Associate Professor / Assistant Professor (tenure track) at the Section of Electrical Energy Technology

Associate Professor / Assistant Professor (tenure track) at the Section of Electrical Energy Technology, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Aarhus University

Aarhus University has made an ambitious strategic investment in a 2025-year recruitment plan to increase its activities significantly within research and education in the engineering sciences with the vision of bringing AU into the global engineering elite. As of 1 January 2021, ECE become a department within the Faculty of Technical Sciences with the focus to strengthen the growth strategy and focusing on the strategic goal to become the “Green” Faculty. Therefore, the University seeks exceptional innovative and visionary engineering researchers to be part of this build-up to strengthen and develop ECE at Aarhus University.

The announced position will support the strategic agenda of the university by extending the competences in ECE within the Electrical Energy Technology section, including renewable power generation, energy system control, drives systems, power electronics, power engineering, system integration, transmission, distribution & storage systems, energy efficiency, energy policies, markets and operations.

The Sections focus is the energy system integration and energy transition of the future energy system, including coordinated planning and operation of the energy system across multiple energy systems, renewable energy production, infrastructures and consumption, for a more efficient, circular and reliable future energy system.

The position is open from June 1st, 2023.

Job description
Electricity is the key to the future decarbonizing society, but the challenges are huge. It took around 130 years to get to where we are today and now we have less than 20 years not only to replace the existing system, but also to replace it with variating energy resources, challenging energy markets, including a rabid growth in the electrical energy consumption.

The stable operation of the electrical energy systems is essential for the modern society. With the ongoing transformation of the electrical energy system, including the integration of power converter driven technology and the transition towards a more integrated energy system, we are looking for highly qualified and ambitious candidates, to build and developed their research area.

Applicant profile
In relation to this position, we are searching for candidates in:

Electrical power system integration & control
The candidates, should have a solid background and strong scientific qualifications in the following areas:   

• Modern power system control and operation
• Control of power systems, for distribution- and transmissions systems, including hybrid power plants
• Power system stability, including stability of converter-based systems 
• Power system modelling, for short- and long-term stability analysis 
• Electrical system design, including HVDC systems

As the research area is relatively new at Aarhus University. It is therefore important that you have strong network in your research area, are entrepreneurial, think out of the box, are good at seeing development opportunities and love to be at the cutting edge of new technologies and that you can effectively translate your knowledge into robust solutions for the society. 

The position will be anchored in the new EET section under the ECE department. The candidate is expected to attract and lead research activities, work closely with other researchers/groups within the department as well as with external stakeholders,
Furthermore, it is expected that the candidate performs some teaching activates at the B.Eng. Level as well as other related educations. 
Successful candidates should have a PhD in electrical engineering, or a closely related field. The candidates must have excellent written and verbal communication skills, and must be proficient in written and spoken Danish, or demonstrate a willingness to learn Danish within a 3-4 year period. Relevant industrial R&D experience is an asset.

About the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Aarhus University
The Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering is one of four engineering departments at the Faculty of Technical Sciences at Aarhus University.

Our vision is to be a world-leading department for research, education and innovation in electrical and computer engineering, creating a positive and visible impact on society and the environment through interdisciplinary collaboration, excellence and diversity.

Many of our research and development activities are based on the specific innovation needs or specialist application areas of specific companies. We collaborate closely with the public sector and private companies to ensure that the knowledge and technology generated in the department’s research environments has a clear anchoring in reality and benefits society as a whole.

Ensuring gender balance at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering is a high priority at Aarhus University, and therefore, we particularly encourage women to apply for this position. No candidate will be given preferential treatment, and all applicants will be assessed on the basis of their qualifications for the position in question.

For more information about the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, please visit https://ece.au.dk/.

Visit our LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/au-ece/

Research areas at the department
Electrical and computer engineering are closely related technical science disciplines focusing on research into hardware and software technologies. We focus on research and development activities in the fields of communication and networks, control and automation, photonics, signal processing, software and IT systems, robot technology, medical technology, health technology, electrical energy technology, and acoustics and sound technology.
The department wish to build a research and study environment with equality and diversity as a core value for recruitment as well as for daily study and work life.

Visit our Job and Career webpage to discover more about ECE.

The benefits of working in Denmark
Denmark as a country offers the opportunity to pursue a career without compromising your family life and in general work-life balance in Denmark are among the best in Europe. In addition, Denmark is a safe place to live with a very low crime rate and is in general secure and equal. The Danish society builds on a welfare system which means your taxes goes into welfare services such as free healthcare and education. Taxes in Denmark are high but international academic staff members can, under certain conditions, benefit from a special tax scheme to further improve working conditions. On top of this collective agreements guarantee you a safe workplace, fair wages, pay during sickness, paid paternity/-maternity leave, flexible workhours and much more.

