The massive quantities of data produced by scientific research create new challenges in terms of storage, curation and dissemination of such data. The field of Research Data Management provides strategies and services to allow such research data to be published and made findable and reusable on the web.

As part of its Open Science Programme, TU Delft seeks a Data Manager to help meet these challenges. As Data Manager, you will simultaneously be part of two teams:

• The Research Data Services team at the TU Delft Library (official affiliation and reporting to the Head of the team)
• The Digital Competence Centre at TU Delft - virtual team run jointly by several TU Delft departments and consisting of another Data Manager and four Research Software Engineers.

During your work you will join various TU Delft-based research groups for a period of three to six months to provide hands-on, expert support with research data management. Your role will be to support researchers to make their research data as ‘FAIR’ as possible: findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable. You will provide tailored support in organising data, co-developing FAIR workflows and data pipelines, and publishing research data and metadata. You will pay particular attention to how data is structured to maximise its potential for reuse and analysis by researchers both within and outside the project group. You will have experience using  programming skills to work reproducibly with research data and helping others to do so as well. In addition, you will support research groups through various training designed  to empower them to improve their digital competencies.

The teams:

ResearchData Services Team - official affiliation

The Library's Research Data Services are playing a leading role in promoting high-quality Research Data Management. Its Data Stewardship project helps reach out to a wide range of researchers at the university, embedding different practices and approaches over a wide range of disciplines. The team is also the host of 4TU.ResearchData, one of the largest data archives in the Netherlands. It has been in existence since 2010 and hosts almost 10,000 datasets from a variety of scientific disciplines.

Digital Competence Centre - Virtual team

The Digital Competence Centre (DCC) is the home of our Support Team consisting of data managers and research software engineers. The DCC Support Team is helping researchers to develop skills to apply the FAIR principles to their research activities and reach their software development goals. The support team is an addition to other colleagues supporting good data and software management at TU Delft, which also includes the Faculty’s ICT Managers and Data Stewards.

The support team of the DCC can provide researchers with IT skills, good practices and toolsets required for implementing the FAIR principles into any research project. At TU Delft, the Open Science Programme is committed to making open research and education a daily practice, and the DCC is part of that commitment.

The support team accepts assignments to work closely with the research teams at TU Delft for a short period. This type of support is aimed at research projects which see the creation of scientific data or development of scientific software as one of their outcomes. Or research projects that, because of their nature, demand expert advice on the design and implementation of data management workflow for doing research-outputs reusable and interoperable.

Required skills for candidates:

• Have a good understanding of the role that data management plays within contemporary research.
• Have at least a Masters degree in an academic discipline relevant to those studied at TU Delft, ideally with a strong data component.
• Have experience working with research data and with setting up tools and workflows for implementing good data management practices.
• Be willing to learn about and engage with a variety of types of data and research projects.
• Have good people and communication skills, with a good level of English.
• Be willing to collaborate with other colleagues from your team(s), and also with Data Stewards, Data Champions, colleagues from the Library, ICT, legal etc.
• Pedagogical skills or experience delivering hands-on workshops would be a plus.

Desired skills for candidates:

• Have skills in some combination of the following: Git, Python, R, Matlab, Bash, SQL or NoSQL databases, LAMP servers, REST APIs, OPeNDAP, NetCDF, Docker.
• Have experience with remote collaboration and co-development using platforms like GitHub/GitLab.
• Have experience in handling confidential data.
• Experience in project management, documentation, and reporting.
• Experience in a university environment and working with scientists.
• Flexibility, adaptability and a positive attitude: you should genuinely enjoy working with people, helping to solve problems, and building professional relationships.

Fixed-term contract: 18 months.

• Fixed-term contract: 18 months with possibility of extension (depending on the success of a business case for the Digital Competence Centre).
• This position is at 36-40 hours per week (1.0 FTE).
• The salary is based on scale 10 from the Collective Labor Agreement of the Dutch Universities with a minimum of € 2.836 and a maximum of € 4.474 gross per month for a full-time appointment, plus 8% holiday allowance and an end-of-year bonus of 8.3%. You will be classified on the basis of knowledge and experience. 
• An excellent pension scheme via the ABP.
• The possibility to compile an individual employment package every year.
• Discount with health insurers.
• 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.

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 and aim to be as inclusive as possible (see our Code of Conduct). Together, we imagine, invent and create solutions using technology to have a positive impact on a global scale.

Challenge. Change. Impact! 

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. This fits in with our inclusive organisation. The Library has chosen three strategic themes to guide its daily activities. 1) Open Science. We make an important contribution to TU Delft's broad strategic programme "Open Science - Research and Education in the Open Era". 2) 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. 3) 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.  

https://www.tudelft.nl/en/library/