Postdoctoral position on Software Security

Published: 2022-06-02

Uppsala University is a comprehensive research-intensive university with a strong international standing. Our ultimate goal is to conduct education and research of the highest quality and relevance to make a long-term difference in society. Our most important assets are all the individuals whose curiosity and dedication make Uppsala University one of Sweden’s most exciting workplaces. Uppsala University has over 54,000 students, more than 7,500 employees and a turnover of around SEK 8 billion.

The Department of Information Technology has a leading position in research and education. The Department currently has about 300 employees, including 120 teachers and 110 PhD students. More than 4000 students study one or more courses at the department each year. You can find more information about us at the web page of the department of Information Technology.

Read more about our benefits and what it is like to work at Uppsala University

Duties
The candidate will perform research to develop techniques for detecting errors and security vulnerabilities in software. Relevant areas include, but are not limited to, program analysis, formal verification, symbolic execution, protocol testing, fuzzing, taint analysis, and model learning, The goals include to significantly extend the power and scalability of such techniques to make the applicable to real-world code bases; foreseen applications include operating systems, software for IoT systems, and implementations of network security protocols.

The position may include some teaching duties (at most 20%).

Environment
The position is funded by project aSSIsT: Secure Software for the Internet of Things (https://assist-project.github.io/ ), supported by SSF (the Foundation for Strategic Research), which brings together several groups at Uppsala University (Bengt Jonsson, Parosh Abdulla, Mohammed Faouzi Atig, Kostis Sagonas, and Wang Yi) that are world-renowned in the fields of automated verification, programming language implementation, and testing.  Contributions include the UPPAAL model checker, high-impact techniques and tools for testing and verification of multithreaded software, including Concuerror and Nidhugg, and several tools for the Erlang programming language. Members received the CAV (Computer-Aided Verification) Award, the most prestigious academic award in the area, both in 2013 (Wang Yi) and in 2017 (Parosh Abdulla and Bengt Jonsson).  The work is performed in collaboration with partners at RISE SICS (Luca Mottola, Shahid Raza, and Thiemo Voigt) including developers of the ConTiki OS, and the SICS Security lab.

Requirements
PhD degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or equivalent or a foreign degree equivalent to a PhD degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or equivalent. The degree needs to be obtained by the time of the decision of employment. Those who have obtained a PhD degree three years prior to the application deadline are primarily considered for the employment. The starting point of the three-year frame period is the application deadline. Due to special circumstances, the degree may have been obtained earlier. The three-year period can be extended due to circumstances such as sick leave, parental leave, duties in labour unions, etc.

A successful candidate should have a strong research experience in some of the following fields: program analysis, compiler techniques, model checking, formal verification, testing, security, software engineering, and similar, as well as be proficient in building software systems and tools. The applicant must have good skills in spoken and written English.

Criteria for ranking
 When ranking several qualified applicants, scientific excellence in the area will be of primary importance. The university aims to recruit the person who, in the combined evaluation of competence, skills and documented qualification, is judged most suitable to independently carry out and develop the work at hand, and to contribute to a positive development of the aSSIsT project and the department.

About the employment
The employment is a temporary position of 2 years according to central collective agreement.  Scope of employment 100 %. Starting date as agreed. Placement: Uppsala.

Application
Applications should include a description of research interests and past experience, including a motivation for applying for this position, a CV, copies of exams, degrees and grades, a copy of Ph.D. thesis (or a draft thereof), relevant publications, and other relevant documents.  Applications should be accompanied by at least two letter(s) of recommendation or contact information to reference persons, as well as earliest feasible starting date of employment.

About working in Sweden: Sweden is a fantastic place for living and working. Swedes are friendly and speak excellent English. The quality of life is high, with a strong emphasis on outdoor activities. The Swedish working climate emphasizes an open atmosphere, with active discussions involving both junior and senior employees. Healthcare incurs only small fees. Parental benefits allow 13 months of parental leave, extending the length of employment correspondingly. Childcare is of high quality and very affordable.

For further information about the position, please contact: Bengt Jonsson (bengt.jonsson@it.uu.se ) and Kostis Sagonas (kostis@it.uu.se ).

Please submit your application by 7 July 2022, UFV-PA 2022/2133.

Are you considering moving to Sweden to work at Uppsala University? Find out more about what it´s like to work and live in Sweden .  

Please do not send offers of recruitment or advertising services.

Submit your application through Uppsala University's recruitment system.

Placement: Department of Information Technology

Type of employment: Full time , Temporary position longer than 6 months

Pay: Fixed salary

Number of positions: 1

Working hours: 100%

Town: Uppsala

County: Uppsala län

Country: Sweden

Union representative: Seko Universitetsklubben seko@uadm.uu.se
ST/TCO tco@fackorg.uu.se
Saco-rådet saco@uadm.uu.se

Number of reference: UFV-PA 2022/2133

Last application date: 2022-07-07