Research Associate on Securing Convergent Ultra-large Scale Infrastructures

The Department of Computer Science is looking to employ a Postdoctoral
Researcher to work within an interdisciplinary team on securing convergent
ultra-large scale infrastructures (SCULI). The SCULI project is a research
collaboration between University of Oxford, University of Bristol and the
University of Lancaster that will be working closely with stakeholders and
organisations from industry and the critical national infrastructure sectors.





The project is investigating how to secure emerging ultra-large scale digital
infrastructures which are seeing convergence and connectivity at unprecedented
scale. This is true for both current critical national infrastructures and
emerging future systems, e.g., smart cities, intelligent transportation, high-
value manufacturing and Industry 4.0. Cybersecurity of such ultra-large scale
infrastructures faces unprecedented complexity. Diverse legacy and non-legacy
software and hardware compose on-the-fly to deliver services to millions of
users with varying requirements and unpredictable actions. This complexity is
compounded by intricate supply-chains and the need to deliver resilient
operations in the presence of untrusted, partially trusted or compromised
elements. Project web site: https://sculi.ac.uk





The successful candidate will be required to work primarily under the
direction of Professor Sadie Creese, with guidance from other senior academics
and will be based in the Oxford team focused on the following research
objectives:



• **Continual assurance at ultra-large scale** : How to reason, to requisite
levels of accuracy and at an appropriate pace, about the security state at
runtime to provide continuity of oversight and trust, when several elements
may be partially trusted, under attack, vulnerable or compromised?



• **Incident response at ultra-large scale** : How to orchestrate incident
response in a manner that accounts for heterogeneous incident response
practices in constituent systems and provides situational awareness at the
necessary pace and resolution for human-machine decision-making?



It is essential that successful candidate would hold a relevant PhD/DPhil or
being close to completion in computer science or information systems.





In addition, the successful candidate will be expected to collaborate with
researchers working across the SCULI project, and cybersecurity professionals
from business and industry.





You will be required to upload a supporting statement, CV and the details of
two referees as part of your online application. **The closing date for
applications is 12 noon on 13th January 2025.** Interviews are expected to be
held in January.





**We are a Stonewall Top 100 Employer, Living Wage, holding an Athena Swan
Bronze Award, HR excellence in Research and Race Equality Charter Bronze
Award.**





Our staff and students come from all over the world and we proudly promote a
friendly and inclusive culture. Diversity is positively encouraged, through
diversity groups and champions, for example
http://www.cs.ox.ac.uk/aboutus/women-cs-oxford/index.html , as well as a
number of family-friendly policies, such as the right to apply for flexible
working and support for staff returning from periods of extended absence, for
example shared parental leave.





Demonstrating a commitment to provide equality of opportunity, we would
particularly welcome applications from women and black and minority ethnic
applicants who are currently under-represented within the Computer Science
Department. All applicants will be judged on merit, according to the selection
criteria.