Postdoc Position: Usable Privacy-Enhancing Technologies and Attribute-Based Identity Wallet Technology

Are you passionate about strengthening digital privacy and helping to shape trustworthy online technologies? Join the European REAL-PETS project and contribute to cutting-edge research on privacy-enhancing technologies (PETs) and privacy-preserving digital identity solutions. Working with researchers and industry partners across Europe, you will help improve both the technical effectiveness and real-world usability of privacy technologies, empowering citizens with transparent and trustworthy privacy protections.

REAL-PETS will generate long-lasting technological, societal and industrial impact: strengthening EU technological sovereignty; enabling regulators to enforce privacy rules through empirical evidence; technology standardisation; fostering privacy-resilient products and services; and empowering citizens with usable, transparent and trustworthy privacy protections.

As a postdoctoral researcher in the REAL-PETS project, you will contribute to two key research tracks within the broader project objectives:

Usable Real-World Privacy-Enhancing Technologies Together with the other project partners, you will design and evaluate user studies that investigate user perceptions, usage practices and usability improvements of VPNs and other PETs.

Attribute-based Identity Wallets Together with the other project partners, you will design and prototype a privacy-preserving age verification solution based on attribute-based credentials (ABCs). The goal is to enable users to prove age eligibility without revealing user identity, date of birth or other personal attributes.

You will work under the supervision of Assistant Professor Christine Utz for the usability part and under the supervision of Prof. Jaap-Henk Hoepman for the attribute credential binding and age verification part. There will be no teaching or student supervision obligations.

Profile

• You hold a PhD degree in computer science, cybersecurity or a related field, or expect to obtain such a degree within a few months from now.
• You have solid programming skills and knowledge of the applied cryptographic technologies used in modern identity wallets (like Yivi).
• You have expertise in usable security and privacy (USP) and human factors research, with methodological expertise in designing and conducting empirical user studies, including controlled experiments, surveys, interviews and qualitative and quantitative data analysis.
• You have a strong interest in online privacy, data protection, identity management, the human factor in computing, and the ethical and societal implications of technology.
• You are curious about other perspectives and enjoy engaging with researchers from non-technical fields such as law, psychology or the social sciences.
• You are proficient in English (Dutch is not required) and have good communication, presentation and writing skills.

If you do not meet all the above-mentioned requirements, please feel free to reach out to ask whether you should apply anyway.

We offer

• We will give you a temporary employment contract of two year(s).
• Your salary within salary scale 10 depends on your previous education and number of years of (relevant) work experience. The amounts in the scale are based on a 38-hour working week.
• You will receive an 8% holiday allowance and an 8,3% end-of-year bonus.
• You will receive extra days off. With full-time employment, you can choose between 30 or 41 days of annual leave instead of the statutory 20.

Additional Employment Conditions Work and science require good employment practices. This is reflected in Radboud University's primary and secondary employment conditions. You can make arrangements for the best possible work-life balance with flexible working hours, various leave arrangements and working from home. You are also able to compose part of your employment conditions yourself, for example, exchange income for extra leave days and receive a reimbursement for your sports subscription. And of course, we offer a good pension plan. You are given plenty of room and responsibility to develop your talents and realise your ambitions. Therefore, we provide various training and development schemes.

We are You will join the Digital Security (DiS) group at the Institute for Computing and Information Sciences (iCIS) at Radboud University’s Faculty of Science. The Digital Security group is one of the leading groups in computer security and privacy in the Netherlands and Europe.

You will also be part of iHub, Radboud University’s interdisciplinary research hub on Digitalisation and Society. It brings together researchers from computer science, social sciences, humanities, law and other disciplines to address societal challenges arising from digitalisation. iHub provides a collaborative environment for research at the intersection of technology, security, privacy and society, fostering collaboration across disciplines and the development of value-driven digital technologies.

Practical information and applying You can apply only via the button below. Address your letter of application to Christine Utz. In the application form, you will find which documents you need to include with your application. We will not consider applications that were generated by AI. We look forward to receiving your application.

The first interviews will take place on Wednesday 18 November. Any second interview will take place on Tuesday 1 December. You will preferably start your employment on 1 April 2027.

We can imagine you're curious about our application procedure. It describes what you can expect during the application procedure and how we handle your personal data and internal and external candidates.

Do you already work at Radboud University and have questions about making an internal move? Learn more about internal applications.