Tenure-Track Faculty in Trustworthy AI (f/m/d) 2026/2027 CISPA Helmholtz Center for Information Security

About

CISPA Helmholtz Center for Information Security is a German national Science Institution within the Helmholtz Association and provides a unique work environment that offers the advantage of a university department and a research laboratory alike. CISPA's mission is to rethink the digitized world of the future from the ground on up an make it safer through innovative cutting-edge research. CISPA is committed to the highest international academic standards. We offer a world-class research environment that grants extensive resources to a wide range of researchers and constitutes an attractive destination for the best talents and scientists from all countries. CISPA provides a highly international and diverse working environment, currently hosting researchers of over 40 nationalities.  

CISPA headquarter is located in Saarbrücken, in the tri-border area of Germany, France and Luxembourg. The CISPA campus is located close to Saarland University, known for its excellence in Computer Science & Cybersecurity programs; the Max Planck Institute for Informatics and the Max Planck Institute for Software Systems; the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI); and more.

For more information about CISPA, see https://cispa.de/en

Your position

CISPA is a world-leading research center that focuses on Cybersecurity and Trustworthy AI at large. To expand and further strengthen our center, we are looking for 

Tenure-Track Faculty in Trustworthy AI(f/m/d) 

All applicants are expected to grow a research team that pursues an internationally visible research agenda. To aid you in achieving this, CISPA provides institutional base funding for three full-time researcher positions and a generous budget for expenditures. Upon successful tenure evaluation, you will hold a position that is equivalent to an endowed full professorship at a top research university. We invite applications of candidates with excellent track records in Trustworthy AI, especially in (but not limited to) the fields of

• Security, privacy, and safety of AI models and autonomous agents
• Generative models and LLMs
• Explainability and interpretability
• Reinforcement learning
• Computer vision and multimodal learning
• Other suitable topics that complement existing expertise
   

CISPA values diversity and is committed to equality. We provide special dual-career support. We explicitly encourage female and diverse researchers to apply.

What we expect:

• To have an excellent track record in any research area related to Machine Learning
• To have graduated or are soon to be graduated with a doctoral degree
• To build and guide a research team that pursues an internationally visible research agenda
• To teach one (English-spoken) course or seminar (undergraduate or graduate) per semester in your area of expertise and interest 

What we offer:

• Full-time gross base salary starting from approx. €6800/month according to the associate professor (W2) scale of the TVöD (German Federal Employment Agreement)
• Contractual benefits including 30 days of paid leave per year, pension scheme, paid parental leave, and monthly allowances for spouse and children
• Three fully funded full-time research staff positions as well as a generous budget for research expenditures
• Support for relocation, administrative tasks (e.g., visa and work permits) and organization of child care

Application

All applications are due by January 3rd 2027 23:59 AoE with interviews starting in February 2027.

Please submit the following documents:

• Cover letter (please outline how your research vision aligns with CISPA's goals and how your work can tie in with other CISPA faculty) and curriculum vitae.
• Research statement (up to 5 pages) outlining your vision for the tenure track.
• List of 3-5 proposed references including contact details and your relationship to them (ensure at least one is not a close collaborator/advisor).
• Optionally, a teaching and diversity statement.

For any questions regarding the application, please contact career@cispa.de