Associate Professor in Cryptographic Engineering

This is NTNU

NTNU is a broad-based university with a technical-scientific profile and a focus on professional education. The university is located in three cities with headquarters in Trondheim.

At NTNU, 9,000 employees and 44,000 students work to create knowledge for a better world.

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About the position

We are seeking a highly motivated and internationally recognized scholar to join our department as an Associate Professor in Cryptographic Engineering. The position offers an exceptional opportunity to contribute to cutting edge research and education in a rapidly evolving field crucial to modern digital infrastructure, secure communications, and trusted computing. The successful candidate will play a key role in strengthening our research profile, fostering collaboration with national and international partners, and shaping the next generation cryptographic engineering experts.

The position is based at the NTNU Trondheim campus Gløshaugen.

The role entails a balanced portfolio of research, teaching, and academic leadership. The successful applicant will be expected to develop and lead research projects, obtain external funding, and publish in top-tier international venues (such as IACR CHES, IACR CRYPTO, IACR EUROCRYPT, ACM CCS, IEEE S&P). The position also involves contributing to the department’s educational mission through research-based teaching, supervision, and curriculum development at bachelor, master, and PhD levels.
 
The successful candidate is expected to conduct advanced research in cryptographic engineering, with emphasis on areas such as high‑assurance and performance‑optimized implementations of cryptographic primitives, formal verification techniques, and resistance against side‑channel, fault‑injection, and microarchitectural attacks. Research activities may also involve system‑level integration and deployment of cryptographic mechanisms in resource‑constrained or security‑critical environments, including wireless and embedded communication systems. The position further offers opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration with researchers in adjacent domains within the department and across the university. 

Your immediate leader is the Head of Department.

Duties of the position

The associate professor will be a regular member of the department’s scientific staff, with privileges and duties following from that, including teaching and student supervision. The responsibilities include the following:

• Teach courses in cryptology, information security, and related subjects at the undergraduate and graduate levels, contribute to the development of course materials and study programs, and implement and promote student‑active learning approaches and modern pedagogical methods.
   
• Develop, lead, and maintain internationally recognized research activities within the field of Cryptographic Engineering
   
• Secure external research funding from national and international funding bodies, industry partners, and collaborative research programs.
   
• Contribute to an excellent learning environment in collaboration with colleagues, students, and external stakeholders. The associate professor is expected to supervise bachelor’s, master's and Doctoral students.
   
• Disseminate research findings to the broader public, including outreach activities, public engagement, and contributions to societal understanding of cryptography and cybersecurity.
   
• Contribute to the management and development of research, education, and academic activities within the department, including participation in committees, strategic initiatives, and administrative duties as agreed with the department leadership.

Required qualifications 

You must have the following qualifications required for the position of associate professor:

• A PhD with a strong focus on cryptographic engineering, e.g., within cryptography, information security, computer engineering, electrical engineering, or a closely related field. If you can document that the PhD thesis has been submitted, your application can be assessed even if you have not yet defended your dissertation. Documentation of the doctoral degree obtained must be presented before you can take up the position.
   
• Educational competence

You must document relevant basic competence in teaching and supervision at a university/higher education-level, as referenced in the NTNUs guidelines for academic positions. If this cannot be documented, you will be required to complete an approved course in university pedagogy within two years of commencement. NTNU offers qualifying courses.

Norwegian language skills at level B2

New employees who do not speak a Scandinavian language by appointment is required, within three years, to demonstrate skills in Norwegian or another Scandinavian language equivalent to level B2of the course for Norwegian for speakers of other languages at the Department of Language and Literature at NTNU. 

Preferred qualifications

• Demonstrated experience in supervising students at the Bachelor, Master, and/or PhD levels, with a proven ability to support high-quality academic development.
   
• Experience in university level teaching, including course development, delivery, and evaluation.
   
• Experience in initiating, leading, and managing research projects, including preparation of competitive grant proposals for national or international funding schemes.
   
• Documented experience with industrial, external, or international collaboration, particularly in contexts where research translates into societal or technological impact.

Personal qualities

• Ambitious and committed, with high expectations for both personal performance and the professional growth of colleagues.
   
• Dependable, respectful, and trustworthy, fostering a positive, constructive, and inclusive working environment.
   
• Self-driven and inspiring, with the ability to motivate others and contribute proactively to collaborative initiatives.
   
• Analytical and solution-oriented, demonstrating a holistic and systems-level perspective when approaching complex challenges.
   
• Capable of working effectively both independently and as part of a team, contributing constructively in interdisciplinary settings.
   
• Open and collaborative, with a willingness to share results, knowledge, and best practices with colleagues locally and internationally.

Emphasis will be placed on personal and interpersonal qualities.

We offer 

• Exciting and challenging tasks in a strong international academic environment 
• An open and inclusive work environment with dedicated colleagues 
• Favourable terms in the Norwegian Public Service Pension Fund 
• Employee benefits 

Application Process

You can find more information about working at NTNU and the application process here.

