Reference: A3232

Senior Research Associate (Systems, ML) Trustworthy Autonomous Systems Node in Security 

School of Computing and Communications
Salary: £34804 - £40322 
Closing Date: 01 February 2021      
Contract: indefinite with end date
https://hr-jobs.lancs.ac.uk/A3232 

We are starting an exciting and wide-ranging fundamental research project that will address technical and social issues of security in order to develop Trustworthy Autonomous Systems (TAS). Lancaster’s Security Institute will lead the £3M EPSRC TAS Security (TAS-S) node for a 42-month period starting November 1, 2020. Lancaster is a top-10 UK university and is especially renowned for its unique socio-technical coverage of security. The TAS-S research also involves the Lancaster’s Intelligent, Robotic and Autonomous systems (LIRA) centre and is partnered with Cranfield University (a leader in autonomous system research). It is additionally supported by a range of UK, EU and international. academic, industry and policy partners including Airbus, BAE, Raytheon, Thales, NATO, CMU, EC-CONCORDIA/CODE, AIT, TTTech, Academia Sinica, Arthurs Legal, RISE and the UK Coast Guard.   

For the TAS-S team, we are seeking multiple enthusiastic (and innovative!) post-doctoral researchers with solid research credentials and, ideally, with experience of participation in collaborative research projects. These positions, covering technical and sociological disciplines, will research security across Concepts, Machine Learning, Controls, Communication, Law and Sociology.  

For this specific position, we seek candidates with broad interests in researching fundamental concepts/techniques for systems security. Our areas of interest are distributed/networked systems where we research middleware threat models, and especially the use of AI/Machine Learning techniques applied to control and decision processes of autonomous systems.   

This position offers an excellent opportunity to explore basic (academic and applied) research, and to collaborate with a multi-disciplinary group of investigators in accomplishing cutting-edge research. The role will encompass:

• Pursuit of basic security research.
• Research engagement with the project’s internal and external stakeholders.
• Participation in project workshops, seminars, dissemination and outreach events. 
• Support on reports, presentations and research proposals.

We will additionally provide PhD positions to support the RA’s research. 

This is a challenging and highly rewarding role for someone interested in growing their academic/applied research career, and in playing a key part in a major research effort focused on the future of the security and trustworthiness of Autonomous Systems. Further details of responsibilities are available in the job description.

You will join us on an indefinite contract. However, the role remains contingent on external funding which, for this position, will initially be for 24-months

This is a full-time position expected to start April 1, 2021.

For further information or an informal discussion please contact Professor Neeraj Suri, neeraj.suri@lancaster.ac.uk  or Prof. Plamen Angelov, angelov@lancaster.ac.uk 

We are committed to family-friendly and flexible working policies on an individual basis, as well as the Athena SWAN Charter, which recognises and celebrates good employment practice undertaken to address gender equality in higher education and research. We welcome applications from people in all diversity groups.