Assistant Professor in Computer Science (Data Science)

Personal invitation to view our Job Brochure here Shaping Together Tomorrow 

Heriot-Watt University has established a reputation for world-class teaching and leading-edge, relevant research, which has made it one of the top UK universities for innovation, business and industry.

Heriot-Watt University has five campuses: three in the UK (Edinburgh, Scottish Borders and Orkney), one in Dubai and one in Malaysia. The University offers a highly distinctive range of degree programmes in the specialist areas of science, mathematics, engineering, design, business and languages. Heriot-Watt is also Scotland's most international university, boasting the largest international student cohort.

Shaping Tomorrow Together 

The university is running a campaign to identify key academic talent join us across our Edinburgh and Dubai campuses and across multiple Schools and Disciplines. You will join as an Assistant Professor. This is an exciting campaign to kick off in late 2022 and into 2023. So, we are really interested in hearing from you as we look to you to help us shape tomorrow together. 

About our Team  

You will join the Department of Computer Science in the School of Mathematical & Computer Sciences at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, Scotland. The department is internationally renowned for its world-class research across a number of areas, including artificial intelligence, cyber security and safety, data integration, human-computer and human-robot interaction, knowledge representation, logic, machine learning, natural language processing, parallel computation, programming languages, and visualisation and analytics.

The Department of Computer Science has an extensive portfolio of taught programmes. It was the first in Scotland to offer a BSc in Computer Science, it established teaching programmes in Dubai since 2005, and in 2021/22 launched a new Computing Science BSc in Malaysia. The Department has 77 permanent academic staff, of which 57 are in Edinburgh, 15 in Dubai and 5 in Malaysia. It also has a thriving and expanding community of research associates and research students. The National Robotarium opened its doors in September 2022 just across the street, paving the way for collaborations with academics and industry, and many of our postgraduate programmes show a healthy growth. 

The School of Mathematical and Computer Sciences is committed to supporting family friendly work practices and part-time working options as part of our Athena Swan Bronze award (see https://www.hw.ac.uk/schools/mathematical-computer-sciences/about/athena-swan.htm). We especially encourage women and members of under-represented groups to apply for this position. We welcome and will consider flexible working patterns e.g. part-time working and job share options. We are very proud of our inclusive and friendly community. We organise regular events for women in CS, fora for staff and students with disabilities, as well as formal and informal support groups at all levels. Our professorial staff is 46% female, compared to the national average of 16%.

Detailed Description

We wish to appoint an assistant professor (T&R) in Computer Science in the field of Data Science or a closely related field, to support our significant increase in the Data Science programmes and to enhance our growing research in this area.

Key Duties and Responsibilities

Reporting to the Head of Computer Science, responsibilities include:

1. Leading or taking part in research activity in your area of high-quality research
2. Writing and submitting grant proposals and securing research funding as a Principal Investigator and Co-Investigator. Be responsible for the management and execution of research projects involving academic and other (industrial, public sector, etc.) collaborators, including the School and the University’s wider research programmes
3. Maintaining a demonstrably high-quality and world-leading research activity by disseminating research findings with publications in top-level journals and with presentations and talks at reputable conferences. Maintaining or building an international research reputation through contributions to the international research community (e.g. by serving as reviewer, referee, expert witness, conference chair, programme committee, editorship of a journal)
4. Supervision and guidance of postgraduate and postdoctoral researchers
5. Teaching undergraduate, masters, and doctoral level courses. When appropriate, leading new teaching initiatives to enhance current provision.

Essential Criteria

• A PhD in computer science or closely related field
• Track-record of good quality publications on topics that relate to data science
• Enthusiasm and ambition to contribute to a world-class academic community
• Good interpersonal and teamwork skills
• Track record of teaching data science and database courses well and enthusiastically 

Desirable Criteria

• Track record in obtaining external funding
• The skills to supervise undergraduate and MSc projects in data science
• Track record of teaching computer science courses well and enthusiastically

How to Apply

Applications can be submitted up to midnight (UK time) on the 19th February 2023.

Personal invitation to view our Job Brochure here Shaping Together Tomorrow

Please submit via the Heriot-Watt on-line recruitment system: (1) a cover letter describing their interest and suitability for the post; (2) a full CV; (3) a summary of their research and teaching plans and ambitions; and (4) a list of publications.

Informal enquiries may be made to: Prof. Jurriaan Hage, Head of Computer Science, j.hage@hw.ac.uk.

Heriot-Watt University is committed to securing equality of opportunity in employment and to the creation of an environment in which individuals are selected, trained, promoted, appraised and otherwise treated on the sole basis of their relevant merits and abilities.  Equality and diversity are all about maximising potential and creating a culture of inclusion for all.

Heriot-Watt University values diversity across our University community and welcomes applications from all sectors of society, particularly from underrepresented groups. For more information, please see our website https://www.hw.ac.uk/uk/services/equality-diversity.htm and also our award-winning work in Disability Inclusive Science Careers https://disc.hw.ac.uk/ .

We welcome and will consider flexible working patterns e.g. part-time working and job share options.

Use our total rewards calculator: https://www.hw.ac.uk/about/work/total-rewards-calculator.htm to see the value of benefits provided by Heriot-Watt University.