The Amsterdam Business School (ABS) has a vacancy for a PhD candidate in Machine Learning for Automated Auditing.

The audit profession was established about a century ago to provide assurance to stakeholders on the reliability and timeliness of financial information of companies. The auditor conducts an independent examination of the financial statements of an organization, including such items as the balance sheet, an income statement and a statement of changes in equity, and issues a professional opinion. Auditors have always tried to keep up with the pace of automation at their clients. However, progress has been moderate at best. Technology adopted is limited to simple tools to analyze data, electronic audit files, statistical software, automated testing of controls in ERP systems, standardized formats for the exchange of financial data, and occasional application of Continuous Auditing (CA).

The purpose of this research project is to develop automated auditing algorithms leading to productivity increases by an order of magnitude, using a combination of audit process redesign, advanced analytics and machine learning algorithms. The envisioned end-state would be an 'audit robot' capable of autonomously performing fully compliant audits on the financial statements of small to medium sized companies against a fraction of current costs.

We seek a highly motivated student with:

• excellent grades in MSc degree in Artificial Intelligence, Computer Science, Mathematics, Business Analytics, Econometrics, or a closely related field;
• a strong interest in scientific research on Machine Learning applied to Accountancy;
• excellent programming skills.

The appointment will be for a period of 4 years, with an intermediate evaluation after 18 months, resulting in a PhD thesis. An educational plan will be drafted that includes attendance of courses and (international) conferences. The PhD candidate is also expected to assist in undergraduate teaching.

The gross monthly salary will range from €2,222 in the first year to €2,840 in the last year. The Collective Labour Agreement (cao) for Dutch Universities is applicable.

What do we offer you?

Some of the things we have to offer:

• a unique community of Data Science researchers;
• a friendly and informal working environment;
• a high-level of interaction;
• a location in the city centre;
• an international environment (10+ nationalities in the group);
• access to high-end computing facilities (cluster with CPU 4,000+ cores and 50+ GPUs).

Since Amsterdam is a very international city where almost everybody speaks and understands English.

University of Amsterdam

With over 5,000 employees, 30,000 students and a budget of more than 600 million euros, the University of Amsterdam (UvA) is an intellectual hub within the Netherlands. Teaching and research at the UvA are conducted within seven faculties: Humanities, Social and Behavioural Sciences, Economics and Business, Law, Science, Medicine and Dentistry. Housed on four city campuses in or near the heart of Amsterdam, where disciplines come together and interact, the faculties have close links with thousands of researchers and hundreds of institutions at home and abroad.  

The UvA’s students and employees are independent thinkers, competent rebels who dare to question dogmas and aren’t satisfied with easy answers and standard solutions. To work at the UvA is to work in an independent, creative, innovative and international climate characterised by an open atmosphere and a genuine engagement with the city of Amsterdam and society.

http://www.uva.nl/en/home

Amsterdam Business School

The Amsterdam Business School (ABS) is a partner of Amsterdam Data Science, a network consisting of the academic knowledge institutes in the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area, and worldwide industry partners that focus on stimulating research and education in Data Science. The ABS is part of the Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB).The FEB provides academic programmes for more than 5,500 students and employs about 400 people. The Faculty conducts research in many specialist areas and participates in the Tinbergen Institute, one of Europe's leading graduate schools in economics, finance and econometrics.

http://abs.uva.nl/