Ph D student position in Computer Science, autonomous resource management - Befattningen är under tillsättning eller redan tillsatt, och det är inte längre möjligt att lämna in en ansökan

Umeå University, the Department of Computing Science, is seeking outstanding candidates for a PhD student position in Computer Science with focus on autonomous management of microservices. Deadline for application is September 16, 2019.

Project description
We invite candidates to apply for one PhD student position funded by The Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation through The Wallenberg AI, Autonomous Systems and Software Program (WASP). The main goal of the PhD project is to simplify operations of microservices. Microservice architectures are predominant in modern software and are characterized by large-scale, complex communication patterns, and frequent deployments of new code. The DevOps movement and rapid adoption of Kubernetes illustrate this paradigm shift. This PhD project aims to develop methods, algorithms, and software for fully autonomous detection and handling of microservices system anomalies (abnormal system states that potentially can affect e.g., performance or robustness). The developed methods are expected to make use of machine learning to characterize system state, combined with statistical methods to classify detected anomaly types, and knowledge bases to automatically select and execute the most suitable remediation action(s). Extensive experimental evaluation in real systems with realistic benchmarks and workloads is foreseen. 

The position is at the Department of Computing Science at Umeå University, Sweden. The position is aimed for graduate studies in Computing Science within the distributed systems research group, but collaboration with researchers in e.g., software technology, control theory, mathematical statistics, or artificial intelligence is expected. (For further information, see www.cloudresearch.org).

Admission requirements
The general admission requirements for doctoral studies are an undergraduate degree and completed courses corresponding to at least 240 higher (ECTS) education credits, at least 60 ECTS credits of which were awarded in the second-cycle, or substantially equivalent knowledge otherwise acquired in Sweden or abroad.

To fulfill the specific entry requirements for doctoral studies in computing science the applicant is required to have completed courses at advanced level in computing science or another subject considered to be directly relevant for the specialization in question, equivalent to 60 ECTS credits.

Documented knowledge and a solid background in distributed systems, software technology, and/or machine learning is expected. The research is to a large extent interdisciplinary, and a broad competence profile and experience from other relevant areas (such as control theory, discrete optimization, and statistical methods), as well as experience from DevOps, open source, and the cloud-native ecosystem are considered a merit.

Important personal qualities are, beside creativity and a curious mind, the ability to work both independently and in a group, and experience of scientific interaction with researchers from other disciplines and in other countries. Good skills in both spoken and written English are a requirement for the position.

Terms of employment
The position is aimed for PhD studies and research during four years, leading to a PhD exam. The doctoral student position is mainly devoted to postgraduate studies (at least 80% of the time), including to take part in the WASP Graduate School, but may include up to 20% department service (usually teaching). If so, the total time for the position is extended accordingly (up to maximum five years). The employment will start as soon as possible, or as otherwise agreed.

Submitting your application
A complete application should contain the following documents:

• A cover letter including a description of your research interests, your reasons to apply for the position, and your contact information
• A curriculum vitae
• Copies of degree certificates
• Reprints / copies of Bachelors / Masters thesis, and other relevant publications, if any
• Contact information for three reference persons
• Documentation and description of other relevant experiences or competences, such as from (open source) software development (include github profile, if any) and work in or with industry.

The application must be written in English or Swedish, and attached documents must be written in or translated to English or Swedish. Documents must be in Word or pdf format. Applications must be submitted electronically using the e-recruitment system of Umeå University, and be received no later than September 16, 2019. Log on to the system and apply via the button at the bottom of the web page.

The procedure for recruitment for the position is in accordance with the Higher Education Ordinance (chap. 12, 2 §) and the decision regarding the position cannot be appealed.

Further information can be obtained from Associate Professor Johan Tordsson (email: tordsson@cs.umu.se).

More about us
The Department of Computing Science is a dynamic environment with more than hundred employees representing more than ten countries worldwide. We conduct education and research on a broad range of topics in Computing Science. The focus of the research in the Distributed Systems group is (autonomous) resource and application management for different types of clouds and distributed systems.

We look forward to receiving your application!