Postdoctoral Researcher - Language- Security

Postdoctoral Researcher - Language-Based Security

Job Title:

Postdoctoral Researcher - Language-Based Security

Location:

Campus (Syracuse, NY)

Pay Range: $60,450 - $65,000

FLSA Status:
Exempt

Hours:

As determined by principal investigator.

Job Type: Full-time

Union:
This position is part of a bargaining unit and is represented by the union SEIU, Local 200

United.

Prof. Kristopher Micinski at Syracuse University (SU), in Syracuse, NY is seeking a Postdoctoral Researcher to work in the area of language-based security, utilizing a variety of approaches, including security type systems, static / dynamic analysis for security properties, and information flow (especially its static and dynamic enforcement). Prof. Micinski’s work is primarily focused on automated reasoning, with applications to static/dynamic analysis of security properties of programs.

The successful candidate will join Prof. Kristopher Micinski’s research group in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. This postdoctoral position is available in Fall 2025.

• Doctoral degree in Computer Science. Exceptional candidates from other fields are also welcome to apply.
• Proven track record of publishing at competitive venues in programming languages, security, or a related field with applications to computer security.
• Experience with the design of static / dynamic enforcement mechanisms for information flow (or similar security-relevant) and similar relational properties.
• Experience with the usage of interactive proof assistants such as Lean, Coq, or Agda in formalizing meta theory for security-relevant properties of programming languages.
• Highly motivated to work with an interdisciplinary team of students as well as internal (SU) and external academic and industry collaborators.

The Postdoctoral Researcher will carry out basic and applied research to support sponsored projects and prepare research papers for publication. In addition to the primary research duties, the Postdoctoral Researcher will also mentor graduate and undergraduate students working on different projects; collaborate and participate in submitting research proposals to funding agencies; and work with researchers from multiple disciplines across campus as well as internal (SU) and external academic and industry collaborators.

The Postdoctoral Researcher will split their time half and half between two projects. The first project is Assemblage (), a project on large-scale binary analysis using a mix of reasoning techniques from programming languages (with collaborations in machine learning and symbolic AI) for security. The second project is an NSF PPoSS Large, which involves scaling automated reasoning and declarative languages on modern hardware, including GPUs, servers, and supercomputing clusters.

The candidate is expected to dedicate roughly half their time collaborating directly with and mentoring Dr. Micinski’s PhD students on these projects; the other half of the time will be spent collaborating on projects that fall within the scope of the mutual interests of the Postdoctoral Researcher, Dr. Micinski, and the two sponsored projects listed above. Example projects include declarative (de) compilation, type systems / static analysis for relational or security properties, and semantic binary similarity matching.

Syracuse University is an equal-opportunity institution. The University prohibits discrimination and harassment based on race, color, creed, religion, sex, gender, national origin, citizenship, ethnicity, marital status, age, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression, veteran status, or any other status protected by applicable law to the extent prohibited by law. This nondiscrimination policy covers admissions, employment, and access to and treatment in University programs, services, and activities.