Rheinland-Pfälzische Technische Universität Kaiserslautern-Landau

Term: lifetime civil servant

Start: at the next possible date

Location: Landau

Scope: Full time 100 %

Salary: W 3 LBesG

Faculty: Psychology

With about 17,000 students, more than 300 professorships and around 160 degree programs, the RPTU University Kaiserslautern-Landau is the technical university of the state of Rhineland-Palatinate. As a place of top international research, it offers excellent working conditions and career opportunities. Those who study, research or work at RPTU experience a cosmopolitan environment and shape the future.

The professorship is based in the Department of Psychology and embedded in an interdisciplinary research environment at RPTU that addresses societal communication in times of multiple crises and digital transformation (Potential Area SCOPE). The research focus includes digital public spheres, social media, political communication, disinformation, and the role of algorithmic and AI-based systems in societal processes. The professorship is also expected to play a key role in the AI, Computing and Society initiative (AICS), which is supported by RPTU in cooperation with the Max Planck Institute for Software Systems (MPI-SWS) in Kaiserslautern and with the Societal Observatory Using Novel Data Sources initiative (SOUNDS) at Saarland University.

Your tasks include:

We are seeking a scholar, whose research addresses core questions in the social, behavioral, and/or communication sciences using computational, quantitative, and data-intensive methods. The successful candidate is expected to represent Computational Social Science in research and teaching with a strong international profile. The professorship is expected to contribute to proposals for coordinated research consortia. Further expectations include the supervision of early-career researchers and an active contribution to RPTU’s international visibility in Computational Social Science.

Teaching responsibilities arise, among other things, from the curriculum of the planned master’s degree program Democracy, Communication and Technology (DCT).

Your profile:

In addition to the relevant academic qualifications, applicants are expected to have special teaching skills and experience in teaching. RPTU expressly welcomes applications from early-career scholars who meet the criteria set out below.

The requirements are:

• a doctorate in computer science, data science, communication studies, psychology, political science, or a closely related field. We welcome both candidates with a background in computer science/data science and a strong social science orientation, as well as applicants from the social sciences with demonstrated expertise in IT and research methods;
  
• internationally visible research achievements in the field of Computational Social Science related to the above-mentioned thematic areas of the professorship (in accordance with Section 49(2) of the Rhineland-Palatinate Higher Education Act);
  
• success in securing competitive third-party funding as Principal Investigator;
  
• relevant teaching experience related to the above-mentioned thematic areas of the professorship, as well as very good teaching skills. The languages of instruction are English and German. Applicants should be able to offer courses in both languages within five years at the latest;
  
• leadership experience is desirable (relative to career stage).
  

Applicants are expected to have an independent research program that combines advanced computational methods with research questions, theories, and methods clearly grounded in the social and behavioral sciences, for example, in one or more of the following areas: digital political or societal communication (e.g., disinformation); natural language processing, large language models, and AI-assisted methods in empirical social research; multimodal analyses; digital trace data linked to survey data.

In line with RPTU’s mission statement, the Department of Psychology attaches great importance to the transparency and reproducibility of social science research and expects applicants to explain the extent to which they implement Open Science practices, such as preregistration, open data, and open materials, in their research and teaching.

The state of Rhineland-Palatinate and RPTU advocate a supervision concept in which a high level of presence of teaching staff at the university location is expected. In addition to the general employment requirements, the employment requirements set out in Section 49 of the Rhineland-Palatinate Higher Education Act apply.

RPTU stands for the diversity of all employees. We welcome applications from all interested parties, regardless of their ethnic and social origin, age, religion, gender, disability and sexual orientation or identity. Severely disabled persons and persons with equivalent status will be given preference if they are suitably qualified and suitable (please enclose proof of severe disability/equal status with your application).

RPTU strives to increase the proportion of women in areas in which women are underrepresented. Applications from female and male scientists from abroad are expressly encouraged.

Your application:

We look forward to receiving your detailed application in a single (!) PDF document no later than 14 October 2026. Please submit your application via the RPTU 'Online Application' button below or through our application portal (https://jobs.rptu.de).

Interviews are expected to take place during the week beginning 16 November 2026.

For further inquiries, Prof. Dr. Michaela Maier will be available from 28 September 2026 (michaela.maier@rptu.de).