Software Engineer (Open Source - 4TU.ResearchData)

Help shape the future of open science by developing open source software that makes research more transparent, reproducible and reusable. As a Software Engineer at 4TU.ResearchData, you'll contribute to innovative national projects at the intersection of research software and AI.

Job description

At 4TU.ResearchData, we believe that high-quality research depends on high-quality research software and data. As a Software Engineer, you'll help strengthen and expand Djehuty, our open source repository platform for research data and software. Your work will directly contribute to making research outputs easier to reproduce, verify and build upon.

In this role, you’ll primarily contribute to two Open Science NL-funded projects (part of NWO) that advance reproducibility and transparency for research software and AI.

The first project, Enabling FAIR for AI: Infrastructure for Transparency and Reproducibility of Research Software, aims to make research data and software easier to reuse, verify and build upon. Too often, software published alongside research lacks the metadata, documentation and context needed to reproduce results. By further developing Djehuty, you'll help improve the transparency, interoperability and long-term usability of research software. Your work will enable researchers to share, cite and maintain software more effectively, with a particular focus on machine learning and AI applications. Project outcomes include a reproducibility service for research software, enhanced deposit and curation workflows, and a graded badge system that helps assess the quality and reproducibility of datasets, software and AI models.

The second project, Towards a Community-Driven and Sustainable Research Software Directory (RSD), aims to strengthen the Research Software Directory by introducing peer review for research software, enhancing community curation and connecting software to cloud-based execution environments and reproducibility packages developed by 4TU.ResearchData that encourage software reuse. The RSD is an open source platform that highlights the impact of research software using a broad range of qualitative indicators.

Working from the TU Delft Library, you'll collaborate closely with software engineers, research support professionals and project partners from universities and research institutes across the Netherlands. Besides developing new functionality, you'll also contribute to the maintenance and continuous improvement of the 4TU.ResearchData repository and coordinate development activities within the engineering team.

Your tasks and responsibilities:

• Contribute to collaborative national projects, focusing on functionalities and workflows supporting reproducibility of software and AI/ML models.
• Research, design and implement solutions within the current architecture, extending functionalities where needed.
• Communicate design and implementation choices for project partners and the open source community, including updating documentation.
• Collaborate and coordinate development with project partners and the 4TU.ResearchData team to ensure alignment.
• Contribute to the maintenance and operation of the 4TU.ResearchData repository.
• Contribute to other technical activities within the team where needed.

About 4TU.ResearchData

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 Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable (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.

Job requirements

You enjoy solving complex technical challenges and translating requirements into robust, sustainable software solutions. You communicate clearly with both technical and non-technical colleagues, enjoy working in multidisciplinary teams and are comfortable navigating research-oriented environments. You value well-designed, maintainable software and have an affinity with open source development, FAIR principles and open science.

Furthermore, you meet the following requirements:

• Strong Python programming skills, including experience with its standard libraries.
• Experience working with GNU/Linux, Git, HTML/CSS and JavaScript.
• An understanding of full-stack web application development.
• Experience contributing to or collaborating on community-driven open source projects.
• Strong communication skills and the ability to work effectively in an international team.

It would be a plus if you also have experience with:

• Research software, AI/ML workflows or model deployment.
• Metadata standards, reproducibility frameworks or research data infrastructures.
• Contributing to or maintaining community-driven open source projects.

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

University Corporate Office – TU Delft Library

TU Delft Library supports education and research by helping people find, publish and store valuable knowledge. It contributes to open science, research visibility and impact, and an inspiring learning and working environment. With expertise and tools in research data management, research intelligence and publishing, the Library helps increase the findability, visibility and impact of TU Delft knowledge.

Conditions of employment

• Duration of contract is 3 years.
• 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.
• At TU Delft, we value a healthy work-life balance. That's why we offer flexible working hours and the opportunity to work from home up to two days a week. The guideline is: at least 60% of your time on campus and a maximum of 40% of your time remotely.

Additional information

The first round of interviews will take place during the week of 14 September.

As part of the selection process, candidates may be asked to complete a technical assessment. If applicable, you will be informed in advance about the format, content, and expectations of the assessment.

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.