This is a PhD project in which you will work closely with industry on advancing the state-of-the-art in software engineering. 

Architectures for software-intensive systems are described using notations such as SysML and UML. Such architecture-representations are often created in the early phases of development. The correspondence between the architecture and the system implementation is extremely hard to maintain during the development and evolution of the system.  

The overall objective of this project is to develop automated tooling that can be used to keep the architecture and the implementation consistent with each other. We will consider consistency from two perspectives: structural & behavioural. 

You will be working in an attractive working environment, where we encourage openness, diversity, fairness, humour, and aim for a healthy work-life balance.  

In this project, you will perform research by dividing your time across

1. Being embedded in a professional software development in the Eindhoven region that is developing advanced high-tech instruments, and
2. Being a PhD student at the Software Engineering group of the TU Eindhoven.

Your responsibilities include designing, executing and reporting on research in the area of Software Engineering. For a small percentage of your time, you will be asked to support CS courses and supervise M.Sc. thesis projects.  

For item 1) you will be expected to significant spend time on-site at the industrial partner.

• A completed M.Sc. degree in Software Engineering, or Computer Science or a related field with a strong emphasis on the engineering of software and empirical analysis of software projects.
• Strong software development skills; including fluency in C or C++ and preferably another modern programming language (e.g. Python or Java).
• Being able to reason and communicate effectively about abstract concepts, especially related to Software Architecture.
• We are looking for an open-minded, creative, enthusiastic, and self-propelling person.
• Team player and willingness to collaborate with industrial partner as well as students and fellow PhD-candidates.

The candidates will be subject to security screening (of both TUE and ThermoFisher)

Additional meritorious criteria are:

• Familiarity with SysML and/or UML.
• Being well-versed in parsing techniques.
• Familiar with version management and issue tracking system (Jira, Git, etc.).

A meaningful job in a dynamic and ambitious university, in an interdisciplinary setting and within an international network. You will work on a beautiful, green campus within walking distance of the central train station. In addition, we offer you:

• Full-time employment for four years, with an intermediate evaluation (go/no-go) after nine months. You will spend 10% of your employment on teaching tasks.
• Salary and benefits (such as a pension scheme, paid pregnancy and maternity leave, partially paid parental leave) in accordance with the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities, scale 27.
• A year-end bonus of 8.3% and annual vacation pay of 8%.
• High-quality training programs and other support to grow into a self-aware, autonomous scientific researcher. At TU/e we challenge you to take charge of your own learning process.
• An excellent technical infrastructure, on-campus children's day care and sports facilities.
• An allowance for commuting, working from home and internet costs.
• A Staff Immigration Team and a tax compensation scheme (the 30% facility) for international candidates.

For this position, we expect the PhD candidates to split their time across the offices of Thermo Fisher and the TU Eindhoven (ideally around 50-50%).