Research Assistant - AI-Software Engineering RA and AI-Cybersecurity RA

The current opportunity is available for current Manchester Met students, to apply you must be based in the UK for the duration of the role. The main purpose of this role is to provide research support to colleagues and support academic project leads on the Cybersecurity Foundations for Integrated AI-Driven Operation System in Smart Hospitality Project at the Department of Computing and Mathematics, by assisting, and where necessary taking the lead, with research data collection and analysis, and the dissemination of findings to appropriate groups related to the project. Support the development of new areas in the field of AI-Cyber Security. The project is being delivered in collaboration with industry partner HospitAI, a UK-developed AI operating system for hospitality that integrates property management, revenue optimisation, energy management, housekeeping, maintenance and guest intelligence through a unified intelligent platform. The research will investigate how advanced AI-enabled operational systems can be enhanced through improved data integration, trustworthy AI practices, explainability, analytics and machine learning techniques while supporting secure and resilient deployment within smart hospitality environments. The project focuses on establishing cybersecurity foundations and assurance mechanisms for AI-enabled operational systems deployed within modern hospitality environments Dates: September 2026 - 28 Feb 2027 Hours: 16 hours per week Location: Hybrid Key Tasks Research Activities

• Conduct literature reviews in AI, machine learning, intelligent systems, cybersecurity, AI security, trustworthy AI and smart systems, digital transformation and smart hospitality.

• Analyse operational and business data generated by existing AI-enabled hospitality systems.
• Support the integration, cleansing, preparation and analysis of data from multiple sources.
• Contribute to the development and evaluation of analytics models, machine learning approaches and decision-support techniques.
• Investigate opportunities to enhance existing platform functionality using advanced AI and data-driven approaches.
• Investigate cybersecurity threats and vulnerabilities affecting AI-enabled operational platforms.
• Review and evaluate privacy, governance and compliance requirements associated with hospitality data and AI systems.
• Evaluate the performance, effectiveness and explainability of AI-driven operational processes.
• Analyse system logs, operational events and platform-generated data to identify potential cyber risks and security issues.
• Assist in the evaluation of access control, authentication, data protection and system resilience mechanisms.
• Assist in designing and conducting experiments involving system performance, operational efficiency and decision quality.
• Produce technical reports, research papers and presentations.
• Participate in meetings with academic and industry partners.
• Plan, prioritise and organise own work or resources, and the work of Research Assistants and students where appropriate, in order to achieve agreed objectives.
• Conduct literature and database searches using standard techniques and methods.
• Write up results of own research and prepare for presentation to research team and relevant stakeholders.
• Contribute to the production of research reports and publications.
• Use initiative and judgement to develop appropriate techniques in order to facilitate research work and resolve problems affecting the achievement of objectives and deadlines.

Liaison and Networking

• Present research outcomes within project meetings, workshops and dissemination events.
• Support the preparation of conference papers, journal publications and other dissemination materials.
• Engage with industry partners and stakeholders from the hospitality and cybersecurity sectors.
• Participate in internal and external research networks to share knowledge and best practice.
• Develop own and/or joint research objectives, budgets, and project proposals with senior research staff which meet funding criteria and benefit the department.
• Proactively and effectively engage with quality assurance procedures to ensure that University standards are upheld.
• Collaborate with academic colleagues on research development and future direction.

Service Provision

• Contribute to the development of project deliverables, future funding proposals and research impact activities.
• Ensure adherence to research governance, ethics, cybersecurity and data protection requirements.
• Collaborate with academic colleagues on future research opportunities in AI, cybersecurity and smart systems.

Team Working

• Actively contribute as a member of the project team.
• Support postgraduate and undergraduate students involved in project activities where appropriate.
• Attend Faculty, Department and project meetings as required.
• Assist with the supervision and guidance of students supporting project-related research tasks.
• Actively participate as a member of the research team, offering general help and guidance to others and PhD students who may be assisting with the research project.
• Attend Faculty, Department and Programme meetings/boards as appropriate to proactively contribute to decision making.
• Introduce new starters to the area, giving training on basic skills and activities to assist their induction to the team.
• Assist senior staff in the guidance and support of new research assistants or members of staff within the department as appropriate.
• Supervise the work/projects of taught postgraduate and/or research students as required to support the development of students’ research skills.

Miscellaneous You have a legal duty, so far as is reasonably practicable, to ensure that you do not endanger yourself or anyone else by your acts or omissions. In addition, you must cooperate with the University on health and safety matters and must not interfere or misuse anything provided for health, safety and welfare purposes. You are responsible for applying the University’s Equal Opportunities Policy in your own area of responsibility and in your general conduct. You have a responsibility to promote high levels of customer care within your own areas of work. Such other relevant duties commensurate with the grade of the post as may be assigned by the Manager in agreement with you. Such agreement should not be unreasonably withheld. You have the responsibility to engage with the University’s commitment to Environmental Sustainability in order to reduce its waste, energy consumption and carbon footprint. You have the responsibility to engage with the University’s commitment to delivering value for money services that optimise the use of resources and therefore should consider this when undertaking all duties and aspects of your role.

This role is only open to current enrolled Manchester Met Students who will be based in the UK for the duration of the role., * Current Manchester Metropolitan University undergrad or postgraduate student, or holder of a postgraduate qualification in Artificial Intelligence, Data Science, Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related discipline or substantial relevant experience, and evidence of continuous professional development in AI or cybersecurity.

• Experience in conducting literature reviews and analysing current technologies, particularly in AI, cybersecurity, data analytics, IoT, and smart systems.
• Experience working with existing AI and machine learning solutions, including evaluating, testing, validating and optimising model performance using Python-based tools and libraries.
• Experience in integrating and analysing data from multiple data sources, platforms and APIs.
• Understanding of modular software architectures, data pipelines, event-driven systems, and cloud-based applications. The HospitAI platform consists of multiple integrated operational modules connected through a unified intelligence layer.
• Knowledge of cybersecurity principles, including secure system design, privacy, access control, data governance, threat assessment and AI security.
• Understanding of security risks within software, cloud and data-driven systems.
• Experience in data preparation, feature engineering, data quality assessment and dataset management.
• Experience using Python and data analysis libraries such as Pandas, NumPy, Scikit-learn and visualisation tools such as Power BI, Tableau, Plotly or Matplotlib.
• Understanding of AI model evaluation techniques, performance metrics, explainability and trustworthiness..
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to work independently and as part of a multidisciplinary team
• Ability to undertake research by preparing, setting up, conducting and recording the outcome of experiments and/or field work.
• Ability to use initiative, creativity and judgement to develop appropriate approaches in order to further research and scholarly activities.
• Proficiency in the use of relevant Python software packages.
• Possess sufficient breadth or depth of cybersecurity threats and vulnerabilities knowledge to work within an established research team.
• Experience of AI-interdisciplinary funded research
• Experience of data collection
• Experience of presenting and communicating complex information to a range of audiences, both orally and in writing
• Experience of prioritising work independently and as part of a team in order to deliver individual and team objectives
• Experience of supervising student work, * Knowledge of Explainable AI (XAI) or Responsible AI.
• Experience working with operational or business intelligence data.
• Knowledge of cloud-based applications, APIs or software platforms.
• Experience with predictive analytics, recommendation systems or optimisation techniques.
• Interest in smart hospitality, smart buildings or digital operational systems.
• Knowledge of AI security, adversarial machine learning or trustworthy AI.
• Understanding of GDPR, data governance and privacy-by-design principles.
• Experience with threat modelling, risk assessment or security auditing.

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