Senior Software Engineer (Open Source, 4TU.ResearchData)

Are you pas­sion­ate about com­mu­ni­ty-dri­ven free and open source soft­ware devel­op­ment? Do you care about Open Sci­ence? Then this job is for you!

Job description

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 FAIR data and soft­ware by offer­ing cura­tion, shar­ing, long-term access and preser­va­tion (https://data.4tu.nl/). 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.

The 4TU.ResearchData repos­i­to­ry uses in-house free and open source soft­ware called Dje­huty (https://github.com/4TUResearchData/djehuty). Our vision is to co-devel­op this soft­ware with our com­mu­ni­ty of researchers and research sup­port pro­fes­sion­als, such as data stew­ards and research soft­ware engi­neers. At 4TU.ResearchData we believe that com­mu­ni­ty-dri­ven open source devel­op­ment is essen­tial for inno­va­tion and sus­tain­abil­i­ty.

We are look­ing for an expe­ri­enced Senior Soft­ware Engi­neer who enjoys work­ing in a team-ori­ent­ed envi­ron­ment and has strong skills and expe­ri­ence in design­ing and devel­op­ing large-scale sys­tems. The Senior Soft­ware Engi­neer should be up to date with cur­rent tech­nolo­gies and able to imple­ment stan­dards, solu­tions and process­es to ensure our repos­i­to­ry and relat­ed sys­tems remain main­tain­able and resilient as they grow. With lead­er­ship abil­i­ties and a col­lab­o­ra­tive approach, the Senior Soft­ware Engi­neer should be able to men­tor col­leagues and work effec­tive­ly in an open source envi­ron­ment, while also being moti­vat­ed to engage and guide the con­trib­u­tors of the broad­er com­mu­ni­ty.

As Senior Soft­ware Engi­neer you will be work­ing along­side oth­er engi­neers and be respon­si­ble for man­ag­ing and imple­ment­ing a shared tech­ni­cal direc­tion for open sci­ence (OS) infra­struc­ture that sup­ports researchers to effec­tive­ly share their research data and soft­ware. You will main­tain and extend the 4TU.ResearchData repos­i­to­ry to best sup­port the emerg­ing needs of the research com­mu­ni­ty and col­lab­o­rate with the 4TU com­mu­ni­ty and oth­er col­leagues nation­al­ly and inter­na­tion­al­ly on OS infra­struc­ture projects. You will also work with oth­er devel­op­ers across TU Delft Library to help nur­ture a shared com­mu­ni­ty devel­op­ing com­mon process­es for code review, doc­u­men­ta­tion and oth­er best prac­tices for soft­ware devel­op­ment.

Your tasks and responsibilities:

• Main­tain­ing and improv­ing the Dje­huty code­base and all tech­ni­cal aspects of 4TU.ResearchData more broad­ly, ensur­ing that appli­ca­tions and servers are up to date and secure;
• Research­ing and design­ing soft­ware solu­tions with­in the cur­rent archi­tec­ture, and extend­ing the archi­tec­ture where/if need­ed;
• Ensur­ing that devel­op­ment process­es and deci­sions are well doc­u­ment­ed, includ­ing new releas­es, fea­tures and imple­men­ta­tion choic­es, and made vis­i­ble and clear for the open source com­mu­ni­ty;
• Lead­ing the devel­op­ment work need­ed for inte­grat­ing 4TU.ResearchData with oth­er OS infra­struc­tures using open stan­dards and pro­to­cols and help­ing to cre­ate a fed­er­at­ed ecosys­tem for FAIR data and soft­ware;
• Col­lab­o­rat­ing in nation­al and EU projects to advance sus­tain­able and inte­grat­ed OS infra­struc­ture;
• Review­ing patch­es and com­mu­ni­cat­ing with inter­nal and exter­nal con­trib­u­tors to the repos­i­to­ry;
• Men­tor­ing and sup­port­ing col­leagues with­in and out­side the team, includ­ing active­ly con­tribut­ing to a shared com­mu­ni­ty of devel­op­ers at TU Delft Library;
• Coor­di­nat­ing and super­vis­ing contract/student work­ers;
• Par­tic­i­pat­ing and con­tribut­ing to rel­e­vant con­fer­ences and net­works to ensure con­stant inno­va­tion with­in 4TU.ResearchData and to stay up to date with lead­ing devel­op­ments in the field.

