Junior Lecturer Bioinformatics and Systems Biology

As a junior lecturer, you will be involved in various teaching and organizational activities. You will work together with coordinators, lecturers, and other junior lecturers in the VU/UvA joint-degree master program Bioinformatics and Systems Biology. We are specifically looking for candidates who have a strong affinity with all aspects related to the field of Bioinformatics, including programming, molecular & cell biology, mathematics and statistics, machine learning, workflows, quantitative data analysis, and algorithmics.

You will be encouraged to develop your personal professional academic teaching skills and to build a portfolio to prepare for various career paths. To this end, you will also acquire the “basic teaching qualification” at the university level (UTQ or BKO) and you will have the opportunity to follow relevant teaching modules provided by the Teaching & Learning Center.

The junior lecturer position is placed at the Computer Science department (VU) and is immediately available with a start somewhere in Spring 2025. Your daily supervisor will be Dr. Anton Feenstra (VU).

Your Duties

Jointly with the other members of the teaching organization, you will:

• Be actively involved in teaching and course development in the bioinformatics track
• Coordination and administrative tasks of the masters’ programme
• Contribute to the development of academic skills and community-building activities in courses and internships
• Help further improve teaching quality in the programme
• Contribute to promotional activities of the programme

Your Profile

You have a Master degree in a field related to Computer Science, Molecular Biology, Bioinformatics, or Systems Biology, and proven affinity with teaching. You also:

• Have a zest for disseminating skills and knowledge
• Are fluent in English
• Have strong oral and written communication skills
• Possess good organisational and social skills, and can work with diverse international students
• Can easily collaborate in teams (of both junior and senior teachers) and also work independently
• Have skills in mathematics and scientific programming in R and Python
• Experience as a teaching assistant or comparable work experience is a pre

As a university, we strive for equal opportunities for all, recognising that diversity takes many forms. We believe that diversity in all its complexity is invaluable for the quality of our teaching, research, and service. We are always looking for talent with diverse backgrounds and experiences. This also means that we are committed to creating an inclusive community so that we can use diversity as an asset.

We realise that each individual brings a unique set of skills, expertise, and mindset. Therefore, we are happy to invite anyone who recognises themselves in the profile to apply, even if you do not meet all the requirements.

What Do We Offer?

A challenging position in a socially engaged organisation. At VU Amsterdam, you contribute to education, research, and service for a better world. And that is valuable. So in return for your efforts, we offer you:

• A salary of minimum €3,345.00 (Scale 10) and maximum €5,278.00 (Scale 10) gross per month, on a full-time basis. The exact salary depends on your education and experience
• A position based on the university job ranking system, vacant for 1 FTE

A full Junior Lecturer Trajectory is 4 years including 2 months probation, and cannot be extended beyond this period. This position, therefore, does not lead to permanent employment.

We also offer you attractive fringe benefits and regulations. Some examples:

• A full-time 38-hour working week comes with a holiday leave entitlement of 232 hours per year. If you choose to work 40 hours, you have 96 extra holiday leave hours on an annual basis. For part-timers, this is calculated pro-rata
• 8% holiday allowance and 8.3% end-of-year bonus
• Solid pension scheme (ABP)
• Optional model for designing a personalized benefits package
• Possibility to save holiday hours, for sabbatical leave
• Child daycare facilities available on campus

About Us

Faculty of Science
Researchers and students at VU Amsterdam’s Faculty of Science tackle fundamental and complex scientific problems to help pave the way for a sustainable and healthy future. From forest fires to big data, from obesity to malnutrition, and from molecules to the moon: we cover the full spectrum of the natural sciences. Our teaching and research have a strong experimentally technical, computational, and interdisciplinary nature.

We work on new solutions guided by value-driven, interdisciplinary methodologies. We are committed to research, valorisation, and training socially engaged citizens of the world who will make valuable contributions to a sustainable, healthy future.

Are you interested in joining the Faculty of Science? You will join undergraduate students, PhD candidates, and researchers at the biggest sciences faculty in the Netherlands. You will combine a professional focus with a broad view of the world. We are proud of our collegial working climate, characterised by committed staff, a pragmatic attitude, and engagement in the larger whole. The faculty is home to over 11,000 students enrolled in 40 study programmes. It employs over 1,600 professionals spread across 10 academic departments.

Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam stands for values-driven education and research. We are open-minded experts with the ability to think freely - a broader mind. Maintaining an entrepreneurial perspective and concentrating on diversity, significance, and humanity, we work on sustainable solutions with social impact. By joining forces, across the boundaries of disciplines, we work towards a better world for people and planet. Together we create a safe and respectful working and study climate, and an inspiring environment for education and research.

We are located on one physical campus, in the heart of Amsterdam's Zuidas business district, with excellent location and accessibility. Over 6,150 staff work at the VU and over 31,000 students attend academic education.

Diversity
Diversity is the driving force of VU Amsterdam. VU wants to be accessible and receptive to diversity in disciplines, cultures, ideas, nationalities, beliefs, preferences, and worldviews. We believe that trust, respect, interest and differences lead to new insights and innovation, to sharpness and clarity, to excellence and a broader understanding.

We stand for an inclusive community and believe that diversity and internationalisation contribute to the quality of education, research, and our services.

Therefore, we are always searching for people whose backgrounds and experience contribute to the diversity of the VU community.

Interested?

Are you interested in this position and do you believe that your experience will contribute to the further development of our university?
Please apply via the application button and upload your curriculum vitae and cover letter until 15 January 2025. In your cover letter, please indicate how your background fits with your duties in this position, and in particular how your skills and experience align with the requirements.

Submitting a diploma is part of the application process.

Applications received by e-mail will not be considered.