Malmo

Reference number P 2026/2114

Malmö University is an innovative, urban, and internationally-oriented academic institution that, thanks to its committed and experienced staff, contributes to societal development. Here, teachers, researchers, and other employees with various competencies work together to conduct high-quality education and research. All professional categories and roles are important. You are welcome to apply for a job with us!

Here you can learn more about what it's like to work at Malmö University: Work with us

We are looking for
Doctoral student in Computer Science at the Faculty for Technology and Society.

Work duties
Those appointed to an employment as av doctoral student shall primarily devote themselves to their studies. Those appointed to an employment as a doctoral student may, however, work to a limited extent with educational tasks, research, artistic research and administration, however, duties of this kind may not comprise more than 20 per cent of a full-time post (Chapter 5, Section 2 of the Higher Education Ordinance).

PhD Project: Lifecycle integration of regulatory continuous compliance
New regulations such as the EU Data Act, AI Act and the Cyber Resilience Act are changing how software-intensive products are developed. They require companies to show compliance not once, at release, but continuously, throughout a product’s life. This is a challenge for most companies and they need novel solutions that help them manage, and ensure, continuous compliance. In this PhD project, you will help create such solutions.

.

Why this matters: Agile and DevOps practices enable companies to ship new functionality continuously. Regulatory compliance, however, is still mostly handled as a late-stage checkpoint: slow, manual and disconnected from everyday development. This gap grows as products become larger, more connected and increasingly driven by AI. It is especially hard in large organizations with broad product portfolios, many teams, and products that consist of hardware, electronics, software, data and AI. There is very little guidance on how to manage (and automate) continuous regulatory responsibilities at scale, and this is the gap your research will address.

What you will do: As a PhD student, you will study how compliance can become a continuous part of the product development lifecycle. You will investigate:

• How compliance activities such as risk identification, assessment, monitoring, decision-making and reporting can be built into development phases, roles and governance structures and how they can benefit from automation and AI.
• How responsibility for compliance is, and should be, shared across teams and organizational levels.
• How architectural and organizational decisions make continuous compliance easier or harder.

The research will be empirical in nature, employing design science research, action research and case studies for exploring real-world challenges experienced by our industrial partners. All research activities take place in close collaboration with companies in the software-intensive systems domain. The project will identify key challenges and develop solutions to these, as well as validate these solutions in industrial contexts, giving your results direct real-world impact.

What you will create: As a PhD student, you will develop empirically grounded frameworks, models and solutions that reframe compliance as an integrated, value-creating capability rather than a control mechanism applied at the end. The aim is results that advance both research and change how companies work.

The position is part of a larger research project on Continuous Compliance, which aims to enable continuous, automated and scalable regulatory compliance for companies building software-intensive systems. You will join a research group with more than a decade of experience studying continuous practices such as CI/CD and DevOps as part of Software Center (software-center.se). The group now studies continuously evolving systems that learn from their environment, where human expertise and AI capabilities combine to create new value. In such systems, continuous regulatory compliance is key.

Qualifications
To be admitted to doctoral studies, the applicant must meet the general and specific entry requirements of the subject in question. Moreover, the applicant must be deemed capable of assimilating the education.

General entry requirements for doctoral studies and study programmes (HEO Chapter 7 Section 39) have those who:

• been awarded a second-cycle qualification
• has satisfied the requirements for courses comprising at least 240 credits of which at least 60 credits were awarded in the second-cycle, or
• has acquired substantially equivalent knowledge in some other way in Sweden or abroad.

Specific entry requirements for doctoral studies and study programmes have those who:

• have knowledge and skills equivalent to a second-cycle degree in computer science or in another subject that has relevance for computer science, or
• have acquired essentially equivalent knowledge in or outside Sweden
• are proficient in English to the extent required for conducting postgraduate studies in computer science

Selection criteria
Selection among applicants who meet the general and specific entry requirements shall be made with regard to their capacity to assimilate the education (HEO Chapter 7 Section 41).

