Postdoctoral Researcher in Computer Science on Usable Privacy and PETs

Unist; Karlstads kommun; On-site; SEK 45,000 - 60,000; Full time

Job summary

Unist is hiring a Postdoctoral researcher to advance research on usable privacy at Karlstad University. The candidate will work on transparency-enhancing technologies and contribute to human-centered design and usability evaluations for privacy-enhancing technologies.

The position offers full-time fixed-term employment for two years with possible extension, starting 1st October 2026. Applicants should hold a recent PhD and have excellent knowledge of English.

Qualifications

• PhD must be completed within three years prior to application deadline.
• Very good knowledge of English, both spoken and written, is required.
• Knowledge of Swedish is a valuable qualification.

Responsibilities

• Contribute to human-centered design for PET solutions developed in EU project.
• Analyze users’ needs and develop usability guidelines.
• Collaborate with European project partners and contribute to teaching.

Skills

Usability research

Human-computer interaction

Privacy-enhancing technologies

Technical cybersecurity knowledge

Education

PhD in computer science or related field

Job description

Karlstad University / Faculty of Health, Science and Technology / Department of Mathematics and Computer Science

Organisation/Company Karlstads universitet Department Karlstad University / Faculty of Health, Science and Technology / Department of Mathematics and Computer Science Research Field Communication sciences Researcher Profile First Stage Researcher (R1) Application Deadline 7 Aug 2026 - 21:59 (UTC) Country Sweden Type of Contract Temporary Job Status Full-time Is the job funded through the EU Research Framework Programme? Not funded by a EU programme Is the Job related to staff position within a Research Infrastructure? No

Offer Description

Privacy and Security research group (PriSec) at the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science at Karlstad University is hiring a Postdoctoral (PostDoc) researcher to conduct research on usable privacy. Research within PriSec is specialized in privacy-enhancing technologies (PETs) and privacy engineering, network security, and usable security and privacy.

The postdoctoral researcher should conduct technical and interdisciplinary research on usable privacy and transparency-enhancing technologies as part of a new Horizon Europe Research and Innovation project on Privacy-Enhancing Technologies, which is expected to start on 1st October 2026. In this EU project, Karlstad University will together with eight other European academic and industrial partners contribute to the research of usable PETs for counteracting cross-platform opaque online tracking and for privacy-preserving analytics.

As a postdoctoral researcher in this position, you will have the opportunity to develop your creative and innovative ideas in these contexts. You will be working closely with the PriSec research group, part of the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, which provides a vibrant, inspiring, collaborative, and highly international environment for your work.

Due to the postdoctoral appointment nature as a career-development position for junior researchers, we are looking for candidates who have completed their PhD no more than three years before the application deadline. The position is offered for a period of two years with the possibility of a one-year extension.

Duties

In this project, your major task will be to contribute to the human-centred design and usability work for PET solutions developed in the EU project. This will include analysing users’ needs and requirements for usable PETs, followed by the human-centred and inclusive development and evaluation of usable and accessible user interface concepts and prototypes for transparency and PETs configuration. Moreover, you are expected to contribute to developing usability guidelines for PET developers and to evaluate PET solutions through suitable user studies based on the stage of the project development.

To achieve this, you will be closely collaborating with the project team at Karlstad University and with other European project partners. You are also expected to collaborate with the wider community for a mutual exchange, as well as work towards ensuring that the knowledge and expertise available at the university is of benefit to society. Participation in teaching, e.g., through contributions in courses or supervision of student theses and projects on topics relevant to the project, is a mandatory part of this position, with a maximum of 20% according to the current agreement for the position.

Qualification requirements

To be eligible for the postdoctoral appointment, applicants are required to hold a PhD in computer science or a related subject or have equivalent qualifications from abroad. The PhD must be completed before a decision to appoint an applicant is made. The candidate must have completed the degree no more than three years before the application deadline. Qualifications obtained earlier may be considered if there are special grounds, such as sick leave, parental leave, clinical service, service as a union representative, military service or similar, or service/assignment of relevance to the appointment.

Very good knowledge of English, both spoken and written, is a requirement as it is the working language of the project.

Assessment criteria

Special weight will be given to

• Documented expertise in conducting research relevant to the project, particularly in usable privacy, privacy-enhancing technologies, transparency-enhancing technologies, usability, human-computer interaction (HCI). Experiences with interdisciplinary research on usable privacy will be especially valuable.
• Knowledge of and experience with HCI research methods, user studies, usability evaluations, including qualitative methods such as interviews and focus groups and quantitative methods such as surveys.
• Personal qualities such as initiative, cooperation skills, and the ability to communicate with international and national project partners and to work both independently and in a team, a constructive and professional attitude towards colleagues and students.
• Documented ability to publish research results in relevant, well-recognised, international venues.

Considerable weight will be given to documented knowledge and expertise in technical and interdisciplinary cybersecurity, and particularly in network security, as well as in preparing and conducting academic teaching.

Weight will be given to documented experience in collaborating with, and documenting research results to, the wider society, and experience in working abroad and/or working in national and international networks.

Good knowledge of Swedish is a valuable qualification. Teaching experience in artificial intelligence, software engineering, data science and engineering, or privacy and security is also considered valuable qualifications.

Terms

Fixed-term full-time employment of 2 years, with the possibility of a one-year extension, starting on 1st October 2026 or as agreed.