What does your work look like? 

You will be a part of a multidisciplinary team. You will typically work on 2 or 3 projects simultaneously. Projects vary in size from three-month consultancy projects to large multi-year collaborations. You will work on the project locations (various universities across the Netherlands), as well as in the office and from home.  

A typical day includes a stand-up or work meeting discussing the status of the project software: some issues with the code may need testing or require further development. You keep abreast of the latest technological and scientific developments in the project. You finish your contribution to a paper being written in your project. You attend an online presentation of a project you are interested in.

You will have the opportunity to attend international conferences in a variety of fields, from computational social sciences to the digital humanities. You will be able to extend your networks in disciplines ranging from media studies and history to psychology and communication studies.

RSEs are explicitly encouraged to explore technological and disciplinary fields outside of their main expertise and can develop their skills by following external training, leading projects and attending conferences and community events.

Who are you? 

You are intrinsically motivated to solve complex research problems using digital methods. You are passionate about working at the intersection of research and technology, helping academics solve cutting-edge research questions with advanced technology. Above all, you can communicate effectively with both academic researchers and technical experts. Furthermore:

• You have experience in, or a strong affinity with, the social sciences and humanities (incl. behavioural sciences, law and economics);
• You have strong credentials in academic research, such as a PhD or equivalent, and an excellent research portfolio;
• You have minimum 8 years of work experience with development of research software, methodologies, packages or open source frameworks aimed at helping researchers within (preferably) the social sciences or humanities;
• You have experience in providing guidance to more junior colleagues in research project work and in contributing to content-related supervision of projects results;
• You have a diverse skillset and you are a recognized expert in one or more of these technological area(s) and have thorough knowledge of software architecture: 
  • Text mining, natural language processing, language modelling;
  • Data analytics, data handling, linked data, network analysis;  
  • Applied machine learning (deep, transfer, multi-task, multi-modal, reinforcement learning);
  • Agent-based modelling. 
• Experience in pursuing opportunities for collaborations and research grants is a plus.

What do we offer?  

• We work at the forefront of cutting-edge international research. 
• You will be part of a team of intelligent, collaborative and ambitious people with a passion for academic research.  
• You will be given extensive opportunity to further develop your professional and personal capacities.  
• Salary scale 9 to 12, based on our Collective Labour Agreement (WVOI Cao-OI) depending on qualifications and expertise. 
• Excellent secondary benefits: travel and communication allowance, holiday allowance (8%), 42 holidays on the basis of full-time, a year-end bonus (8,33%), personal development budget, fitness plan, bicycle plan and flexible work from home options and facilities.
• Incoming international employees could benefit from significant government tax relief (30% ruling) for a set number of year.

The Netherlands eScience Center is the national centre for innovative software solutions in academic research. We aim to bridge the gap in knowledge and expertise between digital technologies on the one hand and scientific and scholarly inquiry on the other. We create the tools and digital methodologies that enable researchers across all disciplines to answer research questions, harnessing our unique blend of academic expertise and software development skills. We attach great importance to software quality and sustainability, and academic recognition of research software.

We stand for a research-focused, professional, collaborative, open and resourceful approach to everything we do, and we require that our staff can identify with these eScience Center values. Our people have a diverse background in education, gender, nationality and ethnicity. Together, we form an inclusive group with a common drive.

Research software engineers work from four sections: Life Sciences, Natural Sciences & Engineering, Social Sciences & Humanities and Sustainability & Environment