PhD Research Scientist

SupraOS is building a governed execution layer for institutions that need safer operational follow-through. Our system turns incident, service, vendor and control-evidence signals into evidence-backed Work Objects, applies policy and authority checks, verifies outcomes, and generates redacted audit-ready Receipts across existing enterprise systems.

We are hiring four PhD-level Research Scientists / Research Engineers to help build the next generation of governed AI systems for public-sector and regulated enterprise operations. These are hands-on R&D roles for people who can move between research, system design, software implementation, experimentation and technical documentation.

This is not a pure product management, business development, advisory or dashboard-building role. You will work on core R&D problems around evidence integrity, state verification, policy-gated execution, selective disclosure, secure connectors and reviewable proof objects.

Research tracks

Candidates may be considered for one primary track, but we prefer multi-talented researchers who can contribute across more than one area.

1. Work Object & Policy Systems

Design machine-readable Work Object schemas, authority models, policy-state logic, evidence-completeness checks, allowed/held/blocked action states and workflow state machines.

2. Verifier & Evidence Integrity

Build deterministic verifier logic, test harnesses, source-state comparison methods, missing/altered evidence detection, proof-chain integrity checks and reproducible evaluation methods.

3. Selective Disclosure & Receipt Systems

Develop redacted Receipt generation, selective-disclosure logic, bilingual review templates, audit-ready proof outputs, evidence minimisation and reviewer-facing explanation layers.

4. Secure Connectors & Deployment Architecture

Build read-only/source-extract connectors, secure cloud/VPC deployment patterns, logging, credential boundaries, integration test environments and release packaging for regulated environments.

What you will do

Design and implement research prototypes for governed AI execution, operational proof chains and evidence-backed workflow systems.

Build Work Object schemas, Policy Gate logic, verifier modules, Receipt-generation components and secure connector patterns.

Create synthetic and redacted datasets for service escalation, vendor SLA follow-through, incident remediation and control-evidence closure workflows.

Design experiments and evaluation methods to test verifier integrity, evidence completeness, redaction quality, workflow correctness and safety boundaries.

Translate research into working software artifacts, not only papers or presentations.

Write clean technical documentation, test plans, release notes and walkthrough materials for internal review and external technical assessment.

Participate in architecture reviews, code reviews, research discussions and milestone delivery.

Work closely with the founder-led engineering team on the core SupraOS architecture.

Required qualifications

Completed PhD by start date in Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Software Engineering, Information Systems, Cybersecurity, Distributed Systems, Databases, Data Science, Systems Engineering, Operations Research, Human-Computer Interaction, Control Systems or a closely related STEM field.

Strong software-building ability. You should be comfortable turning research ideas into working prototypes and testable modules.

Experience in at least two of the following areas: AI systems, workflow systems, knowledge graphs, state machines, rule engines, formal methods, data provenance, evidence integrity, auditability, privacy/redaction, cybersecurity, distributed systems, cloud architecture, API/integration design or enterprise software.

Ability to design experiments, define acceptance criteria, run evaluations and document results clearly.

Strong written English and clear technical communication.

Willingness to work full-time from Hong Kong. Candidates already legally permitted to work in Hong Kong are preferred; relocation or visa sponsorship may be considered for exceptional candidates.

Ability to complete standard employment, independence and conflict-of-interest declarations.

Preferred experience

Research or engineering experience in regulated industries, public-sector systems, financial services, operational resilience, compliance technology, audit technology, cybersecurity, enterprise operations or missi