Ledig stilling på Universitetet i Oslo

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Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Information Security associated with ConSeRNS

Deadline 07.04.2019

Job description

Universitetet i Oslo

The University of Oslo is Norway’s oldest and highest rated institution of research and education with 28 000 students and 7000 employees. Its broad range of academic disciplines and internationally esteemed research communities make UiO an important contributor to society.


The Department of Informatics (IFI) is one of nine departments belonging to the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences. IFI is Norway’s largest university department for general education and research in Computer Science and related topics.


The Department has more than 1400 students on bachelor level, 600 master students, and over 240 PhDs and postdocs. The overall staff of the Department is close to 370 employees, about 280 of these in full time positions. The full time scientific staff is 75, mostly Full/Associate Professors.

Flere stillinger fra Universitetet i Oslo

One postdoc position is available at the Department of Informatics at the University of Oslo. The position is in the context of the Strategic Research Initiative ConSeRNS, Concurrent Security and Robustness for Networked Systems. ConSeRNS has achieved funding for two postdoc positions. The position announced now is in security-by-design. The other postdoc position will be announced later.

The fellowship period is 3 years. The Department of Informatics may offer the candidate 1 additional year; the 4 years position then entails a compulsory workload of 25% that consists of teaching and supervision duties.

Starting date no later than 01.10.2019.

No one can be appointed for more than one Postdoctoral Research Fellowship at the University of Oslo.

More about the position

Security and robustness of ICT infrastructures are essential factors for sustainable development of our society. On a daily basis there are reports of ICT security breaches and failures of vital functions like water supply, electricity supply, healthcare services, communication services, transport services and security services. Companies and entire nations are now faced with the threat of large scale-attacks executed remotely through the Internet. Unfortunately, current knowledge of resilient ICT system design stands in stark contrast to the critical importance that ICT has in modern societies.

Security-by-design: Software errors that come from the design phase are known to be costly and time-consuming to repair. The goals of security at design time is to produce methods, tools, and work processes, to help software designers (a) create models and designs that do not contain known security flaws (e.g., by using security design patterns or privacy design patterns) and (b) test existing models and design for such flaws. Programming techniques often used for this goal include safe type checking systems, certified compilers, and static analysis techniques like taint analysis or information flow security. These techniques are becoming very popular as witnessed by the TaintDroid for Android code. Run-time and static checking may be used for privacy policies and GDPR compliance.

We are seeking a postdoctoral researcher who is interested in designing, developing, and evaluating techniques and frameworks related to the above.

It is expected that the researcher will be a part of the ConSeRNS leader team and actively contribute to the coordination of collaboration between all partners contributing to ConSeRNS, including supervision of PhD-candidates.

Additional information can be found using the following link:

https://www.mn.uio.no/ifi/english/research/groups/conserns/

Postdoctoral fellows who are appointed for a period of four years are expected to acquire basic pedagogical competency in the course of their fellowship period within the duty component of 25 %.

The main purpose of a postdoctoral fellowship is to provide the candidates with enhanced skills to pursue a scientific top position within or beyond academia. To promote a strategic career path, all postdoctoral research fellows are required to submit a professional development plan no later than one month after commencement of the postdoctoral period.

Qualification requirements

The Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences has a strategic ambition of being a leading research faculty. Candidates for these fellowships will be selected in accordance with this, and are expected to be in the upper segment of their class with respect to academic credentials.

  • Applicants must hold a degree equivalent to a Norwegian doctoral degree in Computer Science, with excellent results. The applicant is required to document that the degree corresponds to the profile for the post. Doctoral thesis must have been submitted for evaluation by the closing date (07.April.2019). The thesis must have been approved and defended before appointment.
  • The evaluation considers many aspects of excellence, as well as the personal drive and organizational skills.The ideal candidate for the position will have strong background in distributed computing, language-based techniques, information-flow analysis, static and dynamic analysis of security and privacy requirements, formal methods and verification of security and privacy requirements, security protocol analysis, network security, and attack detection and prevention.
  • Knowledge of Norwegian is an advantage for the position, making coordination and cooperation with Norwegian partners easier, and it facilitates teaching at the department.
  • Fluent oral and written communication skills in English.

We offer

  • A strong research environment comprised by the ConSeRNS consortium. It has for instance achieved several best paper awards.
  • The postdoc will be coached a by large number of permanent members of ConSeRNS. This way, the postdoc will benefit from the cross-area competence built in the strategic research initiative.
  • A strong international network.
  • salary NOK 515 200 – 597 400 per annum depending on qualifications in position as Postdoctoral Research Fellow (position code 1352)
  • a professionally stimulating working environment
  • vibrant international academic environment
  • postdoctoral development programmes
  • attractive welfare benefits and a generous pension agreement, in addition to Oslo’s family-friendly environment with its rich opportunities for culture and outdoor activities

How to apply

The application must include

  • Cover letter, including a statement of motivation and research interests
  • CV (summarizing education, positions and academic work - scientific publications)
  • copies of educational certificates (academic transcripts only) and letters of recommentation
  • A complete list of publications and up to 5 academic works that the applicant wishes to be considered by the evaluation committee
  • list of reference persons: 2-3 references (name, relation to candidate, e-mail and phone number)

The application with attachments must be delivered in our electronic recruiting system. Foreign applicants are advised to attach an explanation of their University's grading system. Please note that all documents should be in English (or a Scandinavian language).

In assessing the applications, special emphasis will be placed on the documented academic qualifications as well as the candidate’s motivation and personal suitability. Interviews with the best qualified candidates will be arranged.

It is expected that the successful candidate will be able to complete the project in the course of the period of employment.

Formal regulations

Please see the guidelines and regulations for appointments to Postdoctoral fellowships at the University of Oslo.

According to the Norwegian Freedom and Information Act (Offentleglova) information about the applicant may be included in the public applicant list, also in cases where the applicant has requested non-disclosure.

The University of Oslo has an agreement for all employees, aiming to secure rights to research results etc.

The University of Oslo aims to achieve a balanced gender composition in the workforce and to recruit people with ethnic minority backgrounds.

Contact information

  • Professor Roman Vitenberg, e-mail: romanvi@ifi.uio.no
  • Professor Olaf Owe e-mail: olaf@ifi.uio.no.

For technical questions regarding the recruitment system, please contact HR Adviser Torunn Standal Guttormsen, phone:+47 22854272, e-mail:t.s.guttormsen@mn.uio.no

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