Description

DTU Tenure Track Researcher in Autonomous Marine Systems – DTU Electro

 
We warmly invite outstanding early-career scientists to apply for a tenure-track researcher position in Autonomous Marine Systems, offering a rare opportunity to shape both a scientific career and the future of ocean technologies.


This position empowers talented scientists to pursue bold, curiosity-driven research, build an independent profile, and turn ideas into impactful solutions. Working at the frontier of autonomy and robotics, the successful candidate will contribute to technologies that enable deeper understanding and sustainable use of the oceans, with influence across a growing range of societal, environmental, and industrial applications. This is an invitation to grow as a scientific leader while making a lasting, positive impact in a field of global importance.

Responsibilities and qualifications

Your overall focus will be to strengthen the department’s vision and expertise in artificial intelligence for autonomous systems, contributing to the development of intelligent, robust, and trustworthy robotic technologies. Your research will span core challenges such as robot control, decision-making under uncertainty, multimodal information fusion, and foundational models for robot intelligence, with applications that naturally extend to marine and maritime domains. You will work closely with colleagues across the department and engage in strong collaborations with academic and industrial partners in Denmark and internationally.

Your primary responsibilities will include: 

• Establishing and leading an independent research agenda and driving its realization through a combination of activities including securing competitive funding at national and European levels, building new collaborations within DTU and with external stakeholders, and initiating high-impact scientific publications in collaboration with leading national and international researchers.
• Supervising BSc and MSc student projects and serving as co-supervisor for PhD students.
• Contributing to teaching activities within the BSc and MSc programs in Electrical Engineering and Autonomous Systems.
• Developing operational guidelines and best practices for the continuous advancement of the department research infrastructure in autonomous marine robotics and promoting the adoption of modern CI/CD principles among junior scientific staff.
• Supporting and strengthening a culture of scientific openness, including reproducible research, collaboration, and knowledge sharing.

 
You should meet the following qualifications: 

• A PhD in Electrical Engineering, Robotics, Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, or a closely related field, with a strong focus on autonomous systems.
• Demonstrated research expertise in one or more core areas of AI for autonomy, such as: Robot control and learning-based control; Decision-making under uncertainty (e.g., planning, reinforcement learning, probabilistic reasoning); Multimodal information fusion and state estimation; Foundational or representation learning models for robot intelligence
• A strong publication record in leading international journals and conferences relevant to robotics, AI, or autonomous systems, commensurate with career stage.
• Emerging ability to attract competitive research funding at national and European levels.
• Experience with experimental and/or field robotic systems, ideally including real-world deployment in challenging environments.
• Solid competence in research software development, including version control, testing, and reproducible research workflows; familiarity with CI/CD practices is an advantage.
• Experience with supervision of BSc and MSc student projects and educational activities in areas such as autonomous systems, robotics, AI, or control.
• Excellent collaboration skills, with the capacity to work effectively in interdisciplinary and international research teams.
• Strong communication skills, enabling clear dissemination of research results to academic, industrial, and societal audiences.

You must contribute to the teaching of courses. DTU employs two working languages: Danish and English. You are expected to be fluent in at least one of these languages, and in time are expected to master both.

As formal qualification you must hold a PhD degree (or equivalent).

You will be assessed against the responsibilities and qualifications stated above and the following general criteria: 

• Research experience
• Experience and quality of teaching 
• Research vision and potential
• International impact and experience 
• Societal impact
• Innovativeness, including commercialization and collaboration with industry
• Leadership, collaboration, and interdisciplinary skills
• Communication skills

Salary and terms of employment

The appointment will be based on the collective agreement with the Danish Confederation of Professional Associations. The allowance will be agreed upon with the relevant union. 

The starting date is 1 June 2026 or as soon as possible thereafter. The position is a full-time position.

The position is part of DTU’s Tenure Track program. Read more about the program and the recruitment process here.

You can read more about career paths at DTU here.

Further information  

Further information may be obtained from Roberto Galeazzi, leader of the Control, Robotics and Embodied AI, by sending an email to roga@dtu.dk. 

You can read more about DTU Electro at www.electro.dtu.dk. 

If you are applying from abroad, you may find useful information on working in Denmark and at DTU at DTU – Moving to Denmark.

Application procedure

Your complete online application must be submitted no later than 27 March 2026 (23:59 Danish time). Apply online here: DTU Tenure Track Researcher in Autonomous Marine Systems

Applications must be submitted as one PDF file containing all materials to be given consideration. To apply, please open the link "Apply now", fill out the online application form, and attach all your materials in English in one PDF file. The file must include: 

• Application (cover letter)
• Vision for teaching and research for the tenure track period 
• CV including employment history, list of publications, H-index and ORCID (see http://orcid.org/)
• Teaching portfolio including documentation of teaching experience 
• Academic Diplomas (MSc/PhD)
• Up to three (3) scientific publications (journal or peer-reviewed conference papers) that are relevant for the evaluation of the requested qualifications

Applications received after the deadline will not be considered.

All interested candidates irrespective of age, gender, disability, race, religion or ethnic background are encouraged to apply. As DTU works with research in critical technology, which is subject to special rules for security and export control, open-source background checks may be conducted on qualified candidates for the position.

DTU Electro has more than 300 employees with competencies in electrical and photonics engineering. Research is performed within robotics, autonomous systems, power electronics, acoustic, nanophotonics, lasers, quantum photonics, optical sensors, LEDs, photovoltaics, ultra-high speed optical transmission systems, bio-photonics.

Technology for people

DTU develops technology for people. With our international elite research and study programmes, we are helping to create a better world and to solve the global challenges formulated in the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Hans Christian Ørsted founded DTU in 1829 with a clear mission to develop and create value using science and engineering to benefit society. That mission lives on today. DTU has 13,500 students and 6,000 employees. We work in an international atmosphere and have an inclusive, evolving, and informal working environment. DTU has campuses in all parts of Denmark and in Greenland, and we collaborate with the best universities around the world.