Professor of Facility and Workplace Management

As Professor of Facility and Workplace Management (0.6-1 FTE), your work centres on two interconnected questions: how do we create smart places, and how do we enable meaningful work within facility and hospitality management? You explore these questions from a multi-stakeholder perspective, considering the needs of facility managers, organisations, building users and the wider community. Smart building data and AI serve as key enablers in this pursuit, helping organisations make more human-centred decisions about how people live, work and are welcomed in facility and hospitality environments. With your ability to think cross-domain, you work closely with other professors, developing meaningful perspectives on the intersection of hospitality, facility management and the future of the built environment.

You lead and design practice-oriented research and development (R&D) on an academic basis, applying various research methodologies including design research. You actively share your knowledge through professional and academic publications, presentations, and work sessions with industry, administrators and policymakers. You align your R&D lines with BUas-wide R&D themes (Places & Flows, Experiences, Digital Realities, Artificial Intelligence, and Sustainability Transitions) and you drive external funding acquisition in close collaboration with industry partners. You mentor the colleagues who contribute to the professorship, fostering a collaborative environment that advances a practice-based R&D agenda.

You ensure that R&D contributions feed directly into professional and academic study programmes. You contribute to and deliver education across bachelor’s and master’s programmes, minors and electives, ranging from individual classes to broader curriculum development. You also support students through guest appearances and thesis supervision. Teaching and educational development account for approximately 40% of your time.

Your professorship is developed in close collaboration with the Academy for Hotel & Facility (AHF), whose colleagues bring domain expertise and connect R&D to professional practice. You are part of the BUas R&D and Graduate School, where you collaborate with professors from across the university. Your line manager is the Director of Research and Development.

BUas and R&D
BUas is taking R&D to the next level. R&D at BUas contributes to a better understanding of, and solutions to, the problems we are facing in society. We strive for dynamic synergy between R&D, education and society. We consider R&D and education to be equally important and mutually reinforcing functions that, when combined, contribute to the innovative capacity of companies and organisations. In this process, our focus is on demonstrating social awareness in action and contributing to a better world.

BUas believes in an interconnected world that is ever changing. Within this dynamic environment we empower young professionals on their journey to shape a better world. We offer our students plenty of opportunities to create meaningful experiences and pursue their dreams in a small-scale and international study environment — for example by starting their own enterprise, joining a national or international organisation or developing an innovative product or concept. Students, lecturers and researchers work together in our national and international learning communities on meaningful knowledge, research and projects alongside global industry professionals. BUas is committed to educating for and in a continuously changing world.

• The salary for this position amounts to a monthly minimum of €7,357.11 and a monthly maximum of €9,544.16 (gross amounts based on full-time employment);  
• This position is classified in scale 15 of the cao-hbo (collective labour agreement). Your official job title will be Professor;
• Upon appointment, you will receive an employment contract for a period of at least four years. In the third year, a Go/No-Go review will take place, looking at the relevance of the professorship for BUas and at your performance. Depending on the outcome, this may lead to continuation of the professorship or other arrangements;
• Your commuting expenses will be fully reimbursed when you travel by public transport; 
• You will receive a contribution towards your health insurance costs;
• You will receive an end-of-year bonus of 8.3% in December and an annual holiday allowance of 8% in May; 
• You will also be awarded professional development hours every year and almost 11 weeks of holiday entitlements in a full-time position; 
• You have the option to work partly from home, which can help improve your work-life balance;
• You will build an attractive pension through the ABP pension fund;
• Working at BUas means always striving for ‘the plus’. BUas aims to be more than just a university of applied sciences, continuously focusing on development and creating meaningful experiences;
• You will be working at a top-ranked university of applied sciences on a green, sustainable campus near the city centre of Breda;
• You will be working in an attractive and friendly working environment together with enthusiastic colleagues from the industry and students from around the world;
• Moving from abroad to Breda in the Netherlands? We provide support and financial compensation for relocation and settling in the Netherlands. Dutch tax authorities may offer tax reductions to applicants from abroad, making tax rates comparable to those in the UK and US. 

• You have a PhD in a relevant field and experience in facility and hotel management or a relevant industry for your professorship;
• With your exceptional communication skills, you thrive in engaging with a diverse range of individuals, organisations and stakeholders. Your ability to inspire is outstanding;
• You have demonstrated experience in research projects, with the ability to manage the complete process. You have proven experience in acquiring external funding or research grants, either through collaborations with organisations or via national or international grant agencies;
• You are a strong team player, capable of fostering a positive and inclusive work culture. You are an inspiration for your team and for students;
• You understand that building a research culture is as much about people as it is about projects. You actively coach colleagues and fellow professors, lower the threshold for engaging with research, and know how to get others genuinely excited about inquiry — whether they are seasoned academics or first-time researchers;
• You are a networker who invests in relationships with national and international industry partners by attending conferences, industry fairs and external network events to ensure industry relevance in teaching and research projects;
• You are energised, not deterred, by organisational change. BUas is accelerating its journey towards becoming a European University of Applied R&D, and you see this transition as an opportunity: to shape the culture, raise ambitions and help colleagues grow into their research roles alongside you;
• You preferably have teaching experience or are willing to obtain a didactics certificate;
• You have excellent English speaking and writing skills, as you will interact with both national and international colleagues and stakeholders across the organisation and beyond. Dutch language skills are preferred, or you are willing to learn Dutch;
• If you do not meet all of the job requirements, we warmly invite you to apply anyway. If you are the right candidate, we can offer a suitable, adapted position with matching tasks, responsibilities and a corresponding salary scale. We will agree on a joint development path, along which you will gradually take on the full tasks and responsibilities of the role — and move up to the corresponding salary scale accordingly.

Please send us your application before 17 August 2026 via the online application form. Do you have any questions? Feel free to contact Ilja van Beest (Director of Research & Development) via [email protected] and/or Gienke Osinga (Director of the Academy for Hotel & Facility) via [email protected] with questions about the job itself, or [email protected] for questions about the application process. Due to the summer holiday, no substantive questions about the vacancy will be answered between 17 July and 8 August 2026.

The first interviews will be held in the week of 21 September.

You will receive a reply to your application no later than two weeks after the closing date. The submission of a certificate of good conduct (in Dutch abbreviated to VOG) is a condition for commencing employment at BUas. We will initiate a request for this after the terms of employment meeting. Among candidates with equal qualifications and experience, preference will be given to the internal candidate.

Breda University of Applied Sciences (hereafter referred to as BUas) is a specialist, small-scale and international university of applied sciences. BUas offers bachelor's and master's degree programmes at both professional and academic levels, with expertise in closely interrelated fields: Tourism, Leisure & Events, Hotel & Facility, Logistics & Built Environment, Media & Creative Business, Games, and Data Science & AI. Our strength lies in the ability to connect these fields.

We aim to create added value in our education and research for our students, and therefore also for business and society. We provide our students with knowledge as well as ‘BUas Skills for Life’, empowering them to thrive in a constantly changing world and contribute to making it a better place. We encourage our employees to lead by example, fostering independence, collaboration and practical research that can be applied in real-world contexts.

We are curious about the world around us, considerate of each other, and committed to creating a healthy living and working environment for students and staff. This ethos defines how we operate on our campus. Within our inspiring learning community, we encourage each other to optimally develop our talents, combine knowledge and skills, and apply them in society in a sustainable manner.

External recruiters need not inquire.