If you want to know more about the Danish way of life please visit: Life in Denmark.
You can also contact our International Staff Office.

Place of work and area of employment
The place of work is Finlandsgade 22, 8200 Aarhus N, where the department and the laboratories are located, and the area of employment is Aarhus University with related departments. 

The electrical energy technology section is currently undergoing a rapid expansion concerning both educational and research activities, including three large EU projects.
Besides this, the department is the biggest education place in Denmark for the electrical power engineering area at the Bachelor level.
The department has as well established the RESCUE laboratory - http://www.rescuelab.au.dk/ - which is used by researchers, students and companies. The main goal of the laboratory is to gain experimental experience on the future energy system, based on a full integration of renewable energy sources such as solar, wind, biogas and storage systems.
The department has furthermore expanded their activities to the Herning Campus of Aarhus University and has also established the first “Online” education for Electrical Energy technology, including a large energy technology laboratory.    

Contact information
Further information about the position may be obtained from the Section Head for Electrical Energy Technology Area Björn Andresen (bjra@ece.au.dk)  

Deadline
Applications must be received no later than 8 December 2022.

Technical Sciences Tenure Track
Aarhus University offers talented scientists from around the world attractive career perspectives via the Technical Sciences Tenure Track Programme. Highly qualified candidates are appointed as Assistant Professors for a period of six years with the prospect of performance- based advancement to a tenured Associate Professorship.

The aim of the Technical Sciences Tenure Track Programme is to:

• attract outstanding talented individuals that are competitive at an international level
• to promote the early development of independent research success early in the career of scientists
• to create transparency in the academic career path

As part of the tenure track position, the candidate is offered:

• access to research infrastructure
• capability development, including postgraduate teacher training
• a mentoring programme
• support to develop scientific networks and to secure interdisciplinary research at the highest level

As part of the Aarhus University Tenure Track Programme, the University carries out a mid-way evaluation to review the progress of the tenure track candidate after three years, according to the same criteria used in the final tenure review. The final tenure review is conducted after five and a half years. If the review is positive, the candidate will be offered a tenured position as Associate Professor at Aarhus University.

Please refer to the tenure track guidelines for the tenure review criteria and for the tenure review process.

Application procedure
Shortlisting is used. This means that after the deadline for applications – and with the assistance from the assessment committee chairman, and the assessment committee if necessary, – the head of department selects the candidates to be evaluated. The selection is made on the basis of an assessment of who of the candidates are most relevant considering the requirements of the advertisement. All applicants will be notified within 6 weeks whether or not their applications have been sent to an expert assessment committee for evaluation. The selected applicants will be informed about the composition of the committee and will receive his/her assessment. Once the recruitment process is completed a final letter of rejection is sent to the deselected applicants.

Letter of reference
If you want a referee to upload a letter of reference on your behalf, please state the referee’s contact information when you submit your application. We strongly recommend that you make an agreement with the person in question before you enter the referee’s contact information, and that you ensure that the referee has enough time to write the letter of reference before the application deadline.
Unfortunately, it is not possible to ensure that letters of reference received after the application deadline will be taken into consideration.

Formalities and salary range
Technical Sciences refers to the Ministerial Order on the Appointment of Academic Staff at Danish Universities under the Danish Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation.

The application must be in English and include a curriculum vitae, degree certificate, a complete list of publications, a statement of future research plans and information about research activities, teaching portfolio and verified information on previous teaching experience (if any). Guidelines for applicants can be found here.

Appointment shall be in accordance with the collective labour agreement between the Danish Ministry of Taxation and the Danish Confederation of Professional Associations. Further information on qualification requirements and job content may be found in the Memorandum on Job Structure for Academic Staff at Danish Universities.

Salary depends on seniority as agreed between the Danish Ministry of Taxation and the Confederation of Professional Associations.

Aarhus University’s ambition is to be an attractive and inspiring workplace for all and to foster a culture in which each individual has opportunities to thrive, achieve and develop. We view equality and diversity as assets, and we welcome all applicants.

Research activities will be evaluated in relation to actual research time. Thus, we encourage applicants to specify periods of leave without research activities, in order to be able to subtract these periods from the span of the scientific career during the evaluation of scientific productivity.

Aarhus University offers a broad variety of services for international researchers and accompanying families, including relocation service and career counselling to expat partners. Read more here. Please find more information about entering and working in Denmark here.

The application must be submitted via Aarhus University’s recruitment system, which can be accessed under the job advertisement on Aarhus University's website.

Please write in your application that you've seen the job at Jobfinder