Vacancy: Research Assistant/Associate in Software Security and Formal Analysis, University of Newcastle

Closing Date: 07 January 2024

There is an exciting opportunity for a highly motivated and independent individual to join an EPSRC research project (TRUSTED: SecuriTy SummaRies for SecUre SofTwarE Development) as a Research Assistant or Associate. The focus of this position is to design and develop theories and tools with solid foundations for secure open-source software development. The developed solutions will protect against software supply chain attacks where the attacker compromises any steps in the software development process by deliberately incorporating vulnerabilities into the code to be triggered at a later stage of the software life cycle.

We are looking for an individual with strong conceptual, analytical, and problem-solving skills who has the ability to plan the work independently with minimal supervision and adhere to a time plan to meet the deadlines. You should have demonstrable programming skill (preferably in functional languages, Rust or Java) and experience in tool development.

You will enjoy collaborating closely with the project team including Dr. Narges Khakpour (Newcastle University), Prof. Sven Schewe and Dr. Dominik Wojtczak (University of Liverpool), and the project’s industrial partners Google and OCamlPro. You will join the Secure and Resilient Systems(SRS) group, a thriving and growing team engaged in cyber security research at the School of Computing, Newcastle University. SRS is at the core of Newcastle ACE-CSR, an accredited  Excellence Centre in Cyber security Research, one of only 19 accredited centres of excellence in the UK.

The position is available on a full time basis for a period of 24 months from start date (with possibility of extension).

To apply, please complete an online application and upload a plain text copy of your CV and cover letter only. In your cover letter, you should evidence how you meet the essential requirements for the role.

Please reach out to Dr. Narges Khakpour at narges.khakpour@newcastle.ac.uk if you have any questions.