Postdoctoral scholarship (2 years) within Optimization and Learning for Distributed Decision Systems

The Department of Mathematics and Mathematical Statistics is offering a postdoctoral scholarship within the project “Optimization and Learning for Distributed Decision Systems”. The scholarship is full-time for two years, with a starting date of 1 November 2026, or by agreement.

The Department of Mathematics and Mathematical Statistics conducts research in computational mathematics, discrete mathematics, mathematical modeling and analysis, geometry, mathematical statistics, and the mathematical foundations of artificial intelligence. The postdoctoral scholar will join the Mathematical Programming Group, which develops theory, methods, and software for large-scale optimization and decision problems, with applications in machine learning and data science. The group’s research includes nonconvex optimization, stochastic optimization, distributed and federated optimization, operator splitting methods, and optimization with quantum computers.

Project description
How can independent decision-makers be coordinated toward a shared goal when their data, objectives, and constraints remain private? This project explores this question through optimization and learning methods for distributed decision systems. The central idea is to model coordination as a bilevel optimization problem, where local agents make their own decisions and a coordinating mechanism learns from these decisions to improve global performance.

Within the project the postdoctoral researcher will have the opportunity to develop mathematical models, study theoretical properties, design algorithms, and explore applications in areas such as supply chains, energy systems, or multi-agent coordination. The project offers flexibility to build on the researcher’s own expertise in optimization, machine learning, federated learning, control, or operations research.

The scholarship is hosted by the Mathematical Programming Group at Umeå University, a creative and international research environment focused on optimization, machine learning, and mathematical foundations of AI.

This postdoctoral scholarship is financed and administered by the Kempe Foundation. The stipend is tax-free and will be 750 000 SEK for two years, corresponding to 375 000 SEK per year.

Qualifications
To qualify as a postdoctoral scholarship holder, the postdoctoral fellow is required to have completed a doctoral degree or a foreign degree deemed equivalent to a doctoral degree. This qualification requirement must be fulfilled no later than at the time of the decision about scholarship recipient.

Priority should be given to candidates who completed their doctoral degree, according to what is stipulated in the paragraph above, no later than three years prior. If there are special reasons, candidates who completed their doctoral degree before that may also be eligible. Special reasons include absence due to illness, parental leave, appointments of trust in trade union organizations, military service or similar circumstances, as well as clinical practice or other forms of appointment/assignment relevant to the subject area.

Doctoral degree should be within mathematics, applied mathematics, computational mathematics, mathematical statistics, computer science, operations research, control, machine learning, or another subject relevant to the project.

In addition, the candidate should have documented research experience in at least one of the following areas: optimization, machine learning, distributed or federated learning, control, operations research, or multi-agent systems. The candidate should also have good ability to communicate research in written and spoken English.

It is desirable that the candidate has experience with one or more of the following topics: bilevel optimization, distributed optimization, stochastic optimization, nonconvex optimization, first-order methods, operator splitting methods, privacy-preserving learning or optimization, or applications involving networked decision systems. Experience with numerical implementation and reproducible computational experiments is also considered a merit.

The candidate should be able to formulate research questions, structure their research independently, and engage constructively with a collaborative and international research environment.

Application
A full application should include:

- Cover letter, maximum 2 pages, describing the applicant’s research background, motivation for applying, how their previous experience relates to the project, and possible research directions they would be interested in exploring within the scholarship.

- Curriculum vitae (CV) with a complete publication list.

- Verified copy of doctoral degree certificate or documentation that clarifies when the doctoral degree is expected to be obtained.

- Verified copies of other diplomas, list of completed academic courses and grades.

- Copy of doctoral thesis and up to three relevant publications. For each selected publication, the applicant should briefly explain its relevance and their own contribution, especially for co-authored work.

- Other documents that the applicant wishes to claim.

- Contact information to two persons willing to act as references. References may be contacted later in the selection process.

The application should be written in English or Swedish, and the attached documents should be in Word or PDF format. The application should be registered via Umeå University’s e-recruitment system Varbi and submitted by the deadline of 31 July 2026.

Umeå University strives to offer an equal environment where open dialogue between people with different backgrounds and perspectives lay the foundation for learning, creativity and development. We welcome people with different backgrounds and experiences to apply for this scholarship, and especially encourage female applicants.

More information

Further details are provided by Assistant Professor Alp Yurtsever (alp.yurtsever@umu.se)

More information about the department: https://www.umu.se/en/department-of-mathematics-and-mathematical-statistics/

We look forward to receiving your application!