2 PhD positions in large-scale computer systems for AI, big data, and 6G apps

Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU Amsterdam) is seeking two PhD candidates for 4-year fully funded research on large-scale computer systems for AI, big data, scientific computing, and business-critical applications across 6G and cloud, within the long-term 6G Future Networked Services (FNS) project.

2 PhD positions in large-scale computer systems for AI, big data, and 6G apps

Your function

The AtLarge research group at the Department of Computer Science at VU Amsterdam invites applications for two PhD positions, fully funded for 4 years each, in the context of a national-scale 6G Future Networked Services (FNS) project.

The two PhD candidates will pursue research within the large, long-term, national project FNS, and be embedded in the AtLarge research team focusing on Massivizing Computer Systems, that is, designing, building, deploying, testing, benchmarking, analyzing, and optimizing large-scale distributed systems, and supporting a variety of applications in AI, big data, scientific computing, and business-critical workloads.

These positions provide an excellent opportunity to develop deep expertise in modern systems while tackling real-world challenges that span software, hardware, and large-scale complex software ecosystems. Concretely, the two positions provide each with a unique opportunity (1) to pursue research aligned with the group's research interests, toward a modern software and hardware infrastructure that supports 21st-century societal needs funded by the FNS project until 2030 and beyond by other projects in the team, (2) to integrate into a large local team and with international partners, and (3) to identify and pursue high-quality scientific research across areas of computer systems, including but not limited to:

• Systems across the digital continuum, cloud datacenter, edge, endpoint, 6G;
• Distributed systems and cluster management (e.g., orchestration with Kubernetes), and general management and scheduling techniques (e.g., workflow management, for serverless);
• High-performance computing and hardware/software acceleration (e.g., GPUs, NPUs, FPGAs);
• Systems, programming models, and runtimes for scientific and high-performance computing;
• Runtime systems, compilers, and programming language technologies (e.g., language VMs);
• Large-scale data analytics and stream processing systems;
• Digital twins and system-scale simulation;
• Systems for virtual worlds, interactive experiences in modifiable virtual worlds;
• Cloud computing and mobile networking (e.g., 6G networking);
• AI for Systems and Systems for AI – applied across all the other topics listed here, and beyond;
• Emerging computing paradigms and technologies (e.g., Operational Data Analytics, new serverless beyond FaaS, WebAssembly, disaggregated resources, sustainable computing beyond energy-use reduction, ML accelerators used also for HPC);
• More topics in designing, building, deploying, testing, benchmarking, experimenting with, evaluating, analyzing, and optimizing large-scale software and hardware systems.

Key Responsibilities

• Design computer systems and implement prototypes that address research questions at any/all levels of modern software and hardware ecosystems;
• Design, conduct, and analyze experiments to evaluate system properties such as performance, scalability, reliability, sustainability, and cost-efficiency across various platforms and workloads;
• Conduct reproducible and open-science compliant research, ensuring that code, data, other artifacts, and experimental results are well-documented and publicly shareable when appropriate, aiming to receive the relevant reproducibility badges from ACM and IEEE;
• Develop and/or extend tools and frameworks for monitoring, benchmarking, tuning, and modeling and simulation of distributed and large-scale systems;
• Participate in the research-oriented education processes our team and Department are conducting, e.g., through supervision of Honours Programme, BSc, and MSc research projects;
• Contribute to our unique training sessions, which our team has pioneered in the Netherlands, and that help develop tens of young researchers each year;
• Collaborate with faculty, postdocs, and fellow PhD students to integrate insights across multiple research areas, including networking, runtime systems, high-performance computing, and data-intensive infrastructures, and across the Department of Computer Science at the VU;
• Engage in international collaborations and research visits, facilitated by our research team or on your own, to expand the reach and network for your research;
• Disseminate research outcomes through publications in top-tier conferences and journals, and select contributions on early ideas to workshops, informing professionals through tutorials and demos, and in general presenting scientific and technical results to the international community.

