outstanding researcher

University of Bristol; Bristol; On-site; GBP 45,000 - 65,000; Full time

Job summary

The University of Bristol invites applications for an outstanding researcher to join the AURA project focused on securing AI-native Future Networks. You will explore threat landscapes, design policy mappings, and build runtime assurance for autonomous AI in private 5G networks.

Ideal candidates hold a PhD (or near completion) in CS/CE/Networks, with strong cybersecurity fundamentals, Python experience, and a track record in AI security for telecoms.

Qualifications

• PhD or near completion in CS/CE/Networks/Communications.
• Deep understanding of cybersecurity concepts, threats and AI applications in network security.
• Experience in Agentic AI security in 5G and Beyond networks.

Responsibilities

• Identify and document threat landscape across data ingestion, intent interface and execution layers.
• Simulate agent misuse and multi-agent coordination attack scenarios on a live partner platform.
• Design intent-to-policy mapping to translate agent intent into verifiable policy constraints.
• Develop a runtime decision validation engine to evaluate proposed actions against security models.
• Implement dynamic trust scoring based on historical agent behavior and monitoring.
• Develop automated mitigation strategies including rollback and agent isolation protocols.
• Publish research findings in high-impact journals and present at conferences (IEEE S&P, ACM CCS, USENIX).
• Evaluate research experimentally using partner platform and JOINER infrastructure.

Skills

Cybersecurity fundamentals

Agentic AI security

Python programming

5G network security

Linux/Unix environments

Education

PhD or near completion in CS/CE/Networks/Communications

Job description

The Smart Internet Lab at the University of Bristol is seeking an outstanding researcher to join the newly funded AURA (Autonomous Unified RAN Architecture) project. AURA introduces autonomous AI-driven network management across critical network infrastructure, utilising AI agents that sense, decide, orchestrate, and propose configuration changes with minimal human intervention. This role focuses exclusively on addressing the critical security challenges created by the AI-native Future Networks architecture, ensuring the AI management layer remains trustworthy, secure, and resilient to compromise. The aim is to target agentic AI security assurance. You will be part of a team addressing the security and resilience of private 5G networks deployed across critical infrastructure sectors. The successful candidate will conduct novel academic and high Technology Readiness Level (TRL) Agentic AI security assurance research to characterise threat landscapes, conduct adversarial testing, develop runtime assurance mechanisms, and enforce zero-trust principles on the autonomous AI layer.What will you be doing?

• Identifying and documenting the threat landscape across the data ingestion, intent interface, and execution layers of the Agentic AI system.
• Simulating and demonstrating agent misuse and multi-agent coordination attack scenarios on a live partner platform to establish a concrete attack landscape.
• Designing and implementing intent-to-policy mapping to translate agent intent into verifiable formal policy constraints.
• Developing a runtime decision validation engine to evaluate proposed configuration actions against cross-layer security dependency models.
• Implementing dynamic trust scoring mechanisms based on historical agent behavior and continuous behavioral monitoring across decision patterns and network-layer security impacts.
• Developing automated mitigation strategies without human intervention, including rollback mechanisms and agent isolation protocols for compromised agents.
• Publishing research findings in high-impact journals and presenting at leading conferences such as IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy, ACM CCS, or USENIX Security Symposium.
• Evaluating research experimentally using the project partner's agentic AI platform and the University's JOINER national open-networks experimentation infrastructure
  You hold a PhD or near completion or equivalent R&D experience in computer science, computer engineering, networks, or communications.
• You possess an in-depth understanding of fundamental cybersecurity concepts, threats, vulnerabilities, and AI applications in network security.
• You have demonstrated experience in Agentic AI security in 5G and Beyond networks.
• You have a working knowledge of telecom standards and specifications, such as O-RAN, 3GPP, and ETSI.
• You have programming experience, preferably using Python, within a Linux/Unix-based research or development environment.
• For higher grades (Senior Research Associate/Research Fellow), you should demonstrate substantial postdoctoral or equivalent research experience, independent research leadership, and specialist knowledge in areas like AI/ML security, agentic AI, zero-trust frameworks, and cloud-native observability tools.