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At NTNU, 9,000 employees and 43,000 students work to create knowledge for a better world.
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Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KHQjc4ndas&t=41sAbout the position
Are you motivated to pursue a doctoral degree and explore how mobile networks can work together to keep critical services running when facing failures or congestion?
The Department of Information Security and Communication Technology (IIK) at NTNU has a vacancy for a PhD Candidate in Resilient Service Continuity Across Mobile Networks. As a PhD Candidate with us, you will work to achieve your doctorate, and at the same time gain valuable experience that qualifies you for a range of leading positions in business, administration, higher education and research.
The position is fully funded and will run for 4 years (100 % employment), including teaching duties. Your immediate leader will be the Head of Discipline, and the workplace will be in Trondheim.
About the project
Mobile networks increasingly support critical services in emergency response, industry, transport, and maritime operations. Access to several networks can improve resilience, but sustaining a service requires more than restoring connectivity. Independently operated networks must coordinate resources and priorities while managing dependencies and commitments to existing users. They may also depend on shared infrastructure or capacity leased from one another, limiting the resilience gained from access to multiple operators. Norway’s plans for a new emergency network (Nødnett) over commercial mobile infrastructure illustrate the relevance of these broader challenges.
As a PhD candidate, you will investigate how mobile networks can cooperate to maintain critical services during failures, congestion, and recovery. Your research will address networks that retain their own operational policies and exchange limited information about capacity and internal state, developing insights applicable across public and private networks. A specific focus will be on the networked systems mechanisms, data paths, and open interfaces needed to support resilient service continuity in multi-operator mobile network systems, addressing research questions such as:
- What information must networks exchange to make effective admission and resource-allocation decisions without requiring full visibility into each other’s infrastructure?
- How can service priorities and resource policies be coordinated across heterogeneous networks, including during congestion and large bursts of registration requests?
- How can network selection, traffic steering, and recovery mechanisms maintain application continuity while avoiding repeated switching and overload cascades?
- How do shared infrastructure, leased capacity, and dependencies between operators affect failure propagation and the resilience gained from alternative network access?
With the Beyond 5G lab at the department, the project will emphasize experimental systems research: you will have the opportunity to conduct your research in both commercial and open-source mobile network deployments and test your ideas under realistic conditions. To explore conditions beyond the scale of the physical deployments, methods including simulation and analytical modeling can be a complementary building block.
Duties of the position
- Complete doctoral education and obtain a doctorate
- Carry out research of good quality within the framework described above
- Academic publications and popular science dissemination
- Participate in the Networking research group
- Participate in international activities such as conferences and/or research stays at foreign educational institutions
- Teaching in courses related to networking
- Other career-enhancing work
Some changes to your work duties may occur after employment.
Required selection criteria
- You must meet the requirements for admission to the faculty's Doctoral Programme in Information Security and Communication Technology, see Section 6-1 of the PhD regulations for more information.
- You must have a relevant master's degree in communication networks, wireless and mobile communications, information security and distributed systems, or equivalent. Your degree must include a major independent project (minimum 30 ECTS) equivalent to a master’s thesis.
- Master students can apply, but the master's degree must be obtained and documented before starting the position and preferably within August 2027.
- You must have a strong and relevant academic background from your previous studies and have an average grade from your master's degree study, or equivalent education, which is equal to B or better compared to NTNU's grading scale. If you do not have letter grades from previous studies, you must have an equally good academic foundation. If you have a weaker academic background, you may be considered if you can document that you are exceptionally suited for a PhD education, for example through relevant work experience and/or peer-reviewed academic works.
- If you are in your master’s program, integrated PhD could be an option. Your MSc grades after your fourth year need to be completed with a grade B or better, in addition the IE-faculty require that your bachelor degree is completed with a grade C or better. Integrated PhD - Faculty of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering - NTNU.
- Excellent oral and written presentation skills in English.
The appointment is to be made in accordance with NTNUs guidelines for recruitment positions for general criteria for the position.
Preferred selection criteria
- Practical experience with 5G radio access and core deployments.
- Hands-on experience with communication networks including multi-vendor and softwarized environments.
- Exposure to resilience and dependability topics in the context of communication networks as part of the master’s curriculum.
- Teaching experience, preferably at master’s level.
- Good oral and written presentation skills in Norwegian or another Scandinavian language.
Personal characteristics
To complete a doctoral degree (PhD), it is important that you are
- Highly motivated by fundamental scientific research with practical relevance.
- Able to work independently.
- Able to work in a structured way, set goals, and make plans to achieve them.
- Eager to disseminate research results both locally as well as through publications and presentations at international conferences.
In the evaluation of which candidate is best qualified, emphasis will be placed on education, experience and personal suitability, as well as motivation, in terms of the qualifications specified in the advertisement.
We offer
As a PhD Candidate 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
In the position of PhD Candidate code 1017, your gross salary will normally be NOK 580 000,- per annum depending on qualifications and seniority. A 2% statutory contribution to the State Pension Fund is deducted from the salary.
The employment period is 3 years for the doctoral work in addition to one year of career promotion work.
The successful candidate will be granted conditional admission to the relevant doctoral programme when employed in the PhD position. It is a prerequisite for continued employment that the requirements for full admission are met within three months, and that you continue to participate in the organized doctoral programme for the remainder of the employment period. For more information about the requirements for full admission, please see Section 6 of the PhD regulations.
As an employee at NTNU, it is important that you keep yourself up to date with academic and organizational changes and 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 be in conflict with the criteria in the latter act, will not be able to be employed.
About the application
The application and all required attachments must be sent electronically via Jobbnorge.no before the deadline. The documents must be in Norwegian, another 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. If you are invited for an interview, you must present certified copies of certificates and diplomas upon request.
The application must include:
- Transcripts and diplomas for bachelor's and master's degrees, including diploma supplement
- CV filled out in Jobbnorge
- Copy of master's thesis. If you have recently submitted your master's thesis, you can attach a draft of the thesis. Documentation of a completed master's degree must be presented before taking up the position.
- A scientific proposal (max. 1000 words / 3 pages, written in English) including a brief problem formulation, research questions, methodological approach, and an initial progress plan for the project.
- Short letter of motivation (max. 400 words / 1 page)
- Any publications or other relevant research work
- Any relevant certificates
- Names and contact information of three relevant referees
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. If your institution does not offer “diploma supplement”, you must attach information about the grading scale from the education institution.
We further recommend that you enclose a statement about your education abroad from the Norwegian Directorate for Higher Education and Skills (HK-dir). Follow the link to their web site for more information about how to obtain such a statement: Apply for recognition of foreign higher education. See also NTNU’s web site for documentation requirements for education obtained outside Norway.
When assessing the best qualified, we emphasize necessary qualifications such as education, experience and personal suitability. Motivation for the position, ambitions, and potential for research will also count when assessing the candidates.
NTNU recognizes a wide range of academic contributions and has committed itself to
The San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment and
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 applicant list, 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 Associate Professor Stanislav Lange, e-mail:
stanislav.lange@ntnu.no.
If you have any questions about the recruitment process, please contact Senior Executive Officer HR Julie Lindland e-mail: julie.lindland@ntnu.no.
Application deadline: 30.11.2026.
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.