The Faculty of Social and Behavioral Sciences (FMG) is expanding its support for research using computational methods and digital data. As part of this effort, it is creating a new position for a Research Engineer. The Research Engineer will play a vital role in supporting and connecting computational research across the Faculty.

The position could be fulfilled by one person (38 hours) or shared by two persons (2x 19 hours). The latter option is especially attractive for staff members who seek to combine their teaching and research with this support staff position. If applicants are interested in the latter option, they should apply as a team.

The Research Engineer will be embedded within the Behavioral Science Lab and FMG Research Support. They will work closely with computational researchers in different places in the faculty, including the Social and Behavioral Data Science Center.

What are you going to do?
Your tasks:

• Be the central point of contact for research using digital and computational methods in the Faculty of Social and Behavioral Sciences, advising researchers on different options of computational/digital methods and approaches.
• Support researchers in setting up and maintaining computational research infrastructures (e.g., assessing the infrastructure needs of the research project and defining a plan based on the existing UvA and Dutch national computational research infrastructure).
• Deploy and manage computational research infrastructure for research projects (including setting up servers and databases, installing the relevant tools for data scraping, online experiments, content annotations or data donation, ensuring the security of the infrastructure).
• Translate the research needs in requirements for infrastructure development and extension
• Develop, customize, and improve the architecture for computational methods (e.g. JupyterHub; RServer)
• Coordinate student/research assistants for the development or customization of scripts for research projects (e.g., for scraping)
• Develop and maintain an ecosystem of expertise and support for researchers using digital and computational methods in the Faculty of Social and Behavioral Sciences
• Contribute to trainings for staff members in computational research

A vibrant workplace with varied activities with room for personal initiative and development in an inspiring organization.

The Faculty of Social and Behavioral Sciences plays a leading role in addressing the major social challenges that the world, the Netherlands and Amsterdam face, now and in the future. The faculty employs 1,100 researchers and trains 8,000 students. The Behavioral Science Lab offers these academics a state-of-the-art research environment for data collection in all disciplines of the faculty.

Working at the UvA means working in a critical, independent, innovative and international climate, with an open atmosphere and a strong commitment to Amsterdam and (international) society.

Your experience and profile

• A university degree in a relevant field
• Excellent and demonstrable skills in programming languages for digital and computational methods research, preferably for both front-end (i.e., UX/UI, including JavaScript, bash and deployment of participant-facing applications) and back-end (data collection, extraction and analysis, with advanced knowledge of Python and R).
• Experience with DevOps and system architecture
• Experience with high performance and cloud computing. Orchestration is a plus.
• Experience with database management (including SQL and NoSQL approaches)
• Experience with project management
• Familiarity with social science research methods
• You are service-oriented, proactive, and capable of connecting people to generate synergy
• Understanding of the processes, limitations, and technical solutions within digital data collection, including data security and management
• Affinity with the field of research data management.
• Excellent communication skills.
• Excellent command of English. Proficiency in Dutch is a plus.

This concerns a temporary appointment of 38 hours per week for the duration of one year. There is a probationary period of 2 months. Depending on education and relevant work experience, the salary is at least €3.226 to €5.929 gross per month for a full-time appointment of 38 hours per week (in accordance with scale 10 or 11, Collective Labor Agreement for Dutch Universities). We also offer an extensive package of secondary employment conditions, including a generous holiday scheme and an end-of-year bonus, and we believe it is important that you continue to develop and professionalize yourself. We have excellent study and development opportunities for this.

Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences

The University of Amsterdam is the largest university in the Netherlands, with the broadest spectrum of degree programmes. It is an intellectual hub with 39,000 students, 6,000 employees and 3,000 doctoral students who are all committed to a culture of inquiring minds.

A challenging work environment with a variety of duties and ample scope for individual initiative and development within an inspiring organization. The social and behavioral sciences play a leading role in addressing the major societal challenges faced by the world, the Netherlands and Amsterdam, now and in the future.

Want to know more about our organisation? Read more about working at the University of Amsterdam.