Mauro Conti

Örebro University and the School of Science and Technology invite applications for a doctoral student position in Computer Science, focusing on AI Runtime Security Assurance. This PhD opportunity is part of the RESIST centre, a national initiative funded by the Swedish Strategic Research Foundation (SSF), dedicated to advancing cyber resilient AI for Swedish industry and society. The centre unites leading researchers in AI and cybersecurity, aiming to make Sweden a global role model in secure, trustworthy AI by pioneering cyber resilience across the AI lifecycle. The research program at RESIST encompasses four main themes: Trustworthy and Verifiable AI, Runtime Security Assurance, Robust and Secure AI-Supported Development, and Resilient Distributed and Agentic AI. The PhD project is closely aligned with the Runtime Security Assurance theme, addressing the protection of AI models during deployment and inference. AI models, including convolutional neural networks (CNNs), recurrent neural networks, large language models (LLMs), and large reasoning models (LRMs), are increasingly deployed in diverse environments, broadening their attack surface and exposing them to inference-time threats. These threats can compromise robustness, privacy, and alignment safeguards. The doctoral research will focus on developing techniques to ensure reliable outputs under adversarial input attacks and dependable model behavior in the presence of malicious or policy-subverting prompts. Specific areas of investigation include defending LLMs and LRMs against jailbreak attacks and behavioral manipulation, mitigating inference-time privacy leakage, and preventing unauthorized model replication. The ultimate goal is to integrate these techniques into a unified framework for runtime security assurance of AI models. The research is highly collaborative, with strong integration across other themes within the centre and validation in real-world scenarios with industry and public-sector partners. Supervision will be provided by Professor Mauro Conti (primary) and Dr. Alberto Giaretta (secondary). The doctoral program consists of coursework and an independent research project culminating in a doctoral thesis. The program is full-time, spanning four years (240 credits), and includes a tailored seminar series covering doctoral program rules, career development, support, and networking. The position is linked to a full-time doctoral studentship, with an initial salary of SEK 32,300 per month. Applicants must meet both general and specific entry requirements. General requirements include a second-cycle qualification, at least 240 credits (with at least 60 credits in the second cycle), or equivalent knowledge. Specific requirements for Computer Science include a Master of Science in Engineering or a one-year Master’s degree in a relevant subject, or at least 120 credits (with at least 30 credits in the second cycle and an independent project of at least 15 credits) in a main field relevant to computer science. Equivalent knowledge from Sweden or abroad is also accepted. Application documents must be in Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, or English; other languages require authorized translation. Örebro University values openness, trust, respect, equal opportunities, and diversity. The application is made online. Required documents include CV, proof of meeting entry requirements, degree certificates, independent project, and a description of research interests. The application deadline is April 1, 2026. For further information, contact Dr. Alberto Giaretta ([email protected]) or Professor Mauro Conti ([email protected]). More details and application instructions are available on the university’s career site.