Video: https://youtu.be/bwfNPj8HxHw

Salary and conditions

As a Associate Professor (code 1011) you are normally paid from gross NOK 690 000 – NOK 885 000 per annum before tax, depending on qualifications and seniority. As required by law, 2% of this salary will be deducted and paid into the Norwegian Public Service Pension Fund.

The engagement is to be made in accordance withthe regulations in force concerning State Employees and Civil Servants, and the acts relating to Control of the Export of Strategic Goods, Services and Technology. Candidates who by assessment of the application and attachment are seen to conflict with the criteria in the latter law will be prohibited from recruitment to NTNU.  

After the appointment you must assume that there may be changes in the area of work.

For the necessary professional and social interaction, it is a prerequisite that you are physically present and available to the institution on a daily basis.

About the application

Your application and supporting documentation must be in English. 

The attachments (including a description of your scientific work) must accompany the application as these documents form the basis of the application assessment. The documents must be in Norwegian/a Scandinavian language or English. 

Please note: the application will only be assessed on the basis of the information we have received by the application deadline.Therefore, make sure that your application clearly shows how your skills and experience meet the criteria described above. The application and all attachments must be sent electronically via Jobbnorge.no. If you are invited to an interview, you must bring certified copies of certificates and diplomas upon request.

If, for any reason, you have taken a career break or have had an atypical career and wish to disclose this in your application, the selection committee will take this into account, recognizing that the quantity of your research may be reduced as a result.

Your application must include:

• Diplomas and certificates documenting completed education and relevant training.
• Curriculum vitae (CV) that includes a complete publication list and an overview of academic, administrative, and professional experience.
• Teaching portfolio, presenting your teaching competence in a systematic manner (See guidelines for applicants: Documentation of educational competence).
• Academic works (up to 5 items), published or unpublished, accompanied by a brief description of their relevance and why you consider them particularly significant for the assessment.
• Research plan outlining proposed research activities within the field of Cryptographic Engineering (maximum 5 pages).
• Documentation of project leadership, including projects for which you served as project manager or principal investigator, with information on funding source(s), duration, objectives, and scope.
• Names and contact details of three referees who can comment on your qualifications and suitability for the position.

It is important that you both document and reflect on your competence. You are encouraged to use the NTNUs competence matrix as a guide for  documentation of your competence.

Joint work will also be considered. If it is difficult to identify your specific input to a joint project, you must include evidence of your contributions.

In the evaluation of which candidate is best qualified, emphasis will be placed on education, experience and personal and interpersonal qualities. Motivation, ambitions, and potential will also count in the assessment of the candidates. Our assessment of the pedagogical skills will be based on documented pedagogical material, forms of presentation in your academic works, teaching experience, PhD, and Masters supervision, and any other relevant pedagogical background. Both quality and scope will be taken into consideration, and an open scientific practice will be recognized.

NTNU is obliged by the evaluation criteria for research quality in accordance with The San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment – DORA and the obligations in the Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment ( CoARA) on responsible assessment of research and recognition of a wider range of academic contributions to science and society. This means that we will pay particular attention to the quality and academic range demonstrated by your scientific work to date. We will also pay attention to research leadership and participation in research projects. Your scientific work from the last five years will be given the most weight.

Your application will be considered by an expert committee. Candidates of interest will be invited to an interview, and to deliver a trial teaching session.

General information

Diversity is a strength, and at NTNU we aim to be an employer that reflects the diversity in society and that makes use of the potential of the population's collective skills. Our vision is Knowledge for a better world and our values ​​are creative, critical, constructive and respectful. We believe that an organization that is equal, diverse, and gender-balanced is essential for us to achieve our goals.

We strive to attract employees with different skills, life experiences and perspectives to contribute to even better problem solving of our societal mission in research and education.  

If you think this position is relevant and interesting, we encourage you to apply, regardless of gender, functional ability, and cultural background, or whether you have been out of work for a period of time.

At NTNU we want to increase the proportion of women in scientific positions. We have a number of measures to promote equality. 

The city of Trondheim is a modern European city with a rich cultural scene. Trondheim is the innovation capital of Norway with a population of 200,000. The Norwegian welfare state, including healthcare, schools, kindergartens and overall equality, is probably the best of its kind in the world. Professional subsidized day-care for children is easily available. Furthermore, Trondheim offers great opportunities for education (including international schools) and possibilities to enjoy nature, culture and family life and has low crime rates and clean air quality.

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As an employee at NTNU, you must continually maintainand improve your professional development and be flexible regardingany organizational changes.

A public list of applicants with name, age, job title and municipality of residence is prepared after the application deadline. If you want to reserve yourself from entry on the public applicant list, this must be justified. Assessment will be made in accordance with current legislation. You will be notified if the reservation is not accepted.

For the sake of transparency, candidates will be given expert evaluationsof their own and other candidates. As an applicant you are considered part of the process and are stipulated by rules of confidentiality. 

If you have any questions regarding the position, please contact Basel Katt, e-mail basel.katt@ntnu.no. 

If you have questions regarding the recruitment process, please contact rekrutteringsteam@ie.ntnu.no

Application deadline: 12.06.2026