Research Assistant in Learning Design

The Center for Industrial Software (CIS) at the Maersk Mc-Kinney Moller Institute, University of Southern Denmark, invites applications for a Research Assistant position. The position is based at SDU’s campus in Sønderborg and is available from March 1, 2027, or as soon as possible thereafter. The position is for 12 months.

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 position sits where those ideas become things people can actually use. You will take responsibility for designing and creating content — reusable set of pedagogical modules that instructors can adopt without redesigning a whole course — and for the hands-on work of redesigning selected software engineering courses at SDU. The project’s research produces findings; this role turns them into activities, materials, rubrics, and guidance that survive contact with a real semester. Implementation is iterative rather than one-shot. Modules go into classrooms, evidence comes back through classroom interventions, surveys, artifact analysis, and educator feedback, and the next version is better for it. If you like building educational material and watching it improve under real use — and you would rather serve teaching than only write about it — this is a role with unusually visible results. Responsibility and opportunities

Concretely, you can expect to:

• Design and produce reusable pedagogical modules — guided scenarios, reflection and verification activities, assessment tasks, rubrics, and instructor guidance — that courses can adopt on demand.

• Redesign selected SE courses at SDU. Work with course responsibles and programme leaders to rework intended learning outcomes, activities, and assessment so that responsible AI use is explicitly taught and examined.

• Coordinate classroom deployments across semesters, keeping instructors supported and the logistics from eating the pedagogy.

• Gather and act on evidence. Administer surveys, analyze student artifacts (decision notes, verification evidence, reflections), collect structured educator feedback, and feed it into the next iteration.

• Document and release. Maintain the toolkit as open, well-documented material others can pick up after the project ends, and contribute to project reporting and publications.

Required scientific qualifications

• A master’s degree, equivalent to a Danish master’s degree, on Game Development and Learning Technology, Design and Interaction, Educational Technology, Media and Communication, or a closely related field. The degree must be completed before the starting date — this is a firm requirement.

Qualifications Required

• Demonstrated experience creating educational content — course materials, learning modules, exercises, assessment tasks, e-learning components, or training programmes — with examples you can show us. Please, share a link to your portfolio if available.

• An educational or pedagogical background, whether through your degree, formal training in teaching or learning design, or substantial practical experience.

• Excellent written and spoken Danish and English, and the ability to write clearly for two audiences at once: students and the instructors who will use your materials.

Personal competences

• Craft in making things others will use. You care whether an activity actually works in week seven of a busy semester, not only whether it reads well in a design document.

• A service orientation towards instructors. Course responsibles own their courses and have limited time. We value someone who makes adoption easy and earns agreement through evidence and patience rather than argument.

• Organized and self-directed. You will be coordinating deployments across courses at SDU and several semesters, and much of the scheduling discipline will rest with you.

• Comfort with iteration. The first version of a module will be wrong in interesting ways. Treating that as information rather than failure is most of the job.

• Integrity and care in working with students. You will be collecting data from people who are also being taught and assessed. That asymmetry has to be handled thoughtfully.

Workplace description 

The Center for Industrial Software (CIS) is part of the Maersk Mc-Kinney Moller 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 

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

Applicants are advised to read 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. 

• Master’s and Bachelor’s degree certificates or equivalent, including transcripts of grades (original and an official English translation). 

• Complete list of publications, if you have any.

• Publications most relevant for the position (max. 2).

• Up to two references (can be supplied later in the hiring process).

• 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 December 9, 2026, at 11:59 PM/23:59 (CET/CEST)

Assessment and selection process

Applications will be assessed by an assessment committee. 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.  

Employment terms
Appointment as a research assistant is temporary for an initial 1-year period, and the preferred start date is from March 2027. Extension may be possible depending on available funding. 

Employment as a research assistant requires qualifications at minimum master’s level (equivalent to a Danish master’s degree) at the time of employment. 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 protocol for the job structure for academic staff at Danish universities and the provisions for research assistant as described therein. 

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.