Assistant Professor in Responsible AI and Cybersecurity, Tenure-track

The Ohio State University; Columbus (OH); In loco; USD 110.000 - 160.000; Tempo pieno

Descrizione del lavoro

The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio, seeks a tenure-track faculty member in the Computer Science and Engineering department to advance research in AI security, responsible AI, and governance. The role emphasizes cross-disciplinary collaboration across engineering, law, public policy, and industry.

We invite candidates who can build externally funded programs, publish in top AI and security venues, mentor graduate students, and contribute to undergraduate/graduate teaching.

Competenze

• Ph.D. in Computer Science or closely related field with cybersecurity focus.
• Strong publication record in AI, cybersecurity, or responsible AI.
• Experience developing new courses and engaging with industry/government partners.

Mansioni

• Develop an impactful, externally funded research program aligned with one or more focus areas above.
• Publish in top-tier security and AI venues (e.g., IEEE S&P, USENIX Security, CCS, and/or NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR).
• Develop auditing/evaluation methods for AI systems spanning fairness, safety, security, and governance.
• Engage with governance, legal, and policy dimensions of responsible AI deployment.
• Collaborate across security, AI/ML, systems, law, public policy, business, and responsible AI/governance efforts.

Conoscenze

Leadership

Teaching experience

Research leadership

Communication

Formazione

Ph.D. in Computer Science or related field

Strumenti

Threat modeling

Adversarial evaluation

Descrizione del lavoro

Department: Computer Science and Engineering

Position Overview

AI systems are simultaneously reshaping the cyber-attack surface and making high-stakes decisions across hiring, lending, criminal justice, healthcare, and public administration at a scale and speed that has outpaced the security controls, governance frameworks, and accountability structures needed to oversee them. The failure modes introduced by foundation models, agentic workflows, and data-centric pipelines, such as prompt injection, data poisoning, model extraction, supply-chain compromise, and unsafe tool invocation, do not map cleanly onto traditional defenses. At the same time, the gap between AI deployment and society's capacity to ensure that deployment is fair, transparent, and correctable continues to widen.

Closing both gaps demands researchers who work fluently across technical and socio-technical boundaries: building AI systems that remain secure under realistic adversaries, developing AI-driven tools that strengthen cyber defense, and ensuring that AI is auditable, accountable, and governed responsibly. Progress is not primarily a technical problem or a policy problem, but it is both simultaneously.

The CSE Department seeks a faculty member whose research addresses one or more dimensions of this challenge. The position is broadly scoped across two complementary thrusts:

• Cybersecurity of AI / AI for Cybersecurity: Building and evaluating systems that remain secure under realistic adversaries and deployment conditions, including attacks on models, data, and AI-enabled applications (e.g., LLMs and agents); and developing AI-driven methods that improve cyber defense outcomes, such as threat detection, incident response, and vulnerability discovery.
• Responsible AI, Auditing, and Governance: Advancing algorithmic auditing methodologies, bias measurement and mitigation, regulatory compliance frameworks, AI liability and accountability mechanisms, governance of foundation models, and the organizational structures through which institutions deploy and oversee AI systems.

We seek candidates who have deep strength in at least one of these areas and are conversant in the other to enable crosscutting collaboration, curriculum development, and joint projects. Ohio State is distinctively positioned to lead nationally in this space, with existing strengths across its engineering, business, law, and public policy colleges in a single campus that few computer science departments can match.

The strategic value of this tenure-track position is furthering the strategic need to sustain and grow Ohio State's excellence in AI. The successful candidate is being hired as part of the University’s AI Initiative and will be able to align with the AI(X) Hub initiative that is aiming at harnessing the transformative power of AI to solve complex challenges, accelerate discovery, and create meaningful societal impact (https://aihub.osu.edu). The successful candidate will join a rich institutional ecosystem: the Institute for Cybersecurity and Digital Trust (ICDT), the NSF Center for Responsible AI and Governance (CRAIG), the Program on Data and Governance, cross-campus partnerships with Ohio State's law, public policy, and business colleges, established connections to government and defense partners (e.g., Battelle), and an active industry pipeline. This convergence of technical and non-technical institutional strength makes Ohio State a genuinely distinctive environment in which to build AI security and responsible AI research that is credible and consequential to both audiences.