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

Requirements

We are look­ing for enthu­si­as­tic can­di­dates who have:

• Strong full-stack web devel­op­ment pro­fi­cien­cy across the entire life­cy­cle: spec­i­fy­ing, design­ing, doc­u­ment­ing, devel­op­ing, test­ing, deploy­ing, and main­tain­ing large-scale soft­ware appli­ca­tions;
• Strong skills and expe­ri­ence devel­op­ing, main­tain­ing and guid­ing the imple­men­ta­tion and scal­a­bil­i­ty of soft­ware sys­tems using Python;
• Demon­strat­ed expe­ri­ence man­ag­ing Lin­ux-based serv­er envi­ron­ments, includ­ing deploy­ing, updat­ing, mon­i­tor­ing, trou­bleshoot­ing, repair­ing and secur­ing large-scale appli­ca­tions and sys­tems;
• Strong prob­lem-solv­ing skills and abil­i­ty to pro­vide tech­ni­cal direc­tion;
• Demon­strat­ed expe­ri­ence work­ing in teams of soft­ware engi­neers and lead­ing col­lab­o­ra­tive projects with­in and across insti­tu­tions;
• Expe­ri­ence lead­ing or work­ing with com­mu­ni­ty-dri­ven open source projects;
• Expe­ri­ence with GNU/Linux, Python, HTML/CSS, Javascript, Git;
• Expe­ri­ence work­ing with var­i­ous data and meta­da­ta for­mats, prefer­ably includ­ing knowl­edge and expe­ri­ence of RDF, SPARQL and graph data­bas­es;
• Aware­ness of the impor­tance of free and open source soft­ware; 
• Aware­ness of the FAIR prin­ci­ples for data and soft­ware;
• Excel­lent com­mu­ni­ca­tion, team-work­ing and men­tor­ing skills;
• Good com­mand of Eng­lish and will­ing­ness to learn Dutch if not yet pro­fi­cient.

TU Delft (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 as one of our core val­ues and we active­ly engage to be a uni­ver­si­ty where you feel at home and can flour­ish. We val­ue dif­fer­ent per­spec­tives and qual­i­ties. We believe this makes our work more inno­v­a­tive, the TU Delft com­mu­ni­ty more vibrant and the world more just. Togeth­er, we imag­ine, invent and cre­ate solu­tions using tech­nol­o­gy to have a pos­i­tive impact on a glob­al scale. That is why we invite you to apply. Your appli­ca­tion will receive fair con­sid­er­a­tion.

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.  

Conditions of employment 

• Dura­tion of con­tract is 1 year. Tem­po­rary with prospect of per­ma­nent.
• A job of 32–40 hours per week. 
• A salary based on Scale 12 of the CAO for Dutch Uni­ver­si­ties with a salary between €5705 — €7297 gross per month based on a full­time con­tract (38 hours), plus 8% hol­i­day allowance and an end-of-year bonus of 8.3%.  
• 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. 

Additional information

For more infor­ma­tion about this vacan­cy, please con­tact Daniel Bangert, Direc­tor 4TU.ResearchData at D.F.Bangert@tudelft.nl
and Madeleine de Smaele M.M.E.deSmaele@tudelft.nl

Appli­ca­tion pro­ce­dure
Are you inter­est­ed in this vacan­cy? Please apply no lat­er than 10 Novem­ber 2025 via the appli­ca­tion but­ton below and upload the fol­low­ing doc­u­ments, in Eng­lish:

• CV (max 2 pages)
• Moti­va­tion­al let­ter (max 2 pages)

You can address your appli­ca­tion to Daniel Bangert.


Please note:

• You can apply online. We will not process appli­ca­tions sent by email and/or post. 
• A pre-employ­ment screen­ing can be part of the selec­tion pro­ce­dure.
• A knowl­edge secu­ri­ty check will be part of the selec­tion pro­ce­dure (for details page 45: nation­al knowl­edge secu­ri­ty guide­lines)
• Apply­ing for an exemp­tion for spe­cif­ic research and edu­ca­tion­al areas is an oblig­a­tory part of the selec­tion pro­ce­dure for this vacan­cy. This exemp­tion must be obtained from the Min­istry of Edu­ca­tion, Cul­ture and Sci­ence (OCW) before an employ­ment con­tract is agreed upon. Click here for more infor­ma­tion.
• Please do not con­tact us for unso­licit­ed ser­vices.