Senior Research Engineer for Transdisciplinary Innovation in Dutch SME's

at  TU Delft

JOB DESCIPTION

For a 1-year transdisciplinary innovation project with Dutch small-medium enterprises (SME’s), we are looking for senior (post-PhD) talent to form a transdisciplinary team of five senior researchers, to start working by March 15th 2025. The project is a policy experiment (“beleidsexperiment”) assigned by the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs to a consortium led by transdisciplinary research and innovation centre FRAIM, with partners Bouwend Nederland, MetaalUnie, TNO, fieldlab RoboHouse and TU Delft.
The goal of the experiment is to explore how to accelerate innovation in physical work processes for SME’s in the construction and metal sectors, using a transdisciplinary approach: close and continuous integration of perspectives from engineering, design, work psychology, organisational science and innovation. There is also a project manager to help out with the challenge of scheduling the work with multiple stakeholders: 6 months with several SME’s in one sector, and then 6 months in the other sector. The nature of the work will be oriented more towards practice than academic output, and will involve visits to the workfloor, spending time with the other team members and jointly understanding potential for innovation and providing links to academic research.
The specific position for senior research engineer requires you to represent the engineering perspective in the team. Your role will be to explore the potential for both upcoming robotic capabilities (including links to academic research in robotics) and more readily applied technological solutions (pragmatically relevant and feasible at shorter timescales).

JOB REQUIREMENTS

General profile for all senior reachers in the transdisciplinary team.

The ideal candidate (regardless of specific discipline):

• Has a track-record within the academic discipline within which the PhD was obtained.
• Has experience with interdisciplinary research: the ability to alternate between working within and across academic disciplines.
• Has some experience with (or strong interest in) working with pragmatic ways of knowing (e.g., participatory methods, stakeholder engagement, experience outside of academia), or working in transdisciplinary research and innovation.
• Feels comfortable working closely with four others senior researchers from different disciplinary perspectives, and working through difficulties in scheduling, alignment of perspectives and uncertainty.
• Is open to working on personal growth and transformative learning – in self and in others.
• Is able to understand and speak Dutch, given the fact that most interactions at the workfloor will be in Dutch.
• Is able and willing to align schedules with the other team members, and commit to starting March 15th 2025 and taking main holidays during summer (during the dutch “bouwvak”).

Engineering specific requirements

In addition to the general requirements, the ideal candidate for this position

• Possesses a completed PhD in mechanical engineering, computer science, electrical engineering, preferably with a specialization in mechatronics, robotics or physical human-robot interaction.
• Brings experience in developing mechatronics and/or robot capabilities for human environments, including skills in robot programming & testing, and specific expertise (e.g. learning from demonstration, robot manipulation, human-robot collaboration, haptics, social navigation).
• Is keen on applying and advancing their engineering skills within a transdisciplinary context.
• Demonstrate a curiosity for developing their critical, practical, academic, and social mindsets in innovating the future of work through robotic systems.

Please refer the Job description for details