General selection criteria

• Subject competence
• Scientific quality in previous work
• Methodological and scientific maturity
• Communication and collaborative skills

Specific selection criteria

• Good language and writing skills in English are meritorious.
• The research is conducted in close collaboration with a large number of companies nationally and internationally. The doctoral student is expected to conduct, coordinate and validate his/her research in this environment. Previous experience from industry is advantageous (especially experience in areas such as regulatory compliance e.g., Data Act, AI Act, CRA and similar, DevOps, data and AI).

Faculty, Department and Research environment
The Faculty of Technology and Society conducts education and research with a focus on technology and natural sciences at the two departments of Computer Science and Media Technology and Materials Science and Applied Mathematics. The faculty collaborates with companies and other organizations with the aim of raising the level of expertise, creating new products, developing businesses and giving students an early connection to their future working life. Our research collaborations and employees from a large number of countries give the activities an international character. More information about the faculty can be found here: Link

The Department of Computer Science and Media Technology offers research-linked education at first-cycle, second-cycle and doctoral levels. The department conducts research in computer science, information systems, software engineering and media technology. We are interested in research and education areas such as artificial intelligence, digital media, e-health, internet of things and game development More information about the faculty can be found here: Link

This PhD position is part of the Continuous Compliance project which is run in close collaboration with Software Center. Software Center is a collaboration between companies in the software-intensive systems domain and five Swedish universities The mission of Software Center is to significantly improve the digitalization capabilities in the member companies. For more information please visit: Link

Further information
Bahtijar Vogel, Head of Department of Computer Science and Media Technology, [email protected], 040 – 665 70 12

Helena Holmström Olsson, intended supervisor, [email protected], 040 – 665 73 19

In our recruitment work, Malmö University has taken a stand regarding recruitment channels and marketing. We therefore decline all offers of advertising and recruitment assistance in connection with this advertisement.

You can read more about the benefits of working in Sweden here: Work in Sweden – Careers, work permits and moving to Sweden

Application
You apply for this position via Malmö University's recruitment system by clicking on the "Apply" button. As an applicant, you are responsible for ensuring that your application is completed in accordance with the job advertisement, and that it is submitted to the University no later than 2026-11-20. The application must be written in Swedish, English or any of the Nordic languages. As an applicant, you are responsible for the application and its appendices being translated.

The application must include:

• Curriculum Vitae
• Diplomas, transcript of records and other certificates relevant for the position
• A brief research plan presenting the focus of research and a thesis concept, and how this relates to the specific post (max 4 pages). The research plan must contain an overall purpose, questions that the project intends to answer, an account of the methodological approach, a description of material collection and type of research material and an account of the theoretical framework
• Independent work at advanced level (including master thesis or equivalent)

Miscellaneous
Preparation of admission to postgraduate education and employment as a doctoral student take place in parallel. Only those who are or have been admitted to doctoral level courses and study programmes at a higher education may be appointed to doctoral studentships (HEO Chapter 5, section 3).

The doctoral studentship is a fixed-term position comprising four years of full-time studies, in accordance with the HEO Chapter 5, section 7. A doctoral student shall be employed for an indefinite period but for no longer than until a specified date, and never for longer than a year after the doctoral degree or artistic doctoral degree has been completed. The first appointment must be limited to one year at the most. The appointment can be extended by a maximum of two years at a time.

Malmö University actively promotes gender equality and equal opportunities in order to offer a workplace and a university characterised by an open and inclusive approach.

As part of this:

• Applicants of an underrepresented gender are given priority for admission, if they are equally able to benefit from the programme.
• Doctoral students with permanent disabilities are given the opportunity to receive support and adaptations during their studies, so that everyone can study on equal terms in a good study environment.

Employees who do not speak Swedish should learn Swedish in the long term so that they can participate in the daily and ongoing work of the institution or department.

Malmö University applies salary setting for doctoral students in accordance with a local agreement on salary setting for doctoral students.

If the admitted person requires a residence permit to live in Sweden and pursue their studies, the University reserves the right to revoke the admission decision if the admitted person cannot present a valid residence permit as required on the date they are due to commence their education.

Start date
February 2027 (or by agreement)

Union representatives
Saco-S: Jenny Vikman, [email protected]

OFR/ST: Jelena Hovstadius, [email protected]

PhD Student Union representative
[email protected]

We are looking forward to receiving your application!

You apply no later than 20/11/2026 by clicking the apply button.