PhD Position on Privacy and Security of AI-as-a-Service Systems (m,f,x) for 3 years with 39,83 hours

In order to fill a fixed-term position in full-time (39.83 hours/week = 100%) at the earliest possible date, we are looking for 1

PhD Position on Privacy and Security of AI-as-a-Service Systems (m,f,x) for 3 years with 39,83 hours per week, TV-L E13

The Ruhr area, one of Europe's largest metropolitan regions, provides attractive career opportunities for outstanding scientists and scholars from around the world. In 2021, Ruhr University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, and the University of Duisburg-Essen established the Research Alliance Ruhr to consolidate their pioneering international research on humanity's most pressing challenges. This alliance encompasses four research centers and a college, marking a new chapter in our enduring collaboration as the University Alliance Ruhr (UA Ruhr), a vibrant community of 14,000 researchers and 120,000 students located in the heart of Germany. Join us and contribute to cutting-edge research at RC Trust, where innovation meets real-world impact. As part of the Research Alliance Ruhr, the Research Center for Trustworthy Data Science and Security unites the expertise of its member universities to bridge the gaps between Psychology & Social Sciences, Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning, Data Science & Statistical Learning, and Cybersecurity & Privacy. The Research Alliance Ruhr, a collaborative initiative by the three major universities in the Ruhr area, was established through the Ruhr Conference. It encompasses four research centers: "One Health Ruhr," "Chemical Sciences and Sustainability," "Trustworthy Data Science and Security," and "Future Energy Materials and Systems." Additionally, it includes a "College for Social Sciences and Humanities." The Research Alliance Ruhr is appointing up to 50 research professors and offers numerous positions for research assistants. Join us in creating innovations for the future within Europe's most densely populated yet greenest university landscape, where a diverse range of scientific and industrial partners are readily accessible. The position is embedded in the collaborative research project DAISY – Data Protection and Employee Interests in AI-as-a-Service Systems, funded by the German Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR) under the program "Plattform Privatheit – IT Security Protects Privacy and Supports Democracy." Organizations increasingly purchase AI capabilities as ready-made cloud services (AI-as-a-Service, AIaaS) without any insight into the underlying architectures, data flows, or security mechanisms. DAISY investigates how such systems can be adopted in a privacy-compliant and employee-centered way, combining computer science, psychology, and organizational science. Together with the University of Duisburg-Essen, Witten/Herdecke University, and the Bochum Economic Development Agency as application partner, the consortium examines the mental models that decision-makers and employees hold of AIaaS, contrasts them with the actual technical properties of these systems, and derives measures to bring the two into alignment.

This position covers the technical perspective of the project at Ruhr University Bochum: characterizing real-world AIaaS systems empirically, condensing their privacy- and security-relevant properties into risk profiles, and developing and evaluating privacy-compliant AIaaS configurations built from open-source components. The work follows a human-centered perspective on security and privacy, combining technical analysis with empirical research on the people who use these systems. The position is designed to lead to a doctorate and is embedded in the graduate structures of RC Trust. This is an on-site position in Bochum; regular presence at the university is expected. Remote work is possible on individual days by arrangement, but the position cannot be carried out fully remotely.

Scope: full-time
Duration: fixed-term, 36 Monate
Start: at the earliest possible date
Apply by: 2026-10-05

Your tasks:

Within the project, you will shape your own research agenda around the following tasks:

• Survey the technical state of the art on privacy and security architectures of AIaaS in a systematic literature review
• Empirically characterize commercially available AIaaS systems with respect to their privacy- and security-relevant properties, and systematize the findings into risk profiles
• Design, implement, and iteratively refine privacy-compliant AIaaS configurations from open-source components, and test them on real use cases with our application partner
• Evaluate these configurations with respect to security, performance, and scalability
• Collaborate closely with partners from psychology, organizational science, and practice, and make technical findings accessible to non-expert audiences
• Publish research results at leading international venues in security, privacy, and human-centered security

Your profile:

• Master's degree in computer science, IT security, or a closely related technical field (or shortly before completion)
• Solid programming skills (e.g., Python) and practical experience with web APIs and cloud services
• Hands-on experience with large language models — for instance, self-hosting open-weight models, building LLM-based pipelines, or working with commercial provider APIs
• First research experience in security and privacy
• Demonstrable interest in interdisciplinary research, and in working with companies as practice partners
• High proficiency in English, both written and spoken, for scientific publications and presentations
• Working proficiency in German (at least B2, or willingness to reach this level early in the project): the project is carried out with German partner organizations and reporting to the funding agency is in German

https://jobs.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/jobposting/35c78989e42d5d9fedf8cd41f3347989825ae0ce0?ref=AfA