We are looking for a talented investigator in formal philosophy and ethics with an emphasis on symbolic and/or computational methods, who will develop an independent and innovative research program in the formal analysis and theory-building in ethical decision-making and who can design, develop and teach Ethics courses targeted to the students of the BSc programs at SBE. In particular, we are looking for a candidate with ample experience in using and developing general overarching foundations which can be applied both generally and modularly to different settings and at different levels in organizations, institutions, markets and society. The successful candidate’s research program will help complement and reinforce existing expertise within the department.

Your duties

• Develop innovative, independent research programs that result in scientific publications in high quality journals and conference proceedings in relevant disciplines;
• Have the ability to attract external research funding;
• Contribute to research in the focal areas of the Department of Ethics,
  Governance & Society (see below)
• Supervise graduate students
• Design, develop and teach courses, especially in Ethics, at the bachelor and master level, for students in Business and Economics, as well as in executive programs.

• You have completed a PhD in (formal) philosophy and theoretical computer science or related fields;
• You have at least six years of postdoctoral research training outside the institute where your PhD degree was obtained;
• You have a strong publication record in your relevant fields;
• You have strong teaching skills, and have experience in design and development of courses;
• You have a relevant international network;
• You have been able to acquire research funding;
• You have a proven ability for academic supervision and training of students;
•  You have a University Teaching Qualification (UTQ/BKO), or are willing to obtain such a qualification within the first two years of your tenure track; You master the English language at CEFR C1/C2 level. 

Fixed-term contract: 6 years.

We offer a tenure-track position at the level of Assistant Professor, initially for the duration of 6 years. During the tenure track, you are given the opportunity to devote 40% of your working hours to research and 60% to teaching.Within an agreed period, tenure could be achieved if the faculty criteria for Assistant Professor are fulfilled. During the tenure, the performance will be evaluated in terms of teaching, publication record, and attempts at acquisition of research funding either individually or in consortia. After a successful evaluation, permanent employment will be granted.

A challenging position in a socially involved organization. On full-time basis the remuneration amounts to a minimum gross monthly salary of €3,637 and a maximum of €4,978 (scale 11), depending on your education and experience. The job profile is based on the university job ranking system and is vacant for at least 1 FTE.

Additionally, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam offers excellent fringe benefits and various schemes and regulations to promote a good work/life balance, such as:

• a maximum of 41 days of annual leave based on full-time employment,
• 8% holiday allowance and 8.3% end-of-year bonus,
• solid pension scheme (ABP),
• contribution to commuting expenses,
• optional model for designing a personalized benefits package.

The ambition of Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam is clear: to contribute to a better world through outstanding education and ground-breaking research. And to be a university where personal education and societal involvement play a leading role. Where people from different disciplines and backgrounds work together on innovations and on generating new knowledge. Our teaching and research embrace the whole spectrum of science – from the humanities, the social sciences and the pure sciences through to the life sciences and the medical sciences.

Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam is home to more than 26,500 students. We employ more than 4,600 individuals. The VU campus is easily accessible, located in the heart of Amsterdam’s Zuidas district, a truly inspiring environment for teaching and research.

Diversity
Diversity is one of our university’s core values. We are an inclusive community, and we believe that diversity and international activities enhance the quality of education and research. We are always looking for people who can enhance diversity on our campus thanks to their background and experience.

School of Business and Economics
The School of Business and Economics (SBE) provides high-quality education and excellent research in business administration and economics with a focus on contributing to the social, economic and ecological challenges of our time. Whether it is the use of robots in society or big data, labour market participation or flexibility in the labour market, traffic jams or the housing market, flash crashes in the stock market or choice behaviour in gambling, leadership or change management: we believe in goal-oriented scientific research and understand that progress in academics, the business community and society is achieved through cooperation, openness and social responsibility.

At SBE, all of our highly-motivated colleagues work together closely in a stimulating, dynamic and international environment to achieve our collective goal of encouraging society to make informed choices. Approximately 4,200 Bachelor’s and Master’s students and 1,700 executive students are enrolled at the School, and employs roughly 500 people.
 
About The Department Ethics, Governance & Society
The Department of Ethics, Governance & Society is a newly established department at the SBE, and it focuses on a wide range of aspects concerning governance and ethics related to decision-making in organizations, institutions, markets and society, pivoting on a wide range of fundamental methods (such as philosophical and formal logic, mathematical modeling, and machine learning), which will be employed to develop overarching theoretical and formal frameworks for developing and interconnecting results and insights about social dynamics and their ethical and governance aspects, such as self-reinforcing processes in markets, organizations and society (e.g. economic bubbles, bandwagon effects, path-dependence), deliberation and decision-making procedures.
At the Department of Ethics, Governance & Society, the study of organizations and the application of formal theory-development methods are linked to work in a variety of disciplines in the social sciences, such business / management, economics, psychology and sociology, and in the humanities, such as history, linguistics and philosophy. The traditional empirical research methods (qualitative and quantitative, and mixed) will be complemented with modern Data Science approaches (e.g., algorithmic text analysis and machine learning). The uniqueness of the approach adopted at the Department lies not so much in combining these various fields and empirical methodologies, but in doing this on a solid and unifying foundation provided by formal theory-development methods.