PhD Position in Responsible AI in Software Engineering Education

The Center for Industrial Software (CIS) at the Maersk Mc-Kinney Møller Institute, University of Southern Denmark, invites applications for a three-year PhD position in Responsible AI in Software Engineering Education. The position is based at SDU’s campus in Sønderborg and is available from 1 March 2027 or as soon as possible thereafter.

The position is funded by the Novo Nordisk Foundation and is part of PREPARE — Pedagogical Alignment for Responsible AI in Software Engineering Education, a joint project between SDU and the IT University of Copenhagen (ITU).

CIS is a young but fast-growing unit whose research groups span cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, embedded systems, and software engineering. Our students and staff come from Denmark, the rest of the EU, and beyond, and our working language is English.

About the position

Generative AI has arrived in our classrooms faster than our pedagogy has adapted to it. Students increasingly delegate the very things we are trying to teach them — verification, trade-off reasoning, judgment, accountability — to tools whose reasoning they cannot inspect. Most institutional responses so far have been restrictions or isolated policies, and neither addresses the underlying problem. This project takes the opposite route: if AI is here to stay in software engineering practice, responsible AI use should be deliberately taught, practiced, and assessed.

This is a unique position in that research and its consequences sit in the same place. You will not be studying a distant phenomenon and writing it up; you will be running studies in live courses, designing interventions from what you find, and seeing them change how software engineering is taught. If you see yourself as someone who wants to help our discipline navigate the AI disruption rather than wait for it to settle, this is that opportunity.

Responsibility and opportunities

Concretely, you can expect to:

• Design and conduct empirical studies of how software engineering students generally use generative AI — how they justify it, what they delegate to it, and where their agency is preserved or surrendered.
• Translate those findings into agency artifacts, practicum activities, and assessment designs that can be used by real instructors in real courses.
• Co-develop and evaluate self-learning components, and contribute to alignment work on intended learning outcomes, activities, and assessment together with the ITU stream.
• Work directly with the head of programs and instructors to implement classroom interventions, whose buy-in is what makes this kind of change hold. Persuading colleagues is part of the craft here, not an afterthought.
• Publish in leading venues for computing education research, and present internationally.

Required scientific qualifications

• A master’s degree in software engineering, computer science, or a closely related field, equivalent to a Danish master’s degree and including a substantial thesis component. The degree must be completed before the starting date. Students with master’s in education and related fields are welcome to apply.
• A grade average at or above 10 on the Danish 7-point scale, or a documented equivalent from the awarding institution. Applicants with degrees from outside Denmark should include a grading scale and, where available, a conversion statement.
• Documented ability to carry out independent scientific work, evidenced by the master’s thesis.

Qualifications

Required

• A software engineering background, with practical familiarity with how software is actually built — you should be able to judge whether an AI-assisted solution is sound, not only whether it runs.
• A genuine motivation for teaching and education, both in delivery and as an object of research.
• The ability to design and carry out empirical studies involving students, and to engage stakeholders for support.
• Excellent written and spoken English.

Nice to have

• Prior research and publication experience.
• Experience with empirical research methods — interventions, experiment, interviews, coding, thematic or pattern analysis — and with mixed-methods designs.
• Familiarity with computing education research, or with constructive alignment as a course design framework.
• Teaching or teaching-assistant experience at university level.
• Hands-on experience using generative AI tools in software development, and a considered view of where they help and where they do not.

Personal competences

• Critical and ingenious thinking. You question assumptions — including your own, including ours, and including the ones embedded in our education design and the AI tools you will be studying. You are as interested in what a finding does not show as in what it does.
• A demonstrated passion for software engineering and its education. This project asks you to care about how the next generation of engineers is formed, not only about publishing on the topic.
• The ability to bring colleagues along. Much of this work happens through instructors and program leaderships who own their courses. We value someone who can earn agreement through evidence, patience, and good listening rather than argument alone.
• Independence paired with collaboration. You will drive your own studies, and you will do it inside a two-university project with shared deliverables and deadlines.
• Integrity and care in working with students. You will be researching people who are also being taught and assessed. That asymmetry has to be handled thoughtfully.
• Comfort with iteration. Design-based research means your first intervention will be wrong in interesting ways. That is the method working, not failing.

Workplace description

The Center for Industrial Software (CIS) is part of the Maersk Mc-Kinney Møller Institute at SDU’s Faculty of Engineering. We are a young unit that has grown quickly, with close ties to industry in the region. We take our international workplace seriously.

