We are the Department of Data Science and Knowledge Engineering (DKE) at Maastricht University, the Netherlands: an international community of nearly 600 students and 60 staff members, embedded in the Faculty of Science and Engineering (FSE). Our department has almost 30 years’ experience with research and teaching in the fields of Artificial Intelligence, Computer Science and Applied Mathematics. To strengthen our education, we are looking for two lecturers with a PhD degree in Applied Mathematics, Computer Science or Engineering.

The Department of Data Science and Knowledge Engineering is growing rapidly. This position is one of multiple job openings: you are more than welcome to browse through our other vacancies.

Education at the Department of Data Science and Knowledge Engineering
We offer one bachelor’s programme (Data Science and Knowledge Engineering) and two master’s programmes (Data Science for Decision Making and Artificial Intelligence). All programmes build on a combination of the three aforementioned fields (Artificial Intelligence, Computer Science and Applied Mathematics) and are nationally ranked #1 in their category according to the Dutch Keuzegids ranking.

Our programmes employ the so-called Project-Centred Learning (PCL) educational model. With PCL, students work on two big projects per year alongside their courses. In groups of 5-6 students, they tackle projects ranging from simulating space missions to Saturn’s moon, Titan (bachelor, year 1) to enabling a robot arm to play tic-tac-toe against human players (bachelor, year 3) and designing optimal timetables or automating human facial expression recognition (master level). Apart from creating a functional product, our students write a report suitable for publication in an academic journal and present their findings to their peers and teachers.

As a lecturer, you…  
…will spend approximately 80% of your time on education. This includes teaching some of the courses offered by our department (mostly in Year 1 and 2 of the Bachelor’s; see curriculum here), supervising student projects at the bachelor level, and/or coordinating thesis projects at master level. The remainder of your time is spent on innovating education, for example by improving courses.

Naturally, we are looking for a passionate lecturer. But we also seek someone who enjoys mentoring, and who thrives in our informal and international teaching culture. We all refer to each other on a first name basis and have around 40 different nationalities in our community. Ideally, you are excited to see our students go places. Because that’s what they do: in the past months, they've travelled the world to present their projects and theses at research conferences. They won an international hackathon, initiated a climate march and had their research featured in newspapers across Europe.

Without taking away from their talent and personality, we doubt all this would've come to fruition without our dedicated teaching staff. Our two new lecturers should be excited to play a role in both the academic and personal development of our students.

In addition, you will need the following to qualify for this position:

·         A PhD in Computer Science, Applied Mathematics, Engineering or a strongly related field;

·         A proven track record in teaching;

·         English language fluency.

Fixed-term contract: 2 years.

We offer a full-time position starting as soon as possible. You will initially be employed on a temporary contract for the duration of two years. Beyond that, we offer excellent possibilities for contract extension and the prospect of a permanent position in case of mutual positive assessment.

The salary is stipulated in the Collective Labour Agreement of Dutch Universities: a minimum of €2.709 and a maximum of €4.978 per month (scale 10/11), depending on experience, for a full-time position of 38 hours a week. On top of this, there is an annual holiday allowance (8% of annual income) and an annual end-of-year bonus (8.3% of annual income).

The position comes with a number of additional benefits, including:

·         Partially paid parental leave;

·         A pension scheme;

·         The option to participate in collective healthcare insurance;

·         A one-time reimbursement of your relocation costs if you are moving to Maastricht from more than 40 kilometers away;

·         Assistance with practical matters such as housing for candidates unfamiliar with the Netherlands, through Maastricht University’s Knowledge Centre for International Staff;

·         A welcoming and open work environment with a high degree of flexibility, and plenty of opportunities for collaboration and growth;

·         Mentoring to develop yourself as a teacher and obtain a University Teaching Qualification (BKO, for ‘basiskwalificatie onderwijs’: an official certification for teaching at Dutch universities) through a training programme, in case you are not yet certified;

Full conditions of employment are laid out in the Collective Labour Agreement of Dutch Universities, supplemented with local UM provisions. Furthermore, applicants from outside the Netherlands may be eligible for the so-called 30% ruling, a tax cut for highly skilled migrants that applies for a maximum of five years.

Maastricht University | Maastricht University (UM) has around 18,000 students and 4,300 employees. Reflecting the university's strong international profile, a fair amount of both students and staff are from abroad. Research at UM is characterized by a multidisciplinary and thematic approach, and is concentrated in research institutes and schools. The university is renowned for its small-scale and student-oriented approach. UM placed #10 in Times Higher Education’s (THE) Young Universities Ranking 2019, and #127 in THE’s World University Rankings 2020.

http://www.maastrichtuniversity.nl/

Living and working in Maastricht | The Department of Data Science and Knowledge Engineering is housed in the historical city of Maastricht, the Netherlands. Situated in the heart of Europe and within 30 kilometers from the German and Belgian borders, Maastricht and its 120,000 inhabitants have a strong international character. It is a safe and family-friendly city with a history spanning more than 2,000 years. The city’s rich past is reflected everywhere in the streets: the ratio of monuments-to-inhabitants is roughly 1:73.

The Department of Data Science and Knowledge Engineering | Founded in 1992, we are a fast-growing department undertaking internationally respected research in the areas of Artificial Intelligence, Data Science, Computer Science and Applied Mathematics. We maintain a large network of industry partners and provide education through one bachelor’s programme and two master’s programmes, all of which are nationally ranked #1 in their cohort according to the most recent education rankings.

Our new colleagues will be joining a tight-knit department consisting of ~50 principal investigators, postdocs and PhD students, nearly 600 BSc and MSc students and a team of 13 dedicated support staff members. Together, we come from over 40 different countries.

https://www.maastrichtuniversity.nl/dke

STEM research in Maastricht | DKE is embedded in the equally thriving Faculty of Science and Engineering (FSE). FSE is home to several outstanding departments and institutions covering education and research in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) as well as the liberal arts and sciences.

https://www.maastrichtuniversity.nl/fse