Full Professor of Business Analytics and Decision Sciences with a methodological focus on machine learning, symbolic or sub-symbolic AI

WU is currently inviting applications for multiple faculty positions to launch its new Department of Business Analytics and Decision Sciences.[1] This call focuses on two positions as full professors[2], who are expected to have established an excellent international reputation as a researcher in Business Analytics and Decision Sciences with a methodological focus on machine learning, symbolic or sub-symbolic AI (including deep learning, reinforcement learning, generative AI, and automated decision-making), or modern statistics and econometrics. The application scope of their research should complement WU’s existing research. Depending on the candidates’ academic credentials, the employment contract can be concluded either as a permanent employment contract or as a fixed-term employment contract with the option of a permanent extension.[3]

WU (Vienna University of Economics and Business) combines excellence with responsibility.
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International cooperation is very important to WU, and we encourage and support both faculty and student mobility. WU is also very aware of its responsibility to its students, faculty, and staff and is committed to gender equality, equal opportunities, accessibility, family-friendly working conditions, and sustainability.

The new professors will become faculty members of the new Department of Business Analytics and Decision Sciences and play a decisive role in establishing the new department and further developing its profile. The department’s focus is on predictive and prescriptive analytics to support informed, data-driven strategic business decisions. Researchers in the Department of Business Analytics and Decision Sciences develop and apply methods to derive optimal business decisions from data, rigorously validating their effectiveness in business contexts. A key priority of the department is applying these methods across fields that are complementary to WU’s existing research, fostering collaboration with other departments at WU.

The successful candidates are expected to have established an international reputation as researchers in their field and to have outstanding qualifications. Candidates’ qualifications will be assessed in the context of their academic age on the basis of the following criteria:

a) A solid academic qualification (e.g., PhD or habilitation) in business analytics and decision

sciences, including operations research, management science, information systems,

statistics, artificial intelligence, data science, applied mathematics, applied computer

science, or a related area;

b) An outstanding international reputation for high quality scholarship in Business Analytics

and Decision Sciences, especially by having demonstrated the ability to apply advanced

methodologies from machine learning, symbolic or sub-symbolic AI (including deep

learning, reinforcement learning, generative AI, and automated decision-making), modern

statistics, or econometrics. This expertise should be evidenced by publications in top-tier

journals in a field that complements WU’s existing research. Examples for such fields

include, but are not limited to:

c) Excellent teaching qualifications at undergraduate and graduate levels;

d) Proven international experience;

e) Experience in attracting research funding;

f) Leadership qualities;

g) Gender and diversity management skills.

The successful candidates are expected to perform teaching activities at all levels (bachelor’s, master’s, PhD/doctorate, and executive education), both in the classroom and in distance-learning formats. Full professors are expected to teach 8 weekly credit hours.

We expect the new professors to play a key role in establishing and developing the new department “Business Analytics and Decisions Sciences” at WU, as well as its associated research fields and teaching programs. The new professors are expected to actively participate in academic self-governance and third-mission activities at WU.

The successful candidates will have a strong interest in collaborating with and developing young researchers and junior faculty together with their peers at the department. Collaboration with researchers at other WU departments is expected, as is a demonstrated willingness to publish in the journals included in WU’s Star journal list (https://www.wu.ac.at/fileadmin/wu/h/research/WU-STAR-List_2024.pdf).

WU is committed to diversity and inclusion, and qualified women are strongly encouraged to apply. In case of equal qualification, female candidates will be given preference. People with disabilities are encouraged to apply and will be supported during each stage of the recruitment process. Candidates’ qualifications will be assessed in the context of their academic age.

WU assesses performance in the context of each applicant’s biography and relative to the opportunities available to them. This approach recognizes that academic achievements cannot be assessed separately from each individual researchers’ biographical factors. To ensure equal opportunities, qualifications are evaluated relative to the applicant’s academic age. This means that WU takes biographical factors such as part-time employment or career interruptions due to caregiving or childcare obligations or other functions performed at or outside of a university into account. Depending on the candidate’s academic credentials, the employment contract can be concluded either as a permanent employment contract or as a fixed-term employment contract with the option of a permanent extension.

In your application, you can include personal data related to biographical factors. WU will keep all data that you send us as part of your application confidential. All persons involved in the selection procedure are bound by obligations of secrecy.

Application documents should include, at the minimum:

Applicants should address their applications to the rector of WU (Vienna University of Economics and Business), Welthandelsplatz 1, 1020 Vienna and upload the application documents using the link provided/ button below/ on the WU website.

Please submit your application via WU’s online recruiting tool by July 27, 2025.

For details about the position, please contact Professor Verena Dorner, interim Chair of the Department of Business Analytics and Decision Sciences, by phone: +43-1-31336-5046, or by email: [email protected] or Professor Thomas Reutterer, member of the Appointment Committee, by phone: +43-1-31336-4619, or by email: [email protected].

For details about the application process, please contact the Senior Faculty Recruitment team by email at: [email protected].

Please note: Only applications uploaded via our online recruiting tool will be considered. In their application documents, applicants must respond to all criteria specified in the call for applications, especially to items A) Qualifications and B) Expectations. A reference to these two items is considered a mandatory element of any application to WU Vienna, and any applications that lack this mandatory element cannot be considered.

[1] A parallel call for two full professor positions in the Department of Business Analytics and Decision Sciences with a different methodological focus is currently open (see https://www.wu.ac.at/en/careers/job-portal/jobs/professorships). For information on the department’s general profile and additional faculty positions that are or will be advertised, please visit the department’s preliminary website (https://www.wu.ac.at/en/bads/home).

[2] Employed under salary group A 1 pursuant to the Collective Bargaining Agreement for University Staff [Kollektivvertrag für die Arbeitnehmer/innen der Universitäten], minimum gross yearly salary: €92,460.20; the actual annual gross salary is subject to negotiation

[3] The duration of fixed-term contracts is subject to negotiation.