Are you experienced in the installation and maintenance of digital sensors for biodiversity monitoring? Are you interested in setting up technical and sampling equipment in the field? Do you want to contribute to biodiversity research? Then we may be looking for you. We are hiring a Biodiversity Monitoring Technician to join our team!

Loss of biodiversity is one of the most significant threats to our world. Bleak predictions urge us to take decisive action. However, sampling biodiversity is often costly, time consuming and difficult to do in remote areas. Digital sensors such as wildlife and insect cameras or acoustic devices now allow us to obtain high-frequency observations without observer disturbance, and to sample large areas at times that would otherwise not be feasible with traditional surveys.

Our team at the Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics (IBED) of the University of Amsterdam (UvA) has been installing digital sensors for biodiversity monitoring at a range of sites across the Netherlands in diverse ecosystems (e.g. dunes, grasslands, wetlands, forest, urban environments, freshwater and coastal marshes). These sensors are used to assess the occurrence, abundance, behaviour, biomass and movement of species across space and time. The sensors include a range of standardized and automated sampling methodologies to detect and track species, including camera traps, sound devices, radar systems and bio-loggers. The sensors are part of work that we conduct in the context of the Biodiversa+ Automatic Biodiversity Monitoring Stations (ABMS) pilot and the ARISE project.

The Biodiversity Monitoring Technician will install and maintain the biodiversity monitoring sensors and ensure that monitoring equipment, data collection and data transmission is functional and running.

What are you going to do?
Your tasks in the project will be:

• Installation of sensors;
• Ensuring that monitoring equipment, data collection and data transmission at monitoring demonstration sites are functional and running;
• Repairs and replacement of monitoring equipment;
• Maintain communication with the scientific project leader, the site manager, and other project partners, site hosts and users.

You will be embedded in IBED, but on the road frequently to visit the monitoring demonstration sites that are located at different places in the Netherlands.

What do you have to offer?

• Medium or higher technical education (MBO/HBO);
• Experience with digital sensors and ICT;
• Interest in ecology and biodiversity monitoring;
• Sufficient command of both the Dutch and English language;
• Driver’s license;
• Ability to drive with both manual and automatic transmission cars, and in difficult terrain;

Our offer
We offer a temporary employment contract for 32 hours per week for a period of 12 months. If we assess your performance positive, your contract will be extended with 9 months.

The preferred starting date is as soon as possible.

The gross monthly salary, based on 38 hours per week and dependent on relevant experience, ranges between € 3,072 to € 4,103 (scale 8). This does not include 8% holiday allowance and 8,3% year-end allowance. The UFO profile Education/Research Officer, level 3 is applicable. For this position we can not sponsor a visa. The Collective Labour Agreement of Universities of the Netherlands is applicable.

Besides the salary and a vibrant and challenging environment at Science Park we offer you multiple fringe benefits:

• 232 holiday hours per year (based on fulltime) and extra holidays between Christmas and 1 January;
• multiple courses to follow from our Teaching and Learning Centre;
• multiple courses on topics such as time management and an online learning platform with 100+ different courses;
• 7 weeks birth leave (partner leave) with 100% salary;
• partly paid parental leave;
• the possibility to set up a workplace at home;
• a pension at ABP for which UvA pays two third part of the contribution;
• the possibility to follow courses to learn Dutch;
• help with registration at UvA-housing for a studio or small apartment when you’re moving from abroad.

Are you curious to read more about our extensive package of secondary employment benefits, take a look here.

About us
The University of Amsterdam is the Netherlands' largest university, offering the widest range of academic programmes. At the UvA, 30,000 students, 6,000 staff members and 3,000 PhD candidates study and work in a diverse range of fields, connected by a culture of curiosity.

The Faculty of Science has a student body of around 8,000, as well as 1,800 members of staff working in education, research or support services. Researchers and students at the Faculty of Science are fascinated by every aspect of how the world works, be it elementary particles, the birth of the universe or the functioning of the brain.

The Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics is one of eight research institutes of the Faculty of Science at the University of Amsterdam. The research at IBED aims to unravel how ecosystems function in all their complexity, and how they change due to natural processes and human activities. At its core lies an integrated systems approach to study biodiversity, ecosystems and the environment. IBED adopts this systems approach to ecosystems, addressing abiotic (soil and water quality) and biotic factors (ecology and evolution of plants, animals, and microorganisms), and the interplay between those. The IBED vision includes research encompassing experimental and theoretical approaches at a wide variety of temporal and spatial scales, i.e. from molecules and microorganisms to patterns and processes occurring at the global scale. The University of Amsterdam has excellent high performance computing facilities. Furthermore, IBED has a dedicated computational support team with specialized knowledge of bioinformatics, (geo)database management and scientific programming. IBED also works with non-academic partners to deliver transdisciplinary science for society.

The position is embedded in the Department of Theoretical and Computational Ecology (TCE) of IBED which focuses on understanding the complexity of ecological systems by using theoretical and advanced computational approaches. A key research focus is to address how organisms cope with changing environmental conditions and how nature and life is distributed across our planet. Within TCE, the position is embedded in the Biogeography & Macroecology (BIOMAC) lab (https://www.biomac.org/), a research group which aims to quantify how biodiversity and abiotic components of the Earth system vary across space and time, how they interact, and how responses of species and ecosystems to changing environmental conditions can be predicted and forecasted. The group covers a wide variety of scientific backgrounds, including ecology, data science, conservation science, physical geography, Earth science, and global change biology.

Want to know more about our organisation? Read more about working at the University of Amsterdam.

Any questions?
Do you have any questions or do you require additional information? Please contact:

• Dr. W. Daniel Kissling, Associate Professor, T: +31 (0)20 525 8423 and email W.D.Kissling@uva.nl

Job application
If you feel the profile fits you, and you are interested in the job, we look forward to receiving your application. You can apply online via the button below. We accept applications until and including 16 June 2024.

Applications should include the following information (all files besides your cv should be submitted in one single pdf file):

• a detailed CV including the months (not just years) when referring to your education and work experience;
• a letter of motivation.

Due to Dutch legislation, the UvA is for non-scientific positions obliged to recruit within the EU. If you are not a EU-citizen (including Norway and Switzerland) please do not apply for this vacancy.

Only complete applications received within the response period via the link below will be considered.

We will invite potential candidates for interviews soon after the closing date.