Research Assistant / Research Associate in Secure Electronic Systems

We are a world class research-intensive university. We deliver teaching and learning of the highest quality. We play a leading role in economic, social and cultural development of the North East of England. Attracting and retaining high-calibre people is fundamental to our continued success.

Salary
Research Assistant £32,546 to £34,132 per annum.
Research Associate £35,116 to £45,413 per annum.

The Role
This is a new opportunity to join the School of Computing as a Research Assistant/Associate on the Chameleon: Dynamic Device-Unique Confidentiality and Fingerprinting Project, funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). Chameleon is building the first environmentally-bound platform that preserves code and data confidentiality by design by linking program execution to a platform's ambient environment. To this end, Chameleon is employing a novel combination of instruction set randomisation (ISR), contextual key generation, and channel creation from shared telecommunication features.

This project is in collaboration with the Universities of Manchester and Essex.

We are seeking a motivated individual who is consistently meticulous in their approach to research and adept at problem solving. You should be co-operative and capable of producing high-quality research outputs as part of a diverse and interdisciplinary team. You should have excellent interpersonal skills and an aptitude for fostering close working relationships with internal and external stakeholders. You will possess good FPGA development skills (e.g. in Verilog) and microcontroller development experience. A strong grasp of computer architecture concepts and information security will be highly advantageous.

You will be responsible for the design, implementation and evaluation of the first generation of Chameleon processors. You will work on a soft-core environmentally-aware CPU design built around the RISC-V instruction set architecture. The platform will initially focus on microcontroller-style targets, e.g. single instruction pipelines, as a proof-of-concept implementation. You will be responsible for addressing the research and development challenges in building such a system.

The appointment of successful candidate is subject to security checks conducted by the UK National Security Technology and Innovation Exchange (NSTIx).

For all informal enquiries, please contact Dr Carlton Shepherd carlton.shepherd@newcastle.ac.uk.

For more information about the School of Computing, please click here.

For more information about our research, please click here.

This position is available on a full time (37 hours per week), fixed-term basis, to start immediately until 31st March 2026.

To apply, please complete an online application and upload a plain text copy of your CV and covering letter only. In your covering letter, you should evidence how you meet or exceed the essential and desirable requirements for the role (available on the university's website, accessed by the 'Apply' button). Please note, any other ‘Additional Document’ you upload may not be received by the reviewing panel.

As part of our commitment to career development for research colleagues, the University has developed 3 levels of research role profiles. These profiles set out firstly the generic competences and responsibilities expected of role holders at each level and secondly the general qualifications and experiences needed for entry at a particular level.

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