We are seeking an Assistant Professor to strengthen the Social Data Science (SoDa) team at Utrecht University. As a part of the ODISSEI consortium, the SoDa team aids social scientists at Dutch universities by providing data science, machine learning, and computational social science advice, as well as research engineering software and skills. Being part of the SoDa team means collaborating with sociologists, economists, psychologists, and other social scientists to answer research questions which can only be answered with computational methods.

The SoDa team is still young (established in August 2020), so this position is an opportunity to help shape the future of the team, get involved in a wide range of interesting research projects throughout the country, and to provide a meaningful contribution to computational social science research in the Netherlands. We aim to be a fully developed, fully operational data science team by the end of 2024.

Additionally, the candidate will perform teaching duties at the department of Methodology and Statistics, mostly in our Applied Data Science education programme. We develop and teach courses at Bachelor's and Master’s level, and our university hosts a successful yearly summer school to which we contribute several courses.

The position involves 40% teaching activities and 60% research time. The core tasks will include:

• collaborating with social scientists on research projects involving computational/data science;
• contributing to the acquisition of new research projects for the SoDa team;
• teaching in the education programme of the department of Methodology & Statistics.

Research
The candidate:

• holds a PhD degree in social methodology, statistics, data science, computer science, or a related field;
• has experience in conducting scientific research in the field of quantitative research methods or applied data science;
• has the ability to bridge the gap between computational sciences and social sciences;
• has a demonstrable affinity with social science;
• preferably has experience/affinity with some or all of the following:
  • open & reproducible science;
  • scientific programming with R, Python, Julia or another relevant language;
  • open-source software development with version control (e.g., Git);
  • FAIR data principles, data management;
  • synthetic data generation/simulation;
  • network science;
  • data visualization.

Teaching
The candidate:

• has experience with teaching academic courses on applied data science, preferably in a team setting;
• is able to provide inspiring lectures and has a keen eye for the improvement of teaching methods, as evidenced by positive teaching assessments;
• holds a Basic Teaching Qualification (BKO), or is willing to acquire this qualification in the near future.

General
The candidate:

• can take the lead on a research project, has a sense of ownership and shows initiative;
• has excellent communication skills, a proactive work attitude, and is able to work within a team;
• preferably has reading proficiency in Dutch.

We offer a full-time temporary position for the duration of the SoDa project, i.e. until December 31, 2024. Your salary ranges between €3,746 and €5,127 per month based on a full-time appointment (i.e. salary scale 11 according to the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities). The salary is supplemented with an annual holiday pay of 8%, and an end-of-year bonus of 8,3% per year.

We encourage you to grow professionally, and we support a healthy work-life balance. That’s why we offer employment benefits such as professional development, leave arrangements, partially paid parental leave and sports. We also give you the opportunity to expand your terms of employment via the Employment Conditions Selection Model.

And that's not all. We are happy to have you as a new employee and you will be given a warm welcome. To this end, we will host a nice introduction process for our new colleagues, where you will be introduced and shown around our faculty and university.

A better future for everyone. This ambition motivates our scientists in executing their leading research and inspiring teaching. At Utrecht University, the various disciplines collaborate intensively towards major societal themes. Our focus is on Dynamics of Youth, Institutions for Open Societies, Life Sciences and Sustainability.

The Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences is one of the leading faculties in Europe providing research and academic teaching in cultural anthropology, educational sciences, interdisciplinary social science, pedagogical sciences, psychology, and sociology. Research and teaching activities are concentrated in five areas: Behaviour in Social Contexts, Child and Adolescent Studies, Cognitive and Clinical Psychology, Education and Learning, and Methodology and Statistics.

Almost 6,000 students are enrolled in a broad range of undergraduate and graduate programmes. The Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences has some 850 faculty and staff members, all providing their individual contribution to the training and education of young talent and to the research into and finding solutions for scientific and societal issues.