The University of Twente, founded in 1961, is a leading young, entrepreneurial university, setting standards in new technologies and seeking to stimulate change, renewal and progress in society. Ranked among the top 1% of universities worldwide, the University prides itself on the capacity to work closely both with the technologies of the future in engineering and technology, and with behavioural and social science research to produce innovative and cutting-edge solutions.

In realizing the University’s ambition to connect ‘hi-tech’ to ‘human touch’, design plays an essential role in making technology available in a useful, efficient and meaningful way to individuals, organizations and society at large. In hosting technology-based faculties and a behavioural sciences faculty, the University of Twente harbours the ideal, multidisciplinary environment for connecting people and technology. The University of Twente and the Fraunhofer Institute for Production Technology have developed a joint research and development (R&D) unit in the form of a "Fraunhofer Project Centre”. The Centre is aimed at intensifying their scientific cooperation in the field of Design and Production Engineering for Complex High Tech Systems with industrial partners, and to pursue the objective of establishing a long-term strategic collaboration in applied research between their respective research units as Centres of Excellence.

The Department of Design, Production and Management at the Faculty of Engineering Technology embodies the University’s multidisciplinary focus, its entrepreneurial character and also honours the potential of new technologies and smart designs for both industrial applications and for enriching people’s everyday experiences. The Department now seeks to appoint a new Chair of Design Engineering.

Working in close cooperation with the other chairs in the Department, the successful appointee will act as one of the core pillars of the industrial design and mechanical engineering programs at the University of Twente. She/he will have a track record in mechanical engineering with a close affinity to design practice and will be a world-leader in design engineering research, ideally in the field of smart manufacturing.

The Twente Smart manufacturing research involves the holistic consideration of products, production and product lifecycles, based on sophisticated and ground-breaking modelling methods, and information driven technologies for production environments. Additionally, the Chair will act as the Scientific Director of the Fraunhofer Project Center at the University of Twente. As such, the appointee will be responsible for the scientific quality of the research executed at the Project Center.

Together with the Managing Director, appointed by Fraunhofer, the Chair will form the daily management team of the Fraunhofer Project Center, and will therefore be expect to attend and conduct business with German-language stakeholders.

Because women are still underrepresented in a number of fields, they are particularly encouraged to apply.

An executive search exercise is being undertaken by Perrett Laver to assist the recruitment committee. Applications should consist of a covering letter explaining motivation and qualifications for the position and a full curriculum vitae, including a list of publications. Perrett Laver may be contacted for informal enquiries and questions about the post on +31 (0)20 240 4378 or Jack.Bircher@perrettlaver.com.

Applications can be uploaded at www.perrettlaver.com/candidates, quoting reference number 2769. The deadline for applications is 9am CET on July 1st, 2017.

Please don’t use the “apply now” – button at the bottom of this page.

The University of Twente offers a fulltime position as professor, with the intention to grant tenure after three years. Salary, benefits and other employment conditions are in accordance with the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities.

The University of Twente. We stand for life sciences and technology. High tech and human touch. Education and research that matter. New technology which drives change, innovation and progress in society. The University of Twente is the only campus university in the Netherlands; divided over five faculties we provide more than fifty educational programmes. The University of Twente has a strong focus on personal development and talented researchers are given scope for carrying out pioneering research.

The Faculty of Engineering Technology (CTW) is one of the five faculties of the University of Twente. CTW combines Mechanical Engineering, Civil Engineering and Industrial Design Engineering. Our faculty has approximately 1800 bachelor and master students, 400 employees and 150 PhD candidates. The departments of the faculty cooperatively conduct the educational programmes and participate in interdisciplinary research projects, programmes and the research institutes: MIRA, CTIT, SBE and IGS.