Postdoctoral Fellow in Risk-based Decision Support for Human Supervisors

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

At NTNU, 9,000 employees and 43,000 students work to create knowledge for a better world.

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

     

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About the position

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

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

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, 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 supervising Professor, and your Line Manager is Head of Department.

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 provide decision support 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.
• A theoretical foundation for risk visualizations to human supervisors for both single and multiple autonomous systems. 
• 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, Human-robotics collaboration, 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. 
• Very good English skills, written and spoken
• This position is restricted by acts relating to Control of the Export of Strategic Goods, Services and Technology. This means that candidates from countries subject to export restrictions or listed in threat assessments from national security authorities will normally not be eligible. Candidates who by assessment of the application and attachment are seen to conflict with these criteria will be removed from recruitment to this position. 

PLEASE NOTE: For detailed information about what the application must contain, see paragraph “About the application”.

If you do not already have educational competence that meets the requirements for a position as associate professor in Norway, NTNU will arrange for you to acquire such competence during the employment period. In such cases, you will also be assigned relevant teaching as part of the career-promoting work.

 

The appointment is to be made in accordance with NTNUs guidelines for recruitment positions and Regulations concerning the degrees of philosophiae doctor (ph.d.) in artistic development work at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)for general criteria for the position.

As a result of the new Act relating to universities and university colleges with associated regulations of 01/08/2024, NTNU has, during a transitional period (for decisions on employment in recruitment positions before 1 August 2025), chosen to use the terms of employment in the old regulations of 31 January 2006 no. 102 on terms of employment for positions such as postdoctoral fellow, research fellow, scientific 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.)

Personal characteristics

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

Emphasis will be placed on motivation, personal and interpersonal qualities.

We offer 

• An exciting job with an important social mission
• Developing tasks in a strong and international professional environment 
• Career guidance throughout the postdoctoral program and together with you we will prepare a career plan, which containsthe skills and knowledge you will acquire
• Open and inclusive working environment with committed colleagues 
• Favorable terms in the Norwegian Public Service Pension Fund

As a Postdoctoral Fellow at NTNU, you will have access to employee benefits.

Diversity

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. 

Salary and conditions

As a Postdoctoral Fellow (code 1352) you are normally paid from gross NOK 604 900,- 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.

As an employee at NTNU, it is important to keep yourself up to date with academic and organizational changes and to adapt to them. 

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.

The appointment is carried out in accordance with the principles of the State Employees Act, and Export control (legislation that regulates the export of knowledge, technology and services). Candidates who, after assessment of the application and attachments, are considered to bein conflict with the criteria in the latter act, will not be able to be employed

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 follow the application. Please note that your application will be considered based solely on information submitted by the application deadline. You must therefore ensure that your application clearly demonstrates how your skills and experience fulfil the criteria specified 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 hasbeen taken abroad, we also ask you to attach documentation of the scope and quality of your entire education. Description of the documentation requiredcan be found here. If you already have a statement from Norwegian Directorate for Higher Education and Skills (HK-dir), 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.

If you have had leave or another break in your career, it is important that this is stated in your application so that the selection committee can take this into account and that the amount of your research may be reduced as a result.

In the evaluation of which candidate is best qualified, emphasis will be placed on education, experience and personal qualities. Motivation, ambitions and potential for research will also be emphasized in the assessment of the candidates.

NTNU recognizes a wide range of academic contributions and is committed to follow evaluation criteria for research quality according to The San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment DORA and the obligations in CoARA (responsible assessment of research and recognition of a greater breadth of academic contributions in accordance with NTNU's social mission).

General information 

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

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 Gjersvold, e-mail: marit.gjersvold@ntnu.no.

If you find this position interesting, and in accordance 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.

Application deadline: 22.01.2026

For practical information about working at NTNU, please visit this webpage. 
 

The city of Trondheim is a modern European city with a rich cultural scene. Trondheim is the tech 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.