JOB - Academic position in Quantitative Supply Chain Management
core |
Post description
Within the Louvain School of Management (LSM) and the Louvain Institute of Data Analysis and Modeling in economics and statistics (LIDAM), Social Sciences and Humanities Sector, this position will include the following teaching, research and community service duties:
Teaching
To develop, in future managers, high-levels skills in methodological aspects of supply chain management, including optimization methods, scheduling, planning, logistics, transportation, sourcing and procurement, risk modeling, and decision-making under uncertainty. Sourcing and procurement courses will be approached from a quantitative and analytical perspective. The teaching load is delivered in English and French at the bachelor's and master's levels, across the two campuses of the Louvain School of Management (LSM), located in Louvain-la-Neuve and Mons. Overall, your presence will help to expand the capacity for supervising dissertations and diversify teaching approaches, whilst ensuring a stronger interdisciplinary presence.
Research
To develop an internationally visible research agenda addressing complex decision and optimization problems in supply chain design, planning, and operations across strategic, tactical, and operational levels, including sourcing, production, inventory, distribution, and transportation. Representative applications include (but are not limited to) network design, supplier selection and contract design, pricing and tariff optimization, production planning and scheduling, inventory control, routing, decision-making under risk and uncertainty, including reliability and resilience considerations. The research program is grounded in the foundations of mathematical programming, with expected expertise in integer optimization, stochastic optimization, robust optimization, and distributionally robust optimization, applied to complex logistics problems. The integration of optimization with data-driven approaches, leveraging statistical and econometric methods to enhance uncertainty modeling and support real-world decision-making, is seen as a natural and valued extension of the research agenda.
The successful candidate is expected to play an active role within the Louvain Institute for Data Analysis and Modeling (LIDAM), and more specifically in the Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE), by participating in academic events, publishing in leading journals in operations research and and management science, supervising doctoral students, and actively collaborating with researchers from CORE, and more generally from the Louvain Institute for Data Analysis and Modeling (LIDAM), as well as with those of institutes working in related disciplines such as the Louvain Research Institute in Management and Organizations (LOURIM) and the Institute of Information and Communication Technologies, Electronics, and Applied Mathematics (ICTEAM).
In addition …
Once tenured, you will carry out various service activities and responsibilities within the institution, such as being a member of a programme committee or examination committee or having management responsibilities within the faculty or research institute.
You will also contribute to serving society, particularly in the economic, social, cultural or development cooperation fields. Finally, you will ensure, through research and teaching activities, the university’s international visibility.
Who we’re looking for
Education
You have a PhD in Operations Research, Operations Management, Applied Mathematics, Computer Science, Industrial Engineering, Management Engineering, or a closely related quantitative field.
Experience
You have a proven track record in university teaching, with evidence where possible by formal evaluations.
You have a strong and independent research track record, with publications, or clear potential to publish, in leading international journals in operations research, optimization, or quantitative management science. Experience in securing competitive research funding and supervising doctoral students will be considered a strong asset.
You have supplemented this with an extended stay or significant experience abroad, outside the institution that awarded your doctorate.
Skills
You are comfortable working as part of a team of academics and integrate research results into your teaching. You are capable of conducting high-level scientific research, from obtaining funding to team management. You are creative, open to pedagogical innovation and multidisciplinary.
You can communicate in French and English. If this is not the case, you undertake to acquire a command of these two languages within two years of taking up your position. Knowledge of other languages is an asset.
Specifically
You will bring expertise in the modeling and optimization of supply chain systems, with a research identity anchored in the decision problems that characterize supply chain design, planning, and operations.
Your are able to combine methodological rigor in mathematical programming with a deep understanding of supply chain structures, incentives, and operational realities, and who is potentially able to integrate optimization with statistical and data-driven approaches to support evidence-based decision-making in complex supply environments.
Strong expertise in mathematical optimization and algorithmic decision-making is essential, while experience in data-driven analytics for supply chain systems is considered a strong asset.
Experience engaging with industry or real-world supply chain data is considered an asset when it is grounded in and contributes to the development of quantitative models and algorithmic methods for Supply Chain Management.
You will be expected to become an active and contributing member of the research community of CORE and, more broadly, of LIDAM, enriching its methodological culture with a research agenda at the intersection of operations research and quantitative management science, with clear supply chain identity and application depth.
What we offer
- Tenure after positive assessment of the probationary period – typically four years. This type of career entitles you to a public sector pension.
- Appointment as lecturer or professor according to your previous academic experience, as determined by the Rectoral Council.
- Teaching load capped at 90 hours for a full-time tenure-track position, and 150 hours once tenured.
- An attractive and progressive salary according to seniority and the promotion process.
- A start date of 1 September 2027 at the earliest.
- An integrated leadership and management training programme, including a range of pedagogical, linguistic and other training courses.
- Benefits including transport, family, culture, commercial, etc.
- Official policy that supports equal opportunities and promotes diversity within academic and all other categories of staff.
- Specific emphasis on a work-life balance.
Practical Information
Application deadline: 5 November 2026 at noon (UTC+1 Time Zone)
Starting date: September 1st 2027
Location:
Social Sciences and Humanities Sector
(LSM) (https://uclouvain.be/en/faculties/LSM)
(IDAM) (https://uclouvain.be/en/research-institutes/IDAM)