Your profile

We are looking for a candidate who meets the following qualifications:

• Availability to start the PhD on June 15st, 2026 (hard deadline), including having obtained the relevant work permit for non-EU citizens, and according to applicable employment laws.
• A Master’s degree in Computer Science or a closely related field, completed by June 1st, 2026, or equivalent, to be approved by the relevant, independent VU body (mandatory).
• Strong academic background and competencies in computer science, with a strong plus for distributed systems, parallel programming, large-scale data processing, systems, and performance engineering.
• Experience with designing, implementing, and evaluating software systems, including conducting reproducible and FAIR experiments.
• Familiarity with networking, cloud or cluster computing, high-performance computing, and runtime systems is a plus.
• Knowledge of programming language technologies, compilers, virtual machines, and software acceleration is a plus.
• Experience with simulation, benchmarking, or modeling frameworks for large-scale systems is a plus.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills in English, with the ability to present research clearly and effectively.
• Strong organizational skills and the ability to work both independently and collaboratively in a research team.
• Proactive, curious, and enthusiastic about addressing cutting-edge research challenges.

We realise that each individual brings a unique set of skills, expertise and mindset. Therefore, we are happy to invite anyone who recognises themselves in the profile to apply, even if you do not meet all the requirements.

What do we offer?

• a salary of minimum € 3.059,00 (PhD) and maximum € 3.881,00 (PhD) gross per month, on a full-time basis. This is based on UFO profile PhD candidate. The exact salary depends on your education and experience.
• an employment contract of initially 18 months. If there is sufficient perspective, this will be extended to a total of 4 years. Your dissertation at the end of the fourth year forms the end of your employment contract.

We also offer you attractive fringe benefits and arrangements. Some examples:

• A full-time 38-hour working week comes with a holiday leave entitlement of 232 hours per year. If you choose to work 40 hours, you have 96 extra holiday leave hours on an annual basis. For part-timers, this is calculated pro rata.
• 8% holiday allowance and 8.3% end-of-year bonus
• solid pension scheme (ABP)
• contribution to commuting expenses
• optional model for designing a personalized benefits package

About the project and research team

Project: Join the frontier of innovation in 6G Future Network Services: the future of mobile network technology combined with cloud datacenters, edge deployments, and endpoint devices. A Dutch alliance of 70+ ICT businesses, mobile operators, semiconductor manufacturers, and research institutions collaborates on AI-driven networked systems software, compute stack, and key systems aspects (e.g., DevOps platform, digital twinning, operational data analytics, hardware-software co-design), for 6G applications of national and societal importance.

Team: You will join the Massivizing Computer Systems (MCS) group at the VU, which, together with partners in the AtLarge virtual research group, focuses on distributed computing systems and ecosystems. AtLarge tackles high-impact scientific and societal problems and has extensive international visibility in research and education with numerous awards, grants, and links to stakeholders.

The MCS group conducts cutting-edge research in distributed systems, large-scale data and performance engineering, runtime systems, high-performance computing, programming language technologies, internet-scale networking, datacenter-scale simulations, digital twinning, and systems for virtual worlds and interactive experiences. It plays a key role in the 6G FNS project, contributing expertise in DevOps platforms, 6G+cloud Digital Twins, runtime systems, large-scale experiments, and software-hardware co-design.

The group chair, Prof. Alexandru Iosup, has received prestigious national awards and a knighthood for his contribution to scientific research, education, and their impact on society. The team includes recognized international experts: Dr. Tiziano De Matteis in HPC and accelerators, Dr. Daniele Bonetta in managed-language runtimes and programming languages, Dr. Jesse Donkervliet in metaverse and modifiable virtual worlds, and Dr. Balakrishnan Chandrasekaran in performance and security of networked systems. The MCS group is renowned for systems design, for conducting grand experiments, and its commitment to open, reproducible research, and has a leading role in academic-industrial partnerships such as CompSys NL and the international SPEC Research Group.

Beyond research, the group is deeply committed to developing young talent, providing individual supervision, and embedding PhD candidates in large, cross-disciplinary, international teams. Students gain hands-on experience in cutting-edge technologies, large-scale experiments, and collaborative research addressing real-world challenges.