Are you fascinated by security? Are you interested in developing methods to analyse data while respecting privacy and ensuring security of the handled information? Do you like to work in a team of young researchers? We are seeking two PhD candidates interested in interdisciplinary research on the development, efficient implementation (hardware and software), use, orchestration, and improvement of privacy-preserving and data anonymization techniques.

The PhD positions will be within the Complex Cyber Infrastructure (CCI) group of the Informatics Institute. The positions are part of the SECURED Horizon Europe Project.

What are you going to do?

Tasks and responsibilities:

• Carry out original research in the field of implementation and applications of privacy preserving technologies for data analytics in healthcare;
• Be active in the fundamental and/or applied research area, publishing in high level international journals and presenting at leading conferences;
• Take part in ongoing educational activities, such as assisting in a course and guiding student thesis projects, at the BSc or MSc level;
• Collaborate with other groups, institutes and/or companies by contributing expertise to joint research projects;
• Contribute to activities and deliverables of the SECURED project.

Your experience and profile:

• A MSc degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or Electrical Engineering (or a related discipline);
• Strong analytical and technical skills;
• An interdisciplinary mindset and an open and proactive personality in interacting with researchers from different disciplines;
• A strong scientific interest in security and privacy, in particular in at least one of the following two fields:
• efficient implementation of cryptographic and privacy preserving primitives, both in hardware and in software;
• application, orchestration, and improvement of privacy-preserving techniques to achieve given data protection objectives;
• The willingness to work in a highly international research team;
• Fluency in oral and written English and good presentation skills;
• Good problem-solving skills;
• Ability to assess practical implementation of privacy preserving techniques.

Prior experience in hardware design or design space exploration would be considered a plus, but it is not required.

A temporary contract for 38 hours per week for the duration of 4 years (the initial contract will be for a period of 18 months and after satisfactory evaluation it will be extended for a total duration of 4 years). The preferred starting date is as soon as possible. This should lead to a dissertation (PhD thesis). We will draft an educational plan that includes attendance of courses and (international) meetings. We also expect you to assist in teaching undergraduates and master students.

The gross monthly salary, based on 38 hours per week and dependent on relevant experience, ranges between € 2,541 in the first year to € 3,247 in the last year (scale P). This does not include the 8% holiday allowance and the 8,3% year-end allowance the UvA offers. The UFO profile PhD Candidate is applicable. A favourable tax agreement, the '30% ruling', may apply to non-Dutch applicants. The Collective Labour Agreement of Universities of the Netherlands is applicable.

Besides the salary and a vibrant and challenging environment at Science Park we offer you multiple fringe benefits:

• 232 holiday hours per year (based on fulltime) and extra holidays between Christmas and 1 January;
• Multiple courses to follow from our Teaching and Learning Centre;
• A complete educational program for PhD students;
• Multiple courses on topics such as leadership for academic staff;
• Multiple courses on topics such as time management, handling stress and an online learning platform with 100+ different courses;
• 7 weeks birth leave (partner leave) with 100% salary;
• Partly paid parental leave;
• The possibility to set up a workplace at home;
• A pension at ABP for which UvA pays two third part of the contribution;
• The possibility to follow courses to learn Dutch;
• Help with housing for a studio or small apartment when you're moving from abroad.

Are you curious to read more about our extensive package of secondary employment benefits, take a look here.

Faculty of Science

The University of Amsterdam is the Netherlands' largest university, offering the widest range of academic programmes. At the UvA, 42,000 students, 6,000 staff members and 3,000 PhD candidates study and work in a diverse range of fields, connected by a culture of curiosity.

The Faculty of Science has a student body of around 8,000, as well as 1,800 members of staff working in education, research or support services. Researchers and students at the Faculty of Science are fascinated by every aspect of how the world works, be it elementary particles, the birth of the universe or the functioning of the brain.

The mission of the Informatics Institute (IvI) is to perform curiosity-driven and use-inspired fundamental research in Computer Science. The main research themes are Artificial Intelligence, Computational Science and Systems and Network Engineering. Our research involves complex information systems at large, with a focus on collaborative, data driven, computational and intelligent systems, all with a strong interactive component.

The Complex Cyber Infrastructure (CCI) group focuses its research on the complexity of man-made systems on all scales. This scale can be small, like the devices that you carry with you, or the apps they are running, or the communication protocols these apps use to interact. It can be also comprehensive, as in large systems such as data centres or multi-domain networks.
The complexity of these systems is caused by the fact that more and more cyber infrastructure - e.g. routers, switches, the cloud - is reprogrammable nowadays. This offers many possibilities, but it also makes the equipment more difficult to operate and less transparent. Further, there is the complexity of mapping in computational terms the data sharing requirements which are defined at societal level, through legislation, organizational policies, private data-sharing agreements, and consents.
CCI positions itself primarily in the Systems & Networking and Data Science research themes of the Informatics Institute.

Want to know more about our organisation? Read more about working at the University of Amsterdam.