The official and legally binding job description is available here.
The University of Klagenfurt wants to attract more qualified women for professorships.
The University of Klagenfurt is pleased to announce the following open position in the Department of Information Technology (ITEC) within the Faculty of Technical Sciences, in compliance with the provisions of Art. 98 (open-ended) or Art. 99 (limited to 5 years) of the Austrian Universities Act:
Full Professor of Virtual and Augmented Reality (all genders welcome)
This is a full-time position. Whether the position will be implemented in compliance with the provisions of Art. 98 Austrian Universities Act (open-ended) or Art. 99 of the Austrian Universities Act (limited to 5 years) will be decided in the course of the appointment procedure.
The University of Klagenfurt is a young, vibrant, and innovative university, located at the intersection of Alpine and Mediterranean culture in an area that offers an exceptionally high quality of life. As a public university pursuant to Art. 6 of the Austrian Universities Act, it receives federal funding. The Times Higher Education (THE) Young University Rankings 2021 ranked it among the 50 best young universities in the world. The university operates under the motto “Beyond Boundaries!”.
In accordance with its key strategic road map, the development plan, the university’s primary guiding principles and objectives include the pursuit of scientific excellence regarding the appointment of professors, favourable research conditions, a good faculty-student ratio, and the promotion of the development of young scientists.
The professorship will be embedded in the Department of Information Technology (ITEC; https://itec.aau.at/) within the Faculty of Technical Sciences (https://www.aau.at/en/tewi), which focuses on distributed multimedia systems, including multimedia coding, transmission, and quality of experience, AI-based multimedia analysis, game studies and engineering, as well as distributed cloud and edge computing. The department and faculty provide a vivid, friendly, and research-oriented environment. We are looking for a highly qualified and internationally recognized scientist with high engagement in developing and sustaining an ambitious and innovative research programme.
Virtual and Augmented Reality (VR/AR) are broad research fields addressing both theoretical and application-driven questions. This position offers an opportunity to focus on cutting-edge VR/AR research areas including – but not limited to – immersive media (e.g., 360° videos, 3D point clouds), AI for object recognition in VR/AR (e.g., in industry and medicine), educational and training applications, computer graphics, sensor technology, human-computer interaction, and efficient multimedia data transmission and cloud/edge processing.
The professor will be involved in teaching in a variety of degree programmes, including the Bachelor’s programmes “Applied Informatics” and “Robotics and Artificial Intelligence”, and the international Master’s programmes “Informatics” and “Game Studies and Engineering”.
The duties of the position include:
- Representing the field of Virtual and Augmented Reality in research and teaching
- Acquiring and managing competitive research funding
- Collaborating with colleagues across the university and with industry partners
- Teaching in relevant Bachelor’s, Master’s, and Doctoral programmes
- Advising and mentoring students and early career researchers
- Contributing to the long-term development of the department and its international standing
- Advancing the department’s and faculty’s research priorities, with a commitment to interdisciplinary collaboration
- Contributing to university governance and academic self-administration
- Engaging in third mission activities and public outreach
Required qualifications:
- Habilitation or equivalent qualification in a relevant field
- Excellent research standing and publication record in Virtual and/or Augmented Reality, including theoretical and technical foundations
- Experience in the acquisition of competitive third-party funded research projects of a relevant volume
- Teaching experience at university level and didactic competence
- Experience in the (co-)supervision of academic theses
- Collaboration and social skills
- Fluency in English
Desired qualifications:
- Excellent scientific communication and dissemination skills
- Interdisciplinary experience
- Experience with academic management duties
- Competence in leadership and management of teams
- Competence in gender mainstreaming and diversity management
- Fluency in German
German language skills are not a formal prerequisite, but proficiency at level B2 is expected within two years. The remit of the professorship requires that the successful candidate will establish Klagenfurt as primary place of work.
The university is committed to increasing the number of women among the faculty, particularly in high-level positions, and therefore specifically invites applications from qualified women. Among equally qualified candidates, women will receive preferential consideration. People with disabilities or chronic diseases who meet the qualification criteria are explicitly invited to apply.
The salary is subject to negotiation. The minimum gross salary for the position at this level (salary group A1 for faculty according to the Austrian Universities’ Collective Bargaining Agreement) is currently € 92,500 per year.
In accordance with the Austrian Income Tax Act an attractive relocation tax allowance can be granted for the first five years in the case of appointments to professorships in Austria. The prerequisites are subject to examination on a case-by-case basis.
Please submit your application in English by e-mail to the University of Klagenfurt, Office of the Senate, attn. Mag.a (FH) Sabine Seebacher via application_professorship@aau.at no later than September 28, 2025, including:
- a mandatory principal part not exceeding five pages https://jobs.aau.at/wp-content/uploads/specimen_main_part_application_professorship.doc). The submission of the mandatory principal part mentioned above constitutes a necessary condition for the validity of your application.
- one single PDF including:
- a letter of motivation
- a detailed scientific CV
- a comprehensive list of publications, talks, and courses taught
- a list of acquired third-party funded research projects, including role, funding organization, and amount of funding (in case of funding acquired within a consortium, please specify the amount attributed to you)
- a compact research statement of up to two pages
- supplementary documents, where applicable (e.g., course evaluations)
- links to publicly available versions of your three most important publications within the scope of this professorship
For general information, please refer to the general information on our website provided at https://jobs.aau.at/en/the-university-as-employer/. For specific information about the position, please contact Prof. Dr. Christian Timmerer (christian.timmerer@aau.at).
Bitmovin was founded in 2013 by Stefan Lederer, Christopher Müller, and Christian Timmerer as a spinoff of the University of Klagenfurt, where they both worked on the standardization of MPEG-DASH, a major standard for video streaming, during their time as students. The start-up company found its first home in the neighbouring Lakeside Science & Technology Park. Today, the company provides the world’s most powerful products for highly efficient video streaming on the Internet. Large, international customers such as the BBC or Hulu Japan rely on solutions developed in Carinthia.
In Christian Doppler Laboratories, application-oriented basic research is carried out at a high level, which involves outstanding scientists cooperating with innovative companies. The Christian Doppler Research Association is internationally regarded as a best-practice example for the promotion of this type of cooperation. Christian Doppler Laboratories are jointly financed by the public sector and the participating companies. The primary public sponsor is the Federal Ministry of Digital and Economic Affairs (BMDW).
Since its foundation in 1970, the University of Klagenfurt has successfully established itself as one of six state universities with a broad range of subjects in Austria. More than 11,600 students pursue their studies and research at the University of Klagenfurt; around 2000 of these are international students. Approximately 1,500 employees strive for top quality in teaching and research. According to the QS World University Rankings (“Top 50 under 50”) the university belongs to the 150 best young universities worldwide. In the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2020, which endeavour to rank the top 1,400 universities across the globe, it placed in the 301-350 range. In the discipline of Computer Science, the University of Klagenfurt achieved third place among Austrian universities in the 201-250 range. One of the university’s key research strengths lies in “networked and autonomous systems”.