Main tasks and responsibilities:

• Bearing final responsibility for research and scientific production pertaining to the department’s mission, which includes fundamental and frontier applied multidisciplinary research projects;
• The general management of the department and membership of the NIOZ MT;
• Contributing to the institute-wide development of and collaboration on marine research, and to laying the groundwork for the department’s outreach and communication;
• General representation of the department and NIOZ.

Indication of proportional time allocation: the head of the department spends 40% of her or his time on general management and scientific supervision, 40% on scientific research and other related activities, and 20% on representative tasks.

Job requirements:

• MSc and PhD in natural sciences;
• Wide knowledge and experience in the field in question;
• Widely acknowledged as a scientist in the field both nationally and internationally
• Autonomous and inventive researcher;
• Good, demonstrable management skills;
• Good oral and written communication skills in English and Dutch.

The candidate:

• Focuses collegially on innovation in marine science, which includes strategy, products, services and markets, having an inquiring, harmonious and dynamic disposition;
• Contributes to the joint NIOZ result by optimizing the balance between his or her own qualities and interests and those of the department and colleagues;
• Is capable of supervising employees in a stimulating and inspiring way, and has a powerful and flexible management style;
• Has vision and is capable of envisioning future developments on a national and international level, and is able to focus on essentials;
• Decisive, also in situations of strongly conflicting interests;
• Takes action when necessary, even if not all consequences of all alternatives are clear;
• Highly values scientific and social integrity.

Fixed-term contract: 1 year.

• Being appointed by the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research means being appointed by the Netherlands Foundation of Scientific Research Institutes (NWO-I);
• A temporary contract for the duration of one year, leading to a permanent contract subject to satisfactory performance;
• The salary depends on qualifications and experience (scale 15/16);
• 42 days of leave, 8% holiday allowance, 8.3% end-of-year bonus, good pension provisions and flexible working hours;
• Our conditions of employment are based on the Collective Labour Agreement of the Employers' Association of Research Institutes (WVOI).

NIOZ Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research

NIOZ Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research is the largest research institute of the Dutch Research Council. As the national oceanographic institute, it has been conducting seagoing research for over 140 years, addressing important scientific and social issues with regard to the way in which oceans and seas function. In addition, NIOZ maintains seagoing equipment and vessels for the Dutch scientific community, it contributes to innovative, multidisciplinary fundamental and frontier applied sea research, as well as to education and policy making on a national and international level. Since 2012, NIOZ has been operating from two locations, employing a permanent staff of approximately 50 scientists, as part of a staff of approximately 180 permanent and 120 temporary employees. The main establishment is based on Texel (TX) and a branch institute in located in Yerseke (YE).

The Department of Marine Microbiology and Biogeochemistry (MMB) studies microbial communities and their functioning in all types of marine environments, from estuaries to the deep ocean, from tropical coral reefs to polar regions, and from the present to the past.

The Department has well-equipped molecular, chemical and microbiological laboratories, and state-of-the-art facilities for bioinformatics, flow cytometry, single-cell analysis as well as isotope  and high-resolution mass spectrometry.

The Department is international and dynamic and has approximately 80 members, including PhD students, postdocs and Master students from >15 different countries. A group of sixteen staff scientists and fifteen research assistants (junior and senior) form the core of the Department. Nearly half of the core staff was recruited in the last three years leading to a young, vibrant, diverse and multidisciplinary department.