AI-for-Fintech Research (AFR) is a five-year collaboration between TU Delft and ING that started at the beginning of 2020. AFR is part of the Dutch Innovation Center for Artificial Intelligence (ICAI).
AFR hosts 10 research tracks and will run for a period of five years. In each track there will be a PhD student (4 years), one or two university advisors, one or two ING engineers, as well as several bachelor or master students, giving a total of 6-10 people per track. Thus, at its peak the total lab size may be around 60-100 people.

To accommodate this, TU Delft is looking for an AFR scientific manager. The scientific manager is an assistant professor responsible for the day-to-day management of the lab, and reports to the scientific director (prof. dr. Arie van Deursen, TU Delft) as well as to the industry stakeholders.

Department
The Department of Software Technology (ST) is one of the leading Dutch departments in research and academic education in computer science, employing about 220 people. The department ST is responsible for a large part of the curriculum of the bachelor’s and master’s programmes in Computer Science as well as the master’s programme in Embedded Systems (attended by 2.147 students). The inspiration for its research topics is largely derived from technical ICT problems in industry and society related to large-scale distributed processing, embedded systems, programming productivity, and web-based information analysis.

As scientific manager, you will coordinate and participate in research and education activities taking place in AFR. Within the context of AFR, you will have the chance to build a strong track record in terms of research results, (international) research collaboration, valorisation, supervision, leadership and academic teaching. 

Education
To ensure you will gain sufficient experience with academic teaching, in the second half of the five year period you will have the opportunity to teach BSc or MSc level courses. In the first 2.5 years of the lab there will be space for BKO/UTQ and for co-teaching. You will be supervising 3-4 MSc and 3-4 BSc students per year. This involves ensuring each track has clear topics for BSc/MSc thesis projects and BSc software projects which requires a creative/open mind for any opportunities for BSc/MSc projects and developing clear supervision procedures.

Research
You will be co-supervising PhD students, collaborating on papers in several tracks and initiating collaborations. Therefore, a good understanding of the research (progress) in all the tracks is essential. You will strive for international visibility of the lab.
In the first 2.5 years, researching will be limited to supervising PhD students. In the second 2.5 years there will be time for proposal writing, with good chances of success given the unique position offered by this lab to gain experience in valorisation and research collaboration!

Valorisation and outreach
As a Scientific Manager, you aim to pro-actively manage expectations of all stakeholders. You will frequently organise meetups and outreach activities, both within and outside ING (assisted by the Project Officer/Management Assistant). You actively engage ING engineers in the evaluation and adoption of research results.
Also, you naturally tend to explore possibilities for “productisation”, spin-offs, or start-ups and you invite international top researchers to ING for workshops and collaboration.

Planning and control
As a manager, you will ensure each track has a plan for every phase and you will be monitoring the progress and adjusting plans where needed. Under your supervision each of the ten (6 months) phases ends with a clear and concise status report.

Staffing, housing and team building
You will be responsible for proper staffing of each track. This also involves the planning of office space at ING and at TU Delft. As a coach, you make sure that your team members are working well together. You aim to lead all the team members towards personal success.

Considering these responsibilities, the scientific manager we are looking for should have the following qualities:

• T-shaped profile with research expertise in at least one of the tracks of the lab, and a broad interest in AI, software engineering, and data analytics
• strong social skills
• ability to quickly connect (ING) practice with (TU Delft) research
• excellent organizer
• enthusiastic personality
• a team player
• experience in industry
• PhD in Computer Science

The position requires a presence of two days per week at ING in Amsterdam, and three days at TU Delft.

Fixed-term contract: tenure track (6 years with the prospect of a permanent contract).

A tenure-track position is offered for six years. In the fifth year we’ll decide if you will be offered a permanent faculty position, based on performance indicators agreed upon at the start of the appointment. We expect that you have the potential to grow towards an Associate Professor and/or Full Professor role in the future.

Inspiring, excellent education is our central aim. We expect you to obtain a University Teaching Qualification (UTQ) within three years if you have less than five years of teaching experience. This is provided by the TU Delft UTQ programme.
TU Delft sets high standards for the English competency of the teaching staff. The TU Delft offers training to improve English competency. If you do not speak Dutch, we offer courses to learn the Dutch language within three years.

Salary and benefits are in accordance with the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities. The TU Delft offers a customisable compensation package, a discount on health insurance and sport memberships, and a monthly work costs contribution. Flexible work schedules can be arranged.

For international applicants we offer the Coming to Delft Service and Partner Career Advice to assist you with your relocation. An International Children's Centre offers childcare and there is an international primary school.

Delft University of Technology

Delft University of Technology is built on strong foundations. As creators of the world-famous Dutch waterworks and pioneers in biotech, TU Delft is a top international university combining science, engineering and design. It delivers world class results in education, research and innovation. For generations, our engineers have proven to be entrepreneurial problem-solvers both in business and in a social context. TU Delft offers 16 Bachelor’s and 32 Master’s programmes to more than 23,000 students. Our scientific staff consists of 3,500 staff members and 2,800 PhD candidates. Together we imagine, invent and create solutions using technology to have a positive impact on a global scale.

Challenge. Change. Impact!

Faculty Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science

The Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science (EEMCS) brings together three disciplines - electrical engineering, mathematics and computer science. Combined, they reinforce each other and are the driving force behind the technology we use in our daily lives. Technology such as the electricity grid, which our faculty is helping to make future-proof. We are also working on a world in which humans and computers reinforce each other. We are mapping out disease processes using single cell data, and using mathematics to simulate gigantic ash plumes after a volcanic eruption. There is plenty of room here for ground-breaking research. We educate innovative engineers and have excellent labs and facilities that underline our strong international position. In total, more than 1,100 employees and 4,000 students work and study in this innovative environment.

Click here to go to the website of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science.