PhD fellowship Applied Information Technology (EAST)

Kristiania University College is offering a fully funded PhD fellowship in Software Engineering for Cloud Computing and Information Security for a period of three (3) years beginning in spring 2024. During this time, the successful applicant will be employed at the School of Economics, Innovation, and Technology (SEIT) and included in a team of researchers with ambitious plans to further develop research and pedagogical activities at the university college.

About Kristiania University College

Kristiania University College is Norway's largest independent comprehensive university college with 18,000 students. Our mission is to strongly contribute to Norway's social and economic development through problem-driven and applied knowledge development and dissemination, in close cooperation with the public and private sectors. Students can choose from a large portfolio of study programmes at the bachelor’s and master’s levels that are offered in Oslo, Bergen and online. Among these are study programmes in management, organization, marketing, communication, computer science, information technology, health sciences, innovation, and creative arts. The two PhD programmes at Kristiania University College offer advanced graduate work in most of these fields. For more information about the PhD programmes, see here: https://www.kristiania.no/en/research/phd/

About the position

The PhD position is a three-year fulltime position that involves 30 ECTS credits of required course work. This is equivalent to one semester of study. The remaining time is allocated to the development and completion of an independent research project, which takes the form of a written dissertation. The three-year employment period granted to the successful candidate may be reduced if the successful candidate has previously been employed in a PhD position.

The successful candidate is expected to live and work in the Oslo region during the employment period and to take an active part in scholarly and social activities at Kristiania.

About the project

The PhD project is affiliated with the European Research Council (ERC) funded Consolidator Grant named: "Using Evolutionary Algorithms to Understand and Secure Web/Enterprise Systems" (EAST).

The primary objective of the EAST project is to provide novel automated solutions to solve the oracle problem in software security. We will achieve this goal by combining ideas and technologies from the different fields of software testing, evolutionary computation and information security. We will design novel techniques based on Artificial Intelligence to automatically detect several kinds of security vulnerabilities for which there is no existing automated solution.

All software developed in the project will be released as open-source, and developed under modern industry-standard processes.

The results of the project are meant to be used in practice (e.g., among the industrial partners of the project), and not be just throw-away prototypes or proof-of-concepts.

Look at "https://github.com/EMResearch/EvoMaster" to have an idea of the systems that will be developed and extended in the EAST project.

The position requires candidates with a passion for software development.

Qualifications and personal qualities

Required qualifications:

• Master’s degree (ECTS or equivalent) in software engineering or computer science with a grade B or better on the master’s thesis and for the master’s degree in total. The master’s thesis must be a minimum of 30 ECTS or equivalent.
• Relevant 180 ECTS bachelor’s degree
• Proficiency in both written and spoken English (interviews, and all communication will be in English)
• Strong coding skills (will be assessed through a home exercise for all relevant candidates, and a technical interview for all candidates invited to interviews)

Desired qualifications:

Ideally candidates should have knowledge (and interest) in at least one of the following topics.

• cloud computing
• evolutionary computation
• fuzzing
• information security
• search algorithms
• search-based software engineering
• software testing
• web frontend development
• web penetration testing

Personal qualities:

• Curiosity and a strong motivation to carry out independent research
• Good communication and cooperation skills
• Excellent analytical skills
• The ability, desire and capacity to work independently, systematically, and purposefully
• Orientation toward the completion of projects and the attainment of goals

Emphasis will be placed on personal suitability for the position.

Your application must include:

• A short cover letter (maximum 2 pages), including a brief account of your research interests and motivation for the position.
• Official Transcripts and Diplomas in a Scandinavian or English language. If the original is in another language than these, then both the original and an English translation should be submitted.
• CV
• Master’s thesis
• Any relevant publications
• List of developed/contributed open-source projects (if applicable)
• The names and contact information of two reference persons. (One should preferably be the main supervisor/advisor of your master’s thesis.)

Kristiania University College will only process applications submitted through our electronic recruitment system. All documents must be uploaded in this system for your application to be considered. The documents must be in English or a Scandinavian language. Translations must be authorized, and you must be prepared to present originals during a potential interview. Kristiania conducts document verification to ensure a genuine evaluation and fair competition for you as a candidate. Incomplete applications will not be considered.

Evaluation of the applicants

All complete applications from qualified applicants will be assessed by an expert committee.

The candidate must be accepted to the PhD programme at the latest three months after signing the employment contract. To be accepted to this programme, one must fulfil the following requirements:

• a relevant 180 ECTS bachelor’s degree, and
• a relevant 120 ECTS master’s degree (or integrated bachelor and master) with minimum 30 ECTS master thesis, and with grade similar to the Norwegian/European grade B or higher both in average for the master’s degree in total and for the master’s thesis alone.

We offer:

• An exciting job in a dynamic professional environment in an organization with ambitions
• A pleasant and stimulating working environment with good colleagues
• Opportunities for professional development
• Good insurance and pension schemes
• Corporate sports teams and training facilities
• Modern work space in downtown Oslo
• English is the working language

The starting salary is 532,200 NOK per year.

Kristiania University College welcomes and encourages diversity. Women and persons with minority background are particularly encouraged to apply.

We use Semac background checks in our recruitment process.

Application deadline

November 10th, 2023

For more information about the School of Economics, Innovation, and technology, see here: https://www.kristiania.no/schools/school-of-economics-innovation-and-technology/

For more information about Kristiania, see here: https://www.kristiania.no/

Only applications received through our application portal will be considered