Software engineer/Technical Project Manager DANS

What will you be doing?
As a Software Engineer and Technical Project Manager, you will work at the intersection of software development and international project coordination, especially in the context of European-funded projects such as EOSC Data Commons. You will lead tasks and work packages focused on data infrastructure, quality assessment, and metadata services within the EOSC Federation. Your responsibilities include:

Software Engineering

• Design and develop software tools and applications to support FAIR data access, metadata crawling, and data quality assessment.
• Build and maintain back-end and front-end components using Python and JavaScript.
• Manage data structures across various database systems: relational (PostgreSQL, MySQL), NoSQL (MongoDB), and graph databases (e.g., GraphDB, Fuseki).
• Contribute to technical innovations involving Linked Data, Semantic Web technologies, workflow orchestration (e.g. Apache Airflow), and containerized CI/CD deployments.
• Work with open-source research data platforms such as DSpace, Dataverse, CKAN, or Invenio.

Technical Project Management

• Act as project manager and main point of contact for EOSC Data Commons and other EU-funded projects.
• Lead project work packages, monitor progress and milestones, and ensure timely delivery of deliverables.
• Collaborate with finance and communication teams at DANS to manage reporting and dissemination tasks.
• Represent DANS in international project meetings and maintain strong stakeholder relationships.

What will you bring to the table?
You hold a master’s degree in a relevant field (e.g. computer science, engineering) or have comparable experience in software/system development. You are experienced in both software engineering and project-based work in international research environments.

• In addition, you bring the following knowledge and skills:
• Proven experience in software development with Python and JavaScript.
• Familiarity with version control systems (Git, GitHub).
• Experience with structured and semantic data models (RDF, SKOS), and knowledge representation.
• Affinity with research infrastructure and metadata standards.
• Experience with containers, cloud deployment, and HPC environments is a plus.
• Prior experience leading tasks or work packages in EU-funded projects.
• Affinity with Open Science and the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) landscape.
• Fluency in English; understanding of Dutch is a plus.

What do we offer?
DANS provides a pleasant working environment, where a motivated and well-cooperating group of research data experts and software engineers is dedicated to Open Science and FAIR data. At DANS, we value initiative, expertise, result-orientation, reliability and collaboration. We appreciate a lively atmosphere among colleagues and attach great importance to mutual knowledge exchange. Personal development is not forgotten, and employee satisfaction is high.

The salary is depending on age and experience, ranging from a minimum of
€ 4.537,-- to a maximum of € 7.056,-- gross per month for a full-time position (scale 11-12 of the collective labour agreement Dutch Universities/KNAW). Initially, it is a fixed-term employment contract for a maximum of 4 years due to a temporary project. A complete overview of the terms of employment can be found on this webpage: https://www.knaw.nl/en/working-at-knaw.