PhD in Side-Channel Analysis and Machine Learning

Deadline 18 Nov ’25

11 Oct ’25 published

Vacancy ID 14480

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34 days remaining

Academic fields: Natural sciences; Engineering

Job types: PhD

Education level: University graduate

Weekly hours: 38 hours per week

Salary indication: €3059—€3881 per month

Location: Science Park 904, 1098XH, Amsterdam

Job description

Are you passionate about hardware security, side-channel analysis and machine learning? Do you want to contribute to research within an international environment? If the answer is yes, please continue reading!

Join Us!

Our modern society relies upon numerous electronic devices that use encryption to communicate and operate securely. However, even strong cryptography can break when the device hardware is attacked. Thus, the University of Amsterdam is looking for a strong MSc graduate that is interested in Machine Learning.

This is what you will do

• Conduct high-quality research in the field of Side-Channel Analysis and Cryptographic Engineering, resulting in academic publications in peer-reviewed international conferences and/or journals
• Contribute to our open-source teaching material in Bachelor and Master courses (in English)
• Supervise Bachelor and Master students
• Meet regularly with your academic supervisor to discuss and analyse the technical details of your ongoing research
• Perform research-oriented internships in the industry

What we ask of you

• Completed or soon-to-be completed MSc in Computer Security, Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, Mathematics, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering or related discipline
• Strong interest in learning hardware security, applied cryptography and side-channel analysis, through regular tutoring by the academic supervisor
• Background in Machine Learning, Signal Processing and/or background in Cryptography, Computer Security
• Fluency in oral and written English, good presentation skills
• Interest in collaborating with a highly international and open team
• Any educational and/or research experience in the field of cryptographic implementations (coding in C, Assembly, HDL), side-channel and fault attacks (coding in Python, Matlab, lab experience) is considered a plus.

This is what we offer you

A temporary contract for 38 hours per week for the duration of 4 years (the initial contract will be for a period of 18 months and after satisfactory evaluation it will be extended for a total duration of 4 years). The preferred starting date is January 2026. This should lead to a dissertation (PhD thesis). We will draft an educational plan that includes attendance of courses and (international) meetings. We also expect you to assist in teaching undergraduates and master students.

The gross monthly salary, based on 38 hours per week and dependent on relevant experience, ranges between € 3,059 to € 3,881 (scale P). This does not include 8% holiday allowance and 8,3% year-end allowance. The UFO profile PhD Candidate is applicable. A favourable tax agreement, the ‘30% ruling’, may apply to non-Dutch applicants. The Collective Labour Agreement of Universities of the Netherlands is applicable.

Curious about our extensive secondary benefits package? You can read more about it here.

You will work in this team

The Faculty of Science has a student body of around 8,000, as well as 1,800 members of staff working in education, research or support services. Researchers and students at the Faculty of Science are fascinated by every aspect of how the world works, be it elementary particles, the birth of the universe or the functioning of the brain.

The mission of the Informatics Institute of UvA is to perform curiosity-driven and use-inspired fundamental research and to train talent by high-quality academic education in diverse areas of informatics. Our research involves complex information systems focusing on collaborative, data driven, computational and intelligent systems in five research themes: Artificial Intelligence; Computational Science; Data Science; People, Society & Technology and Systems & Networking.

The Parallel Computing Systems (PCS) group at the University of Amsterdam performs research on the design, programming and run-time management of parallel and distributed computer systems. The modeling, analysis and optimization of the extra-functional aspects of these systems, such as performance, power/energy consumption, thermals, reliability, security or verifiability but also the degree of productivity to design and program these systems, play a pivotal role in this work.

If you feel the profile fits you, and you are interested in the job, we look forward to receiving your application. You can apply online via the apply button. We accept applications until and including 17 November 2025.

Applications should include the following information (all files besides your cv should be submitted in one single pdf file):

• a detailed CV including the months (not just years) when referring to your education and work experience;
• a letter of motivation;
• a list of publications;
• the names and email addresses of two references who can provide letters of recommendation.

A knowledge security check can be part of the selection procedure (for details: national knowledge security guidelines).

Only complete applications received within the response period via the apply link will be considered.

If you have any questions or require additional information, please contact:

Kostas Papagiannopoulos

T: +31 643439852

E: k.papagiannopoulos@uva.nl

Working at UvA

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Employer information

University of Amsterdam (UvA)