Postdoc in Coastal Infrastructure Reliability under Climate Change

Join us at TU Delft to assess the reliability and climate resilience of coastal infrastructure systems in Europe, using state-of-the-art environmental datasets and future climate projections.

Overview

Coastal and offshore infrastructure systems are increasingly exposed to changing environmental conditions, sea level rise, and sequences of extreme events. Understanding how these changes affect their reliability and resilience is essential for supporting adaptation strategies, risk-informed design, and long-term decision-making.

TU Delft coordinates the Horizon Europe project EU-INTERCHANGE, which develops climate services, datasets, and tools to assess the impacts of climate change on European regional and coastal seas. The project will generate state-of-the-art hindcast and future projection datasets of marine environmental parameters, including waves, water levels, ocean conditions, storm surge information, and climate-change scenarios. These datasets provide a unique opportunity to assess how present and future environmental conditions may affect the reliability of coastal and offshore infrastructure systems.

Within this position, you will develop and apply reliability and risk analysis frameworks for coastal and offshore engineering systems, with specific attention to the combined effects of marine environmental loads, sea level rise, climate change, and system deterioration. The work will contribute to the identification of coastal risks and to the development of approaches that support coastal resilience, protection, and adaptation.

You will use advanced statistical and probabilistic methods to assess failure probabilities and reliability under present and future climate conditions. This may include Monte Carlo methods, multivariate statistical approaches, Bayesian networks, vine copulas, or other suitable methods to describe the dependence between environmental variables, infrastructure components, and possible cascading system effects.

The activities you will be responsible for will combine the processing and analysis of large environmental datasets with the development of probabilistic models for engineering reliability assessment. You will derive relevant environmental loading conditions, quantify uncertainties, and translate climate projections into reliability indicators and risk-based information that can support coastal infrastructure planning and adaptation. As a final stage, the developed reliability framework will be embedded in the EDITO portal, ensuring that the project outputs can be accessed and used within a wider digital environment for marine and coastal data services.

You will work in the Hydraulic Engineering Department of the Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences at TU Delft, in close collaboration with project partners across Europe. In addition to your research activities, you will contribute to joint publications, participate in project meetings, collaborate with academic and professional partners, and support the supervision of MSc students. This position offers a unique opportunity to develop an independent research profile at the interface of coastal engineering, reliability analysis, climate change impact assessment, and infrastructure resilience.

Qualifications

• A PhD degree in civil, mechanical, offshore engineering, or a closely related field.
• Proven experience in the statistical analysis of marine environmental variables.
• Demonstrated experience in the reliability analysis of coastal, offshore, or other engineering systems.
• Proven experience in coastal hydrodynamics and wave modelling;
• A record of scientific publications demonstrating strong analytical and writing skills;
• Ability to work both independently and collaboratively within a multidisciplinary team, and to communicate effectively with academic and professional partners.

Employer and Faculty

TU Delft (Delft University of Technology)

Delft University of Technology is built on strong foundations. As creators of the world-famous Dutch waterworks and pioneers in biotech, TU Delft is a top international university combining science, engineering and design. It delivers world class results in education, research and innovation to address challenges in the areas of energy, climate, mobility, health and digital society. For generations, our engineers have proven to be entrepreneurial problem-solvers, both in business and in a social context.

At TU Delft we embrace diversity as one of our core values and we actively engage to be a university where you feel at home and can flourish. We value different perspectives and qualities. We believe this makes our work more innovative, the TU Delft community more vibrant and the world more just. Together, we imagine, invent and create solutions using technology to have a positive impact on a global scale. That is why we invite you to apply. Your application will receive fair consideration.

Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences

The Faculty of Civil Engineering & Geosciences (CEG) is committed to outstanding international research and education in the field of civil engineering, applied earth sciences, traffic and transport, water technology, and delta technology. Our research feeds into our educational programmes and covers societal challenges such as climate change, energy transition, resource availability, urbanisation and clean water. Our research projects are conducted in close cooperation with a wide range of research institutions. CEG is convinced of the importance of open science and supports its scientists in integrating open science in their research practice. The Faculty of CEG comprises 28 research groups in the following seven departments: Materials Mechanics Management & Design, Engineering Structures, Geoscience and Engineering, Geoscience and Remote Sensing, Transport & Planning, Hydraulic Engineering and Water Management.

Click here to go to the website of the Faculty of Civil Engineering & Geosciences.

Conditions of employment

• Duration of contract is 28 months. Temporary external finance.
• A job of 32-40 hours per week.
• Salary and benefits are in accordance with the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities.
• An excellent pension scheme via the ABP.
• The possibility to compile an individual employment package every year.
• Discount with health insurers on supplemental packages.
• Every year, 232 leave hours (at 38 hours). You can also sell or buy additional leave hours via the individual choice budget.
• Plenty of opportunities for education, training and courses.
• Partially paid parental leave
• Attention for working healthy and energetically with the vitality program.

Will you need to relocate to the Netherlands for this job? TU Delft is committed to make your move as smooth as possible! The HR unit, Coming to Delft Service, offers information on their website to help you prepare your relocation. In addition, Coming to Delft Service organises events to help you settle in the Netherlands, and expand your (social) network in Delft. A Dual Career Programme is available, to support your accompanying partner with their job search in the Netherlands.

Additional information

For more information about this vacancy, please contact Alessandro Antonini ([email protected]) and George Lavidas ([email protected]). Please apply via the website of TU Delft, unsolicited emails will not be considered.

Application procedure

Are you interested in this vacancy? Please apply no later than 1 July 2026 via the application button and upload the following documents:

• CV including the list of publications.
• A cover letter specifically explaining why this position matches your interests and competencies.
• Candidates shortlisted for interview will be asked to prepare a short presentation on their previous scientific activities relevant to this position.

Interviews are expected to take place in July 2026.

The selected candidate is expected to start before December 2026.

You can address your application to Alessandro Antonini.

Please note

• You can apply online. We will not process applications sent by email and/or post.
• As part of knowledge security, TU Delft conducts a risk assessment during the recruitment of personnel. We do this, among other things, to prevent the unwanted transfer of sensitive knowledge and technology. The assessment is based on information provided by the candidates themselves, such as their motivation letter and CV, and takes place at the final stages of the selection process. When the outcome of the assessment is negative, the candidate will be informed. The processing of personal data in the context of the risk assessment is carried out on the legal basis of the GDPR: performing a public task in the public interest.You can find more information about this assessment on our website aboutknowledge security.
• Please do not contact us for unsolicited services.

Faculty/Department: Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences

FTE: 0.8-1.0

Submission is possible until: 1 Jul 2026

#J-18808-Ljbffr