Ph.D. student position in Software Engineering (Specification- and test-based oversight of AI coding agents)

Blekinge Institute of Technology is a place of curiosity and ingenuity with a campus in the middle of the Blekinge archipelago. Here we offer education from undergraduate to doctoral level and conduct world-class applied research. We change and make a difference. Do you want to become one of us?

The Department of Software Engineering consists of about 50 researchers and teachers from 20 countries. Our tradition in software engineering traces back to 1990 when we pioneered Sweden’s first academic education in the area in cooperation with Ericsson. The department’s research and education environment, SERL Sweden – the Software Engineering Research and Education Lab, has since then expanded into a world-leading research environment in empirical software engineering. The department is responsible for education programs in software engineering from Bachelor to Ph.D. levels.

Work description

You will conduct research on the role of software testing in providing guardrails for AI coding agents. These agents generate and modify code with increasing autonomy. A key challenge is to ground the guardrails in requirements and stakeholder intent, which are clarified and communicated through developer conversations with agents. The research also addresses how to maintain human control when expectations are incomplete, ambiguous, or conflicting.

The primary goal is to guide and verify AI coding agents through two connected artifacts: human-readable behavior specifications and executable tests, both grounded in requirements and stakeholder intent. The specifications let stakeholders understand, discuss, and validate the intended behavior. The tests give deterministic, automated checks that AI-generated code and later modifications conform to that behavior and signal misalignment or drift.

Depending on the research questions developed during the project, the work may include:

• Investigating how intended behavior can be captured and refined from requirements, stakeholder input, developer-AI interactions, and development artifacts, and how gaps, ambiguities, and conflicts can be detected and resolved with humans in the loop.
• Developing and evaluating methods that connect human-readable behavior specifications with executable tests while keeping traceability to stakeholder intent.
• Exploring how specifications and tests can guide and verify agent-generated changes, and how they can be maintained as requirements and software evolve.
• Evaluating the effectiveness, reliability, and practicality of testing-based guardrails, with a focus on defect detection, stakeholder understanding, and support for human oversight.

The work combines method and tool development with empirical evaluation, including experiments and industrial case studies. Specific research questions, methods, and technical solutions will be developed together with the supervision team.

We are looking for a candidate with strong software engineering and programming skills and an interest in software testing and agentic software engineering.

The Ph.D. position is a part of the strategic research area in IT and mobile communication ELLIIT, which is a partnership between Linköping University, Lund University, Halmstad University, and Blekinge Institute of Technology.

Rules and benefits for Ph.D. students in Sweden apply to this position. The Ph.D. student will develop an individual study plan in software engineering together with his/her supervisors. The position may include up to 20% of other services, e.g., teaching at the undergraduate and graduate levels.

Eligibility requirements

To be employed as a Ph.D. student, it is required that the applicant is or will be admitted to postgraduate education.

Eligible for admission to postgraduate education is a person who has completed a degree at an advanced level in a technical, mathematical, or scientific field or who has otherwise acquired knowledge to be able to benefit from postgraduate education in the subject.

Meriting competencies and experience

In addition to the requirements described in the work description and the eligibility requirements for the position, the following degrees, competencies, and experiences are considered a merit:

• Master’s degree in software engineering, computer science, AI, or data science
• Documented programming and software development experience, for example in Python, and familiarity with version management and CI/CD tools
• Experience with generative AI in software development, such as LLM-based agents, code agents, or AI-assisted development tools
• Knowledge of or experience with software testing, including automated or specification-based testing and behavior-driven development, and with requirements engineering or traceability
• Experience with empirical research methods, such as experiments, case studies, or surveys, and with working with industry partners
• Proficiency in written and oral communication in English.

Place of employment: Karlskrona.

Employment level: 100%.

Commencement: To be agreed.

Duration: Temporary employment for up to 4 years of full-time research. The position may contain up to 20% other services, e.g., teaching, whereby the employment period can be extended to a maximum of 5 years.

Application deadline: December 15, 2026.

Your application should contain the following:

• A statement of your background, knowledge, and experience in the area(s) relevant to the position.
• A CV.
• Certified degree certificates and transcripts that are officially issued by your university.
  See universityadmissions.se for official recommendations.
• Contact information for two references (reference letters are not required at this point).
• The earliest date you can start to work.
• An appendix with current publications (if applicable).
• A link to your thesis (latest/highest degree).

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In case of different interpretations of the English and Swedish versions of this announcement, the Swedish version takes precedence.

Blekinge Institute of Technology, BTH, embraces diversity and welcomes applicants with varying backgrounds and experiences.
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