Innovation & Technology Manager m/f/x (1.0 fte)

As the driving force behind radical, disruptive innovations at Erasmus University Rotterdam, ErasmusX aims to challenge the educational status quo by providing a human centered learning experience with a strong focus on student agency and emerging technologies in a complex innovative setting. A few notable projects developed in 2020-2022 are: the EUR Minecraft university campus, a fully online leadership program called Pre-Academic Program, a minor focused on the future of education enabled by novel technologies.

Our team and network consist of national and international academics, students, and expert stakeholders from industry. ErasmusX projects are relatively disruptive by nature. Our primary focus is on educational technology and co-creation in a complex innovative setting with multiple stakeholders.

The program is aligned with the EUR strategic ambition to ensure future-proof education for her students.

We pride ourselves on a strong team culture, based on the following principles:

• Authenticity: our professional-selves equal our home-selves, we are not shy to share our vulnerabilities, to have a bad day in front of colleagues, or to laugh out loud about random memes together.
• Teamwork makes the dream work: to us teamwork is essential for success. It is the sum of all the skills and characters that make up a team. When an individual succeeds, we all succeed and share the joy together.
• Bold with ideas, kind and respectful to people: we aim to improve our students’ learning experience and inspire our colleagues. We do this through initiating bold ideas, inviting others to the table and by always being nice (even to those who do not like our ideas).
• Creativity is of the essence: creativity comes in all shapes and forms. That is exactly why we love working with a diverse group of people and encouraging them to creatively express themselves in whatever fashion they feel like.
• Courageous mindset: if you’re into innovation you know that you will fail 9 out of 10 times. For ErasmusX, failing is just another way of learning. It is not the failing itself, but the getting-back-up that makes all the difference.
• Always learning: we approach everything as a learning opportunity, learning constantly. We share our knowledge and expertise within our team and the communities beyond.

The Job’s mission
As an Innovation & Technology manager you will strengthen the ErasmusX team by accelerating the development and adoption of innovative technologies, tools, and methods to drive impact-based learning at the Erasmus University Rotterdam. Leverage the stream of disruptive edtech innovations and work closely with EUR faculties to meet emerging needs, identify opportunities for experimentation, and drive the diffusion of innovative edtech best practices.

Key activities & accountabilities

• Conduct ongoing insightful technological monitoring/exploration, aiming to identify new technologies or approaches we could integrate in ErasmusX’s pedagogical processes to ensure that we are world-leading in all facets of technology-mediated pedagogy.
• You must be able to identify new technologies tools or methods and assess their educational and societal value potential. You should envision the implementing of these technologies in one or several of the following ways:
  • Integrating it within current ErasmusX projects;
  • Developing it further to find new ErasmusX projects;
  • Articulate it strategically in specific educational or societal contexts of the Erasmus University Rotterdam ecosystem.
• Develop, execute the ErasmusX Innovation Strategy and reporting thereof. Each new technology implementation idea must be supported by:
  • A strategy and planning that aligns with the ErasmusX agenda and goal architecture;
  • A system thinking mindset that will help ErasmusX and its stakeholders keep track of relevant KPIs;
  • The commitment to ensure the delivery of valuable impact on a short- and long-term basis.
• Partner with faculties to identify opportunities for the adoption of innovative learning technologies to drive learning effectiveness and impact in face-to-face, live, hybrid and online settings.
• Understand pedagogical needs and strategies for executive learning across a broad range of business- and management-related disciplines.
• Leverage deep familiarity with state-of-the art digital products (such as mobile apps) AI and XR (such as VR and AR), learning gamification, simulations, and accessible electronic tools (Raspberry PI, Arduino, etc.) among other technological trends and innovations. This to identify opportunities for adoption by faculties, departments and Learning and Innovation Managers.
• Find IT solutions to enable the adoption, integration, and appropriate configuration of innovative learning technologies at ErasmusX.
• Design and implement tools to assess the effectiveness of adopted learning innovations and technologies, and “close the learning loop” by channeling the lessons and insights into the next round of innovation.
• Project management of the different innovation projects within ErasmusX (mainly ed tech).
• Partner with the Vice Deans, the lead of Strategic Programs and arrange with other internal stakeholders to design, develop and implement workshops and other diffusion mechanisms to raise awareness among the faculties and to drive broadest-possible adoption of impact-enhancing educational technologies.
• Ensure the Innovation team is fully aware of technology-enabled innovative pedagogies and learning designs and partner with the team to identify, develop and deploy appropriate technologies in support of faculties’ learning objectives.
• Work with the ErasmusX Communications team and across the EUR to raise the visibility of ErasmusX technology leadership both externally and internally.
   

