About the job:

• The CSIR has a vacancy for a Doctoral Studentship: Cybersecurity in the Information and Cybersecurity Centre, within the Defence and Security Cluster.
• The incumbent will be responsible for undertaking original research and development in cybersecurity with the Data Security and Analytics, Governance, Privacy and Trust, Cybersecurity and/or Secure Identity Systems domains. This position is based in Pretoria.

Research areas:

• Data security and analytics
• Data science in cybersecurity
• Secure digital identity systems
• AI security including agentic AI security and related
• Mobile security
• Development of home-grown cybersecurity solutions
• National cybersecurity capability development
• Governance, privacy, and trust
• Next-generation security operations centre
• Emerging cybersecurity topics such as zero-trust
• And other related topics

Key responsibilities:

• Prepare a research proposal to be approved by both the CSIR and the university;
• Prepare a written literature overview of the current state-of-the-art relevant to the research topic;
• Perform original research to solve the open research problem(s) that the student identified in his/her proposal;
• Produce sufficient quantity and quality of peer-reviewed publications based on the Doctoral research topic;
• Compile the Doctoral thesis and defending the work successfully; and
• Contribute to extra project activities that may be outside the scope of the doctoral research as per the needs of the research group. The amount of such work shall be limited to 20% of the total time.

Qualifications, skills and experience:

• A Master’s degree in computer engineering, computer science, information technology, information systems or a related/relevant field;
• Register for a Doctoral qualification within the South African university (to be agreed upon with the CSIR co-supervisor);
• All international qualifications require an evaluation report/certificate issued by the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA);
• Must have a strong background in computer systems, information security, cybersecurity and/or secure identity systems.
• Knowledge of machine learning and/or artificial intelligence.
• Working knowledge of related programming languages such as Python, R, Java, C# and the Linux operating system (and others applicable).
• Must have confidence in working with big data and data analytics.
• Must have experience in software development for experimentation and computer simulation with a hands-on approach.
• Good understanding of the scientific method: design of experiments, running experiments, critical analysis of results, and dissemination of knowledge.
• Good communication skills (verbal and written) and ability to interact efficiently with diverse teams of people; and
• A good peer-reviewed publication record will be advantageous.

Closing Date

• 22/09/2025