Fixed Term Contract 1 year, full-time, expected extension up to 3 years pending satisfaction of milestones.

The Resilient Computing and Cybersecurity Center (RC3) (https://rc3.kaust.edu.sa) of the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) invites applications for multiple post-doctoral positions in the broad areas of Cybersecurity and Dependability. The RC3 center is a newly created unit, which aims at developing the emerging area of Resilient Computing in symbiosis with classical Cybersecurity paradigms, fulfilling the innovative vision --- followed by an increasing number of stakeholders --- that “Resilience is the Cybersecurity of the XXI century”.

We are looking for researchers who have completed their Ph.D. in the past five years, or will complete their Ph.D. soon, and wish to bootstrap their career, embracing the unique opportunity of participating in the shaping of such a challenging and innovative research theme, as well as contributing to the ambitious research agenda of the RC3 center, supported by a very substantial funding landscape.

Your Role

Successful candidates will be given excellent conditions for the development of their research skills, in terms of working conditions, mentoring and laboratory facilities.

The main research topics this opening is calling for are aligned with the research priorities of RC3:

• Resilience and scalability of distributed systems (fault and intrusion tolerance, consensus, BFT, blockchain).
• New challenges in HW-assisted and adaptive R/T control and Byzantine Fault Tolerance (BFT) (CPS/IoT applications, namely autonomous land/air/space vehicles, control).
• New challenges in distributed blockchain systems and ledger technology (cybersecurity and resilience, energy and scalability).
• New challenges in digital health data, systems and processes (trusted life-cycle of biomedical data, sharing vs. privacy; safe and trustworthy operation of medical systems).

The candidates will work closely with Prof. Paulo Esteves-Veríssimo and his team members (https://cemse.kaust.edu.sa/cs/people/person/paulo-verissimo), interacting closely as well with other members of the Resilient Computing and Cybersecurity Center (RC3) (https://rc3.kaust.edu.sa). There are expected to do high-quality research, participate actively to projects, help mentor students and publish results in the most selective venues. Good communication and presentation skills are a must. English is the working language of this international laboratory.

Email informal enquiries / expressions of interest to: 

Prof. Paulo Esteves-Veríssimo:

Email: cybersec-jobs@kaust.edu.sa , Subject: CYBERSECURITY - POSTDOC APPLICATIONS

We offer

You will work in an exciting international environment with researchers from over 100 nationalities and will have the opportunity to participate in the development of the research center agenda and boost your career development and training (https://opra.kaust.edu.sa). Post-docs receive highly competitive salaries, and no income tax is currently paid to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.  Other benefits include free accommodation and healthcare, medical and dental insurance, one round-trip travel to home country per year, as well as general facilities as below, in a combination unmatchable by any other research environment worldwide.

About KAUST

KAUST (https://www.kaust.edu.sa) is an international, graduate-only research university, located on the shores of the Red Sea in Saudi Arabia. KAUST offers superb research facilities, including a supercomputer; generous assured research funding; and internationally competitive salaries. The liberal social policies coupled with the top-quality research facilities have succeeded in attracting top international faculty, scientists, engineers and students to conduct curiosity-driven and goal-oriented research, dedicated to inspiring a new age of scientific and technological achievement that will benefit the region and the world. All activities of the university are conducted on the basis of equality, without regard to race, religion, or gender.

KAUST’s award-winning campus has everything you need to live, work, study and play. With state-of-the-art fitness facilities, a golf course, numerous fine dining and casual fare restaurants, an Elementary and a Secondary school and the Red Sea just steps away, there is something for everyone (https://www.kaust.edu.sa/en/live). For more information about life and employment at KAUST please visit our Employment Website: http://www.kaust.edu.sa/employment/employment.html.

Thanks to very effective measures, including the involvement (https://coronavirus.kaust.edu.sa) of its researchers, the COVID-19 pandemic has barely affected the KAUST campus-city.

We welcome candidates with a PhD in Computer Science and/or Engineering, Informatics, or related areas, with a strong background in the theory and practice of one or more of Security/ Privacy, Dependability/ Fault Tolerance, of Distributed Systems and Networks and/or Real-Time and Embedded Systems.

We require documented experience about systems knowledge of one or more of: cloud/Internet computing and communication; peer-to-peer (P2P) infrastructures; blockchain and ledger technology; cyber-physical and Internet-of-Things systems (CPS, IoT); software defined and/or vehicular networking (SDN, VN); digital health technologies.

We consider as an advantage documented experience in design, verification, and/or evaluation, of several of dependable and/or secure distributed systems and networks; trusted computing and execution environments; dependable and/or secure distributed blockchain and ledger systems; privacy of biomedical, financial or social data. We consider as an added advantage documented experience in specific instances of the above topics: distributed fault and intrusion tolerance (a.k.a. BFT); resilience and scalability of distributed blockchain and ledger systems; trusted computing with mix-criticality or architectural hybridization (a.k.a. TEE); applied cryptography/coding and data privacy; virtual machine management and O.S. kernels; trustworthy and Byzantine resilient ML/AI.

The call is open to all applicants from any nationality. International applications are strongly encouraged. Fluent written and verbal communication skills in English are mandatory. We require commitment, team working and a critical mind.

How to Apply

You will be required to complete an application form and upload all of the following materials:

• Curriculum Vitae, including photo, your contact address, training record, work experience, publications, and clear evidence about the documented experience requested above in the call.
• Letter of intent (up to 500 words) including the personal motivations for applying to KAUST/RC3 and a statement indicating which research priority(ies) of RC3 listed above you are interested in, and explaining your motivations for it.
• Copies of up to three papers substantiating your background and/or experience in these topics.
• An abstract of your PhD thesis (max 1 page).
• Transcripts and results of all courses taken during the Master/PhD programs. Copies allowed.
• Contact information for 3 referees.

Because of the high volume of applications that we usually receive, only applications submitted through the online Interfolio form will be considered (https://www.interfolio.com/). Applications will be pre-screened as soon as they are received and will deserve full consideration through rolling cut-off date periods until all positions are filled. Candidates having applied by a given cut-off date (see below) will receive feedback within a reasonable delay thereafter.

Next cut-off date for applications: February 25, 2021.

Please click on the "Apply Now" button to submit your application