We seek to appoint 1 full-time post-doctoral research associate (starting Summer 2026) to complete a team of 4 researchers who are exploring novel concepts for security controls and assurance in converged and ultra-large scale infrastructures.

The successful candidate for this role will develop new techniques for orchestrating security controls in dynamic and complex systems undergoing frequent changes to their function and security requirements. This work will involve researching how to introduce interactions between security controls to achieve security goals and exploring the trade-offs of doing so. We seek to appoint a researcher who has either experience in abstract modelling of distributed systems or practical experience deploying and experimenting with security controls.

As a Programme Grant there is considerable flexibility in this research agenda. This allows the right candidate to have a significant ability to direct their research activities. This is a great opportunity for an individual to build their research career.

Key duties of this post include:

• Conducting original research to orchestrate security in future complex distributed systems.
• Developing high quality and impactful publications.
• Collaborating with academic, industry partners and other EPSRC projects.

 The successful candidate will have a PhD in Computer Science or equivalent with experience in cyber security or distributed systems.

The School of Computing and Communications at Lancaster University offers a highly inclusive and stimulating environment for career development, and you will be exposed to a range of further opportunities over the course of this post. We are committed to family-friendly and flexible working policies, as well as the Athena SWAN Charter, which recognises and celebrates good employment practice undertaken to address gender equality in higher education and research.

You will join us on an indefinite contract; however, the role remains contingent on external funding, which for these roles initially ends after 24 months (with the possibility to extend further).

The candidates will be working under the direct supervision of Prof. Neeraj Suri (neeraj.suri@lancaster.ac.uk)  and Dr. Matthew Bradbury (m.s.bradbury@lancaster.ac.uk). We welcome enquires prior to the submission of an application!

Closing Date: 18 Jul 2026

Department: Research

Salary: £39,355 to £45,413 (Full time, indefinite with end date)

We are seeking candidates to join our AI security group at Lancaster University, and  become part of this rapidly growing research field.

This position focuses on AI Agent Security, and specifically Shadow AI. ShadowAI – the deployment and use of Artificial Intelligence within an organisation without knowledge or approval from security teams – is a major issue within companies, given the rapid uptake of agents within organisations. ShadowAI is often hidden or embedded within software applications, and introduces threats spanning model backdoors, coordinated attacks, AI safety issues, and data leakage. This is particularly problematic given the introduction of ShadowAI at the computing edge to the wider organisation. Current tools and methods proposed across both academia and industry are unable to address this issue.

In this project, you will research how to defend AI agents from cyber attack. This research will provide opportunities resources atypical to a postdoctoral post, including a rapidly growing AI security lab, a large-scale GPU datacenter containing state-of-the-art foundation models, as well as direct collaboration with an award-winning AI security company Mindgard (https://mindgard.ai/), where you will work with industry researchers to tackle real-world problems. This project is a rare opportunity to become among the very few researchers in the world specialising in AI system security – an area that is becoming increasingly sought after in both academia and industry.

You will have a PhD in Computer Science, with expertise within cyber security, Artificial Intelligence, or distributed systems. Direct experience within AI security, Adversarial Machine Learning, or workload anomaly detection would be a bonus. Findings of this research are intended to be rapidly disseminated into industry, thus experience with developing prototypes and good software development skills are desirable.

The Edge AI Hub (https://edgeaihub.co.uk) is a £10M EPSRC project dedicated to systematic understanding of Cyber Disturbances in the context of edge AI. Successful candidates are expected to contribute to the research theme by carrying out cutting edge research work in security and privacy of AI applications and processes on the edge. This is a unique opportunity to work with an international team of researchers spanning multiple institutions in academia and industry as part of the flagship UKRI hub in AI. 

The School of Computing and Communications at Lancaster University was ranked 14th in the UK for research power according to the Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2021, with 94% of research rated world-leading (4*) or internationally excellent (3*). Lancaster University Cybersecurity represents an area of major strategic importance for Lancaster and we have recently announced a £19m programme of investment in Security and Protection Science. Lancaster University is the only institution in the Northwest recognised as an ACE-CSR, ACE-CSE, and offering a double-certified (NCSC and BCS) MSc in Cyber Security.

Closing Date: 28 Jun 2026

Department: Research

Salary: £39,906 to £46,049 (Full-Time/Indefinite with End Date)