Academic jobs in CS in Spain


This is some information about jobs in Spain  informally compiled. This is not comprehensive.  As always, check with your advisor and others to get the skinny on schools and strategize about your application process.

Spanish academic system
Finding out about jobs and applying
Language
Top-tier schools in CS and research labs

Spanish academic system

For more general information about the higher education system and research opportunities  in Spain, see the European University Insitute Page on Spain.

There are two possibiliites for research in Spanish higher eduction, a professorship or a researcher. Professorships are scarce, require Spanish for teaching, and often require having connections in the system.  Researcher positions are nationally competitive, potentially permanent, and of the same level as professors, with teaching optional.  Most internationals would be better placed to follow the researcher-track in Spain, but the following is a brief overview of both processes.

Traditionally, you could become a university lecturer without a Ph.D.  The national system has undergone several rounds of changes recently and this is no longer the case. There are a number of non-tenure track lecturer positions, and these require a Ph.D.  To get a tenured position, called a Titular Professor, you first need to apply to a national board to get approved to be a professor.  For this, you need a CV with a strong research experience and teaching experience. Most applicants have held non-tenure track positions or have otherwise accumulated reasearch and teaching experience before applying to be approved.  The national board in Spain still looks most closely at journal publications, not conferences, particularly the top half or first tier. Once the national board evaluates your credentials and you pass certain thresholds for research and teaching, you are accredited to be a professor.  If you don't pass, you have to wait some time (1-2 years) to reapply for accredidation. Once accredited, you can apply for professor positions at any university.  These positions are scarce as the population of Spain is decreasing and universities are generally downsizing.  It's also difficult to get a professor position without having friends in the system.

In response to the shrinking student population, the government is remaking part of the university system to become more research oriented.  There are nationally-funded post-doc positions, that at some universities can become permanent.  UPM in Madrid will make them permanent, and you should check with other universities to see what their practice is. There are two post-doc programs, one for junior post-docs (less than 2-3 years post-Ph.D experience) and one for senior post-docs (more than 2 years post-Ph.D. experience).  The Junior program is called Juan de la Cierva.   The senior program is called Ramon y Cajal.  At last check, these web pages were only in Spanish. The junior program lasts for 2-3 years and the senior program for up to 5 years.  After this, you can apply for a permanent reseacher position if the university offers this. The researcher can optionally teach, and is on par with tenured professors.  This is probably the better choice for international researchers.

Finding out about jobs and applying

There is no national list, so for professor jobs, you need to check with individual universities after you've been approved by the national board.  There are national competitions for post-docs, but you should submit the application in conjunction with a particular university.  So for the post-docs, you contact a professor you'd like to work with and jointly apply.

A general web site called  the Spanish Researcher's Mobility Portal.

Language

Spanish is required for teaching positions (professorships). Researchers may not need Spanish.

Schools and Labs

The top three schools in CS are Universidad Polytechnica Madrid, Autonomous University Barcelona (this link in Catalan only), and Polytechnical University Valencia.  Other schools may have good research groups in particular sub-disciplines.
 
The government lab, the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Scientificas (CSIS) has some research positions, but again they are scarce and hard to get without knowing people in the system.

Several companies located in Madrid or Barcelona have research and development sections.  How research-oriented these groups are depends. These are Ericsson, Atos Origen, Yahoo Research Barcelona, and Telefonica I + D.