The initial contract is for three years but is limited to the duration of the PhD-project. An extension to finish the PhD is possible in accordance with the rules of the Academic Fixed-Term Contract Act (Wissenschaftszeitvertragsgesetz – WissZeitVG).

Biometric systems, such as face recognition, are used worldwide and have a growing effect on everybody’s daily life. The success of these systems is mainly driven by advances in deep learning. However, this success currently comes at the cost of major discriminatory factors such as fairness, privacy, reliability, and explainability concerns. Our research group aims to address these concerns, and thus the societal needs, to make the next generation of biometric systems secure and trustworthy.

Your duties and responsibilities:
• Conduct research in Responsible Machine Learning with Biometric Data.
Possible topics: Explainability, Fairness/Bias, Reliability, Privacy
• Take part in teaching (4h/week)

Your profile:
• Scientific Master degree in computer science or a related field
• Knowledge in machine learning, especially deep learning
• Analytical and problem-solving skills
• Highly motivated to do research
• Good writing and communication skills in English

We provide:
• The chance to participate in reputable conferences all over the world
• Open communication culture and agile workflows
• Work on highly relevant state-of-the-art research topics and technologies
• A family-friendly and flexible workplace with the opportunity for telework
• Personnel development through further training opportunities
• A supplementary employer pension scheme (VBL)

Since Paderborn University seeks to increase the number of female scientists, applications of female are especially welcome. In case of equal qualification and scientific achievements, they will receive preferential treatment according to the North Rhine-Westphalian Equal Opportunities Policy (LGG), unless there are cogent reasons to give preference to another applicant. Part-time employment is generally possible. Likewise, applications of disabled people with appropriate qualification are explicitly requested. This also applies to people with equal status according to the German social law SGB IX.

Interested applicants should send a short statement of research interest (1-2 pages), a curriculum vitae, scanned transcripts and diplomas, letters of recommendation (if any), and copies of relevant scientific papers (e.g., thesis). Please send your application as one PDF document using the reference number 6081 by October 15th, 2023 to Dr.-Ing. Philipp Terhörst, preferably by email: philipp.terhoerst@unipaderborn.de.

Information regarding the processing of your person data can be located at: https://www.uni-paderborn.de/en/zv/personaldatenschutz.