Tenure-track faculty members in the Computer Science and Engineering department are expected to contribute to the academic excellence of the department and participate in a variety of scholarly activities that contribute to the department’s overall success, including the following specific key responsibilities of this position:

• Develop an impactful, externally funded research program aligned with one or more focus areas above.
• Publish in top-tier security and AI venues (e.g., IEEE S&P, USENIX Security, CCS, and/or NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, ACM TOPS, ACM FAccT, and AIES).
• Develop innovative methods for auditing and evaluating AI systems for specification compliance, fairness, safety, security, and related dimensions of responsible AI.
• Engage with governance, legal, and policy dimensions of responsible AI deployment.
• Collaborate across security, AI/ML, systems, law, public policy, business, and responsible AI/governance efforts, including with the Center for Responsible AI and Governance.
• Advise graduate students and contribute to security, AI ethics, and AI governance curricula.
• Teach undergraduate and graduate courses spanning AI security, AI ethics, and/or AI management and governance.
• Engage with government, defense, industry, and NGO partners on applied research (as appropriate).

Performance Objectives

• Demonstrated excellence in verbal and written communication
• A record of high-quality research in the computing field
• Excellence in teaching, both in the classroom and in student advising
• Excellence in scholarship, associated primarily with research that enhances the state-of-the-art in computing
• Leadership in service, both to the profession and to the university
• Contributions to broadening participation in the field of computing
• An attitude conducive of good citizenship, including a commitment to interact with others in a professional, ethical, and constructive fashion
• Strong potential to achieve tenure and advance through the tenure-track faculty ranks

Education and Experience Requirements

Required:

• A Ph.D. in Computer Science, Information Science, or a closely related field, with demonstrated strength in cybersecurity of AI, AI for cybersecurity, responsible AI, auditing and governance, or a combination thereof.
• Evidence of research excellence and a clear forward-looking agenda in at least one focus area mentioned above.
• High-impact publications in core AI domains (e.g., machine learning, optimization, large language models, and autonomous agents) and cybersecurity, such as NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, IEEE S&P, USENIX Security, CCS, and NDSS or equivalent venues.
• Evidence of cybersecurity expertise beyond the routine application of existing tools, including threat modeling, adversarial reasoning, attack and defense design, and rigorous evaluation under realistic conditions. For cybersecurity of AI: The ability to identify and address security risks across the AI lifecycle, system components, and deployment environment.
• For AI for cybersecurity: Ability to develop and rigorously evaluate AI-enabled methods for cyber defense under adversarial and operational conditions.
• For responsible AI: Evidence of expertise in responsible AI across the AI lifecycle, including the development of new approaches, evaluation of failure modes, advancement of AI safety, reliability, and auditability, and consideration of relevant socio-technical, governance, and policy dimensions.
• Track record of (or clear potential for) cross-disciplinary collaboration and external engagement.
• Strong evaluation mindset: threat modeling, adversarial thinking, measurable outcomes, and reproducibility.
• Creation of new AI methods that have advanced knowledge, methods, or practice within a field or discipline.
• Leadership qualities and vision for contributing to a nationally recognized research center.
• Interest in cross-cutting collaboration with ECE, robotics/autonomy, law, and policy researchers.
• Experience with developing new courses and degree programs.
• Clear plans to create, implement, and oversee engagement with industrial or government partners.
• A commitment to interdisciplinary education and collaborative research.

Skills required for success

• Leadership and Collaboration: The candidate should demonstrate leadership and the ability to collaborate effectively in an academic setting.
• Mentoring and Teaching: Experience or training in mentoring and teaching is desirable.
• Communication Skills: Excellent interpersonal and communication skills are required, with a focus on working constructively, decisively, and collegially with both external and internal colleagues and interdisciplinary teams.
• Independence and Initiative: We value individuals who can work independently and are proactive self-starters with strong project leadership skills.
• Innovative Thinking: The candidate should be open to sharing ideas, continuously learning, and displaying innovative thinking.

The university is an equal opportunity employer, including veterans/disability.