Senior Software Engineer (Open Source, 4TU.ResearchData)

Are you passionate about community-driven free and open source software development? Do you care about Open Science? Then this job is for you!

4TU.ResearchData is a research infrastructure, community and training provider whose mission is to enable researchers from science, engineering and design disciplines to make a global impact with research data and software. We provide a trusted digital repository which supports FAIR data and software by offering curation, sharing, long-term access and preservation. The repository has a broad community of users and supporters who advance FAIR data and software practices. 4TU.ResearchData is governed and led by a consortium of four technical universities in the 4TU.Federation (TU Delft, University of Twente, TU Eindhoven and Wageningen University & Research) and is hosted by TU Delft.

The 4TU.ResearchData repository uses in-house free and open source software called Djehuty. Our vision is to co-develop this software with our community of researchers and research support professionals, such as data stewards and research software engineers. At 4TU.ResearchData we believe that community-driven open source development is essential for innovation and sustainability.

We are looking for an experienced Senior Software Engineer who enjoys working in a team-oriented environment and has strong skills and experience in designing and developing large-scale systems. The Senior Software Engineer should be up to date with current technologies and able to implement standards, solutions and processes to ensure our repository and related systems remain maintainable and resilient as they grow. With leadership abilities and a collaborative approach, the Senior Software Engineer should be able to mentor colleagues and work effectively in an open source environment, while also being motivated to engage and guide the contributors of the broader community.

As Senior Software Engineer you will be working alongside other engineers and be responsible for managing and implementing a shared technical direction for open science (OS) infrastructure that supports researchers to effectively share their research data and software. You will maintain and extend the 4TU.ResearchData repository to best support the emerging needs of the research community and collaborate with the 4TU community and other colleagues nationally and internationally on OS infrastructure projects. You will also work with other developers across TU Delft Library to help nurture a shared community developing common processes for code review, documentation and other best practices for software development.

Your tasks and responsibilities:

• Maintaining and improving the Djehuty codebase and all technical aspects of 4TU.ResearchData more broadly, ensuring that applications and servers are up to date and secure;
• Researching and designing software solutions within the current architecture, and extending the architecture where/if needed;
• Ensuring that development processes and decisions are well documented, including new releases, features and implementation choices, and made visible and clear for the open source community;
• Leading the development work needed for integrating 4TU.ResearchData with other OS infrastructures using open standards and protocols and helping to create a federated ecosystem for FAIR data and software;
• Collaborating in national and EU projects to advance sustainable and integrated OS infrastructure;
• Reviewing patches and communicating with internal and external contributors to the repository;
• Mentoring and supporting colleagues within and outside the team, including actively contributing to a shared community of developers at TU Delft Library;
• Coordinating and supervising contract/student workers;
• Participating and contributing to relevant conferences and networks to ensure constant innovation within 4TU.ResearchData and to stay up to date with leading developments in the field.

Please note that this position is based in the Netherlands (working remotely from abroad is not possible).

Requirements

We are looking for enthusiastic candidates who have:

• Strong full-stack web development proficiency across the entire lifecycle: specifying, designing, documenting, developing, testing, deploying, and maintaining large-scale software applications;
• Strong skills and experience developing, maintaining and guiding the implementation and scalability of software systems using Python;
• Demonstrated experience managing Linux-based server environments, including deploying, updating, monitoring, troubleshooting, repairing and securing large-scale applications and systems;
• Strong problem-solving skills and ability to provide technical direction;
• Demonstrated experience working in teams of software engineers and leading collaborative projects within and across institutions;
• Experience leading or working with community-driven open source projects;
• Experience with GNU/Linux, Python, HTML/CSS, Javascript, Git;
• Experience working with various data and metadata formats, preferably including knowledge and experience of RDF, SPARQL and graph databases;
• Awareness of the importance of free and open source software;
• Awareness of the FAIR principles for data and software;
• Excellent communication, team-working and mentoring skills;
• Good command of English and willingness to learn Dutch if not yet proficient.

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.

University Corporate Office – TU Delft Library

TU Delft Library is the largest technical-scientific library in the Netherlands, a physical and virtual meeting place. The Library helps to find valuable knowledge needed for education and research, and to publish and store the knowledge generated at TU Delft. We believe it is important that knowledge is easily accessible and freely available to everyone. In this way, knowledge can flow freely and TU Delft's knowledge can become valuable to others. The Library is also a place where everyone can study in peace and quiet. The Library has chosen three strategic themes to guide its daily activities. Open Science. We make an important contribution to TU Delft's broad strategic programme "Open Science - Research and Education in the Open Era". Visibility and impact. With our expertise and tools in the field of research data management, research intelligence and publishing, we increase the findability, visibility and impact of TU Delft knowledge. Inspiring learning and working environment. Through stimulating programming, we show how freely available and reliable knowledge makes life richer. This makes the Library a place where you can find new ideas and insights.

Conditions of Employment

• Duration of contract is 1 year. Temporary with prospect of permanent.
• A job of 32-40 hours per week.
• A salary based on Scale 12 of the CAO for Dutch Universities with a salary between €5705 - €7297 gross per month based on a fulltime contract (38 hours), plus 8% holiday allowance and an end-of-year bonus of 8.3%.
• An excellent pension scheme via the ABP.
• The possibility to compile an individual employment package every year.
• Discount with health insurers on supplemental packages.
• Flexible working week.
• 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.

Additional information
For more information about this vacancy, please contact Daniel Bangert, Director 4TU.ResearchData at D.F.Bangert@tudelft.nl and Madeleine de Smaele M.M.E.deSmaele@tudelft.nl