The Operations, Planning, Accounting and Control group teaches and conducts research in the area of operations planning and control in manufacturing, services, logistics, reliability and maintenance, and supply chains. Research is generally quantitative in nature, while many of the researchers also engage in empirical research. The OPAC group is responsible within the university for all teaching in the areas of operations management, transportation, manufacturing operations, reliability and maintenance, and accounting and finance, both at undergraduate and graduate level. All research is embedded in Beta, the research school for Operations Management & Logistics.

Research Project

The postdoc position is part of the TaSaSi (Towards Smart and Sustainable Infrastructures) project funded by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO). TaSaSi aims to develop innovative approaches to the dependability modelling of networked infrastructures within an 'adaptiveness' paradigm.
Sustainability requirements put on both existing and new infrastructure systems call for an entirely new approach to infrastructures design, maintenance and service logistics planning which entails long-term adaptation to evolving stressors for extended life expectancy. The ambition is to develop a modelling framework to enable a systematic and structured assessment of the reliability, availability and maintainability of civil infrastructure systems given multiple alternative and/or combined adaptive (reconfigurable) design, maintenance and service logistic options. The framework shall be built based on a whole-system approach where the complex dependencies between infrastructure elements conditions and functionality, design, maintenance and service logistics options are accounted for. Civil infrastructures operate in an uncertain environment where the system's requirements are likely to change over time due to the evolution of both internal (e.g. age) and external stressors (e.g. changing demand, climate change). Adaptation to such changes through reconfigurable design and maintenance, as well as service logistics set up should be therefore included.

In the project, there will be a close collaboration with the other partners of the TaSaSi project: Rijkswaterstaat, Witteveen+Bos, Dura Vermeer, Heijmans, TBI Infra B.V./ Mobilis, Service Logistics Forum, University of Groningen, Delft University of Technology, Tilburg University.

The postdoctoral researcher is expected to do scientific research in the domain described and publish research results in scientific journals. There will be close collaboration with dr. Claudia Fecarotti, prof.dr.ir Geert-Jan van Houtum (TU Eindhoven). In this position, you will spend a small part of your time on the supervision of BSc and MSc students who will work on subparts of the project with one or more of the industrial partners.

Applicants should have completed (or be close to completion of) a PhD degree in industrial engineering, operations research, civil engineering (with a significant OR component), or a comparable domain with a solid background in (stochastic) quantitative research methods. Fluency in English is required.

• A meaningful job in a dynamic and ambitious university with the possibility to present your work at international conferences.
• A full-time employment for 20 months.
• You will have free access to high-quality training programs for research and valorization,  professional development courses for PhD students, and didactical courses of the TEACH training program.
• A gross monthly salary and benefits in accordance with the Collective Labor Agreement for Dutch Universities.
• A broad package of fringe benefits (including an excellent technical infrastructure, moving expenses, and savings schemes).
• Family-friendly initiatives are in place, such as an international spouse program, and excellent on-campus children day care and sports facilities.