DC12 — Agentic Verification for Trusted Autonomous Operations

Host: Technische Universität Berlin (TU Berlin), Berlin, Germany — Chair for Service-centric Networking.
Work package: WP3 (Fleet Operations and Industrial Validation)
Duration and start: 36 months, full-time; start between February and September 2027 (latest start September 2027).

The project

When software agents run a fleet of datacenters on their own, every action must be authenticated, authorized, and auditable. In this project you build the cryptographic trust layer that makes autonomous operation safe.

You will give agents and workloads verifiable identities, bind their permissions to safety and energy limits, and produce tamper-evident proofs of what was done — proofs that grid operators can use for compliance and payment.

What you will work on:

• Contribute to AEGIS research on agentic verification for trusted autonomous operations.
• Analyse existing procedures and protocols, and develop and evaluate new concepts and data structures.
• Build an agent identity model using decentralized identifiers (DIDs) and verifiable credentials.
• Design authorization that binds actions to safety and energy limits.
• Prototype proof-of-delivery that creates tamper-evident audit logs.
• Supervise student employees and student theses within the research project.
• Pursue a doctorate as part of the position.

What you will deliver:

• A trust layer for authenticated communication between agents.
• An authorization system that blocks unauthorized actions.
• Complete audit trails for complex orchestration tasks.

Secondments

You will spend two research visits with partners in the network:

• Aalto University (Espoo, Finland) — 3 months from around July 2028 (academic), with Riku Jäntti: gather requirements and build trust mechanisms for the agent framework.
• Deutsche Telekom – T-Labs (Germany) — 4 months from around July 2029 (industry), with Ingo Friese: test the trust-management framework on Deutsche Telekom’s edge infrastructure.

The host

The Chair for Service-centric Networking at TU Berlin, hosted at the Telekom Innovation Laboratories (T-Labs), works on trustworthy digital infrastructures, self-sovereign digital identities, and agent-based service orchestration for 6G.

Supervision

Main supervisor: Axel Küpper (ORCID) — Head of the Chair for Service-centric Networking, TU Berlin (at the Telekom Innovation Laboratories). He works on trustworthy infrastructures, digital identities, and agent-based orchestration.

Co-supervisors:

• Riku Jäntti (ORCID) — Aalto University
• Ingo Friese — Deutsche Telekom (T-Labs)

Profile we are looking for

• MSc, completed or near completion upon application, in computer science, computer engineering, electronics, energy systems, telecommunications, or a related field
• Practical knowledge of applied cryptography and security, decentralized identity (DIDs and verifiable credentials), and distributed systems
• Willingness to undertake the planned research visits to Aalto University for approximately 3 months and Deutsche Telekom T-Labs for approximately 4 months
• Skills for supervising student employees
• Good German and fluent English, with willingness to acquire any missing language skills
• Good communication and teamwork skills
• Ability to formulate partner needs and implement technical and functional requirements is desirable
• Experience with collaborative projects is desirable

You must also meet the MSCA eligibility rules — no PhD yet, the mobility rule, and open to all nationalities.

How to apply

Official vacancy at the host institution: link coming soon.

Until then, apply through the central AEGIS application portal: AEGIS application portal (reference position DC12), and read what to include in your application.

Questions about this position? Contact the coordinator, Prof. Paul Pop, aegis@compute.dtu.dk.