Postdoctoral Fellow in Risk-based Decision Support for Human Supervisors

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

About the job

The postdoctoral fellowship position is a temporary position where the main goal is to qualify for work in senior academic positions.

“Would you like to contribute to enabling risk-aware collaboration between autonomous systems and human supervisors?”

The Department of Marine Technology has a vacant 3-year Post Doc position at the Faculty of Engineering in fundamental research on risk assessment and decision support for autonomous systems. The position is funded by the ERC AdG Breach (https://www.ntnu.edu/web/imt/erc-advanced-grant-breach), and will focus both on researching theory and performing experiments. The goal of Breach is to realize risk-based rationality in autonomous systems to achieve more proactive and intelligent behaviours, improve system safety, and leave the human supervisor with enough time to react and intervene efficiently when needed. 

Close cooperation is expected with the other Post Doc and PhDs in the interdisciplinary project.

Your immediate leader is the Head of Department and the Supervising Professor.

Duties of the position

• To develop risk assessment, models, theory, and visualizations, under normal operation and in emergencies, to enable monitoring and detection of potential deviations of the system’s operational boundaries and determine recommendations to the human supervisor.
• To investigate the fundamental challenges related to risk acceptance and ethics that arise when risk is quantified and measured, which is necessary for both human decision support and for supervisory risk control.
• To contribute to synthesizing the research results in the project into a coherent framework.
• The position will be responsible for experimental testing, and for developing scientific journal and conference publications related to the above-mentioned topics.
• Be responsible for the data collection and management in the project.
• Teaching and supervision duties may be expected.

Required selection criteria

• You must have completed a Norwegian doctoral degree or corresponding foreign doctoral degree recognized as equivalent to a Norwegian PhD in Marine Technology; Reliability, Availability, Maintenance, Safety (RAMS), Human factors, or similar.
• 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 obtained doctoral degree must be presented before you can take up the position. 
• Excellent English skills, written and spoken, are required. Applicants from non-English speak countries outside Europe must present an official language test report. The acceptable tests are TOEFL, IELTS, and Cambridge Certificate in Advanced English (CAE) or Cambridge Certificate of Proficiency in English (CPE). Minimum scores are:            
  • TOEFL: 600 / writing 4.5 (paper-based test), 92 / writing 22 (internet-based test)            
  • IELTS: 6.5, with no section lower than 5.5 (only Academic IELTS test accepted)
  • CAE/CPE: grade B or A.

The appointment is to be made in accordance with Regulations on terms of employment for positions such as postdoctoral fellow, Ph.D Candidate, research assistant and specialist candidate.

Preferred selection criteria

• Experience with risk analysis, human reliability, and risk modeling (any sector)
• Experience with experimental work, in particular human factor experiments
• Experience with robotics/autonomous systems
• Knowledge about marine technology
• Norwegian oral and written language skills
• Excellent programming skills (MATLAB, Python etc.)
• Academic results, publications, relevant specialization, work or research experience, personal qualifications, and motivation and a desire to make an impact on critical societal problems will be considered when evaluating the applicants.
• Highly motivated candidate.

Personal characteristics

• Structured
• Thourough
• Trustworthy
• Innovative, creative and open minded

Emphasis will be placed on personal and interpersonal qualities.

We offer 

• exciting and stimulating 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 

Salary and conditions

As a Postdoctoral Fellow (code 1352) you are normally paid from gross NOK 594 500 per annum before tax, depending on qualifications and seniority. From the salary, 2% is deducted as a contribution to the Norwegian Public Service Pension Fund.

The period of employment is 3 years.

The engagement is to be made in accordance with the 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.

It is a prerequisite you can be present at and accessible to the institution on a daily basis.

About the application 

The application and supporting documentation to be used as the basis for the assessment must be in English. 

Publications and other scientific work must be attached to the application. Please note that applications are only evaluated based on the information available on the application deadline. You should ensure that your application shows clearly how your skills and experience meet the criteria which are set out above.  

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. 

The application must include: 

• CV and certificates 
• transcripts and diplomas for bachelor's-, master's- and PhD degrees. If you have not yet completed your Ph.D, you must provide confirmation on your estimated date for the doctoral dissertation, or that your PhD thesis has been submitted
• A copy of the doctoral thesis. If you are close to submitting, or have recently submitted your thesis, you can attach a draft of the thesis. Documentation of a completed doctoral degree must be presented before taking up the position.
• Academic works - published or unpublished - that you would like to be considered in the assessment (up to 5 items)
• Research plan (1-2 pages)
• Name and contact information of three referees (including email addresses and telephone number)

If all, or parts, of your education has been taken abroad, we also ask you to attach documentation of the scope and quality of your entire education, both bachelor's and master's education, in addition to other higher education. Description of the documentation required can be found here. If you already have a statement from Norwegian Directorate for Higher Education and Skills, please attach this as well.
 
Joint works will be considered. If it is difficult to identify your contribution to joint works, you must attach a brief description of your participation. 

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. 

NTNU is committed to following evaluation criteria for research quality according to The San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment - DORA. 

General information 

NTNU believes that inclusion and diversity is a strength. We want our faculty and staff to reflect Norway’s culturally diverse population and we continuously seek to hire the best minds. This enables NTNU to increase productivity and innovation, improve decision making processes, raise employee satisfaction, compete academically with global top-ranking institutions and carry out our social responsibilities within education and research. NTNU emphasizes accessibility and encourages qualified candidates to apply regardless of gender identity, ability status, periods of unemployment or ethnic and cultural background.

NTNU is working actively to increase the number of women employed in scientific positions and has a number of resources to promote equality. 

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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 maintain and improve your professional development and be flexible regarding any 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.

If you have any questions about the position, please contact Professor Ingrid Bouwer Utne, telephone +47 982 22 465, email: Ingrid.b.utne@ntnu.no. If you have any questions about the recruitment process, please contact Marit Gersvold, e-mail: marit.gjersvold@ntnu.no

If you think this looks interesting and in line with your qualifications, please submit your application electronically via jobbnorge.no with your CV, diplomas and certificates attached. Applications submitted elsewhere will not be considered. Upon request, you must be able to obtain certified copies of your documentation.