3,500 and € 4,200 (based on your knowledge and experience), 8% holiday pay, a 13th month bonus of 8.33% and a flex budget (5.58% + € 180). In addition, you will be given every opportunity to develop yourself.

Perhaps you would like to grow your career in the direction of commerce or consultancy? Or would you like to become a project manager? Immerse yourself in sustainable innovations? Or carve out a career as a technical expert?

TNO offers optional employee benefits, enabling you to tailor your benefits package to match your personal situation. You may also expect:

• An extremely professional, innovative working environment where colleagues are leading experts in their field.
• The opportunity to attend courses, workshops and conferences, and to receive training and coaching based on your needs.
• 33 days annual leave on a full-time basis.
• We offer a comprehensive and flexible mobility plan that also includes full compensation for public transportation for commuting and business travel.
• Great social events with your team and other TNO colleagues. That’s how you will get to know a lot of people really quickly.
• Flexible working hours, the possibility to work parttime (32 of 36 hours) and the possibility of working from home.
• A good pension scheme.

TNO as an employer

At TNO, we innovate for a healthier, safer and more sustainable life. And for a strong economy. Since 1932, we have been making knowledge and technology available for the common good. We find each other in wonder and ingenuity. We are driven to push boundaries. There is all the space and support for your talent and ambition. You work with people who will challenge you: who inspire you and want to learn from you. Our state-of-the-art facilities are there to realize your vision. What you do at TNO matters: impact makes the difference. Because with every innovation you contribute to tomorrow’s world.

Safety is not something that can be taken for granted. That's why the work you do here, in any position, is meaningful and has an impact on society. Jane Duinisveld Recruiter