Education
Master’s degree in a related field such as learning sciences, educational technologies, learning design, IT, data sciences, strategic product design, digital product design or computer sciences. Cross-disciplinary training strongly preferred.

Experience

• Proven ability in having delivered on this role’s key activities and accountabilities in a high-performance educational context.
• Demonstrated relationships among the ed tech community.
• Familiarity with executive education is a plus.

Additional desirable experience

• Entrepreneurial experience and/or personal experience designing and developing apps or other technologies, ideally for educational use,
• Building environments for learning and teaching, incorporating multimedia, artificial intelligence, computer networks and innovative curriculum and classroom activity structures,
• Foundation in the tools and theory of learning design, technology innovation, learning assessment and learning analytics.

Competencies

• Enthusiasm for and alignment with ErasmusX’s mission and for the role technology can play in helping us live up to it.
• Curiosity, positivity, and creativity. Ability to challenge what is and inspire what could be.
• Independent self-starter with initiative and drive to overcome obstacles and see projects through to a successful conclusion.
• Excellent personal organization.
• Ability to successfully manage a range of internal and external stakeholders to ensure results.
• Highly flexible to adapt to internal and external changes.
• Capacity to work under pressure and deliver on deadlines.
• Capacity to manage upwards, across, downwards.
• ‘No job too big or too small’ mentality.
• Fluent written and oral English; knowledge of other languages (e.g. Dutch) is an important asset.

An internationally oriented and varied job in an enthusiastic team, with good terms of employment in accordance with the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities (cao NU).

The successful candidate will be offered an employment contract for 1 year with the possibility of extension. Intended start date is as soon as possible.

In accordance with the conditions applied at Erasmus University Rotterdam as indicated in the Collective Labour Agreement (cao NU) of the Dutch universities, the salary is dependent on the candidate’s knowledge and experience and is set at a minimum of € 4.814,-  and a maximum of € 6.181,- (scale 11/12) gross per month, on a fulltime basis.

The EUR has attractive employment conditions, including 8% holiday pay, a year-end bonus of 8.3% and a very generous leave scheme. Furthermore, the EUR is affiliated with the ABP pension scheme and we offer partially paid parental leave. Employees can also make use of EUR facilities, such as the Erasmus sports center and the university library.

The EUR offers a Dual Career Program (DCP) to help partners of new scientific staff find work in the Netherlands. The program is offered in close cooperation with the nearby universities of Delft and Leiden.

Erasmus University Rotterdam aspires to be an equitable and inclusive community. We nurture an open culture, where everyone is supported to fulfill their full potential. We see inclusivity of talent as the basis of our successes, and the diversity of perspectives and people as a highly valued outcome. EUR provides equal opportunities to all employees and applicants regardless of gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity, age, neurodiversity, functional impairment, citizenship, or any other aspect which makes them unique. We look forward to welcoming you to our community.

Internal candidates have priority over external candidates.

Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR) is an internationally oriented university with a strong social orientation in its education and research, as expressed in our mission ‘Creating positive societal impact’. EUR is home to 3.700 academics and professionals and almost 33.000 students from more than 140 countries. Everything we do, we do under the credo The Erasmian Way – Making Minds Matter. We’re global citizens, connecting, entrepreneurial, open-minded, and socially involved. These Erasmian Values function as our internal compass and create EUR’s distinctive and recognizable profile. From these values, with a broad perspective and with an eye for diversity, different backgrounds and opinions, our employees work closely together to solve societal challenges from the dynamic and cosmopolitan city of Rotterdam. Thanks to the high quality and positive societal impact of our research and education, EUR can compete with the top European universities. www.eur.nl.

The Strategy Office guides the EUR in its transition to an impact-driven university and works with the entire organisation to achieve the strategic objectives.

The Strategy Office (SO) is a policy department that, on the one hand, focuses on (supporting) the integral implementation of the strategy (both in terms of content and process) and, on the other hand, provides the management and the organisation with the capacity to provide strategic advice on a wide range of issues. Obviously, this is done in close cooperation with other central policy departments, the faculties and institutes and support services (that embed and help implement the EUR strategy) and the project leaders and academic leads who lead the strategic projects. The team consists of both programme management functions and strategic advisors, and is supplemented with colleagues from support services, who contribute ideas on strategic and implementation issues. The SO functions as a spider in the web, in order to realise the strategic ambitions in cooperation with the entire community.