You will be based at SDU’s campus in Sønderborg, sitting on the strait that separates the island of Als from the mainland. Sønderborg is a coastal town of around 27,000 in a municipality of 76,000, built around an 800-year-old castle and shaped by its position on the Danish–German border. It is small enough to cross by bike and rich enough in coastline, forest, and cultural life that people who come for a few years often stay longer. The international community is sizeable, thanks to the university and the global companies based nearby, and Copenhagen is a 35-minute flight or a direct train away. Two good starting points: VisitSønderborg for the area itself, and Hej Sønderborg, an English-language blog written for newcomers about living here.

Further information about the position contact Associate Professor Adam Alami, at adal@mmmi.sdu.dk.

If you experience technical problems, please contact our email support.

Application

Before applying the candidates are advised to read the Faculty information for prospective PhD students and the SDU information on how to apply.

Assessment of candidates is based on the application material, and the application must include: 

• Motivated application. 
• Curriculum Vitae.
• Two recommendation letters, you're welcome to use the form for reference letter at the Faculty website.
• Master’s and Bachelor’s degree certificates or equivalent, including transcripts of grades (original and an official English translation). 
• Completed TEK PhD application form for 5+3 applicants. Find the form at the Faculty website.
• Completed TEK PhD form for calculation grade point average. Find the form at the Faculty website. 
• An official document describing the grading scheme of the awarding universities (if not Danish). 
• Only for applicants from programmes that evaluate thesis/examination project by approved/not approved: An official written assessment of the thesis or dissertation project from the grade giving institution. The statement must clearly state that the candidate has been among the top 30 pct. in the graduation class for the study programme.
• List of publications and maximum 2 examples of relevant publications (in case you have any publications).
• A statement/documentation of other qualifications relevant to the position may also be included.

All documents must be in English and PDF format. CPR number (civil registration number) must be crossed out. All PDF-files must be unlocked, allow binding and may not be password protected. 

SUBMISSION GUIDE: Motivated application must be uploaded under ‘Cover letter’ (max. 5 MB), Curriculum Vitae must be uploaded under ‘Resume’ (max 5 MB). All other documents must be uploaded under ‘Miscellaneous documents’ (max 10 files with a maximum 50 MB per file). 

The application deadline is October 30, 2026, at 11:59 PM/23:59 (CET/CEST) 

Assessment and selection process

Applications will be assessed by an expert. Shortlisting may be applied, and only shortlisted candidates will receive a written assessment. Read about shortlisting at SDU.  Interviews and tests may be part of the overall evaluation.

Read about the Assessment and selection process.  

Enrollment and employment terms

Appointment as a PhD fellow is a 3-year salaried position, and the monthly gross salary incl. pension is 37.075 DKK. If you have relevant postgraduate experience, you may be placed on a higher salary step.

Applicants must hold a master’s degree (equivalent to a Danish master's degree) at the time of enrollment and employment. Employment is contingent on enrollment approved by the PhD School. Enrollment will be in accordance with Faculty regulations and the Danish Ministerial Order on the PhD Programme at the Universities (PhD order). Employment will be in accordance with the collective agreement between the Ministry of Finance and the Danish Confederation of Professional Associations for academics in the state including the associated circular on the job structure for academic staff at Danish universities and the provisions for PhD fellows as described therein as well as the Protocol on PhD fellows signed by the Danish Ministry of Finance and the Danish Confederation of Professional Associations (AC). 

Salary is determined in accordance with the applicable collective agreement and based on objective and gender-neutral criteria, including the content of the position, responsibilities, and qualification requirements. As an applicant, you are entitled to information about the starting salary and salary range for the position. This information will be provided during the recruitment process. SDU does not collect information on applicants’ previous salary. Further information on salary and taxation. 

Persons employed in the position may, based on a specific individual managerial assessment, be exempted from time registration, also known as a “self-organizer”.

The University of Southern Denmark wishes its staff to reflect the surrounding community and therefore encourages everyone, regardless of personal background, to apply for the position. SDU conducts research in critical technologies, which, due to the risk of unwanted knowledge transfer, is subject to a number of security measures. Therefore, based on information from open sources, background checks may be conducted on candidates for the position(s).

Further information for international applicants about entering and working in Denmark. You may also visit WorkinDenmark for additional information.

Further information about The Faculty of Engineering.