Head of the Digital Research and Information Infrastructures Department (m/f/d)

The Herder Institute for Historical Research on East Central Europe (Institute of the Leibniz Association) is seeking to fill the following post at the earliest possible opportunity:

Head of the Digital Research and Information Infrastructures Department (m/f/d)

(pay grade: E 14 TV-H, full time, reference number: HI-DIFI-AL-2021)

This is a permanent position.

The Herder Institute for Historical Research on East Central Europe, located in Marburg, conducts research on the history and culture of Eastern Central Europe. The institute’s extensive collections form the basis for this research, which includes projects in the fields of history and collections-based cultural studies. The Digital Research and Information Infrastructures Department comprises the divisions IT System Support, Digital Research Infrastructures and Research Data Management, and works on externally funded projects.

Your duties will include:

• Managing the Digital Research and Information Infrastructures Department, including staff and budget responsibility
• Conceptual and strategic development of the Herder Institute’s digital infrastructures; coordination of the institute’s digitalisation roadmap
• Developing and extending digital research infrastructures in close collaboration with partners working in sectors of particular relevance to the Herder Institute (document and image archives, libraries, publishers, map collections, research institutions)
• Working with other departments to develop and run a research infrastructure for digital and source-critical documentation of Eastern Europe’s historical and cultural heritage
• Developing and extending infrastructures in the fields of digital humanities and visual history
• Needs analysis and user-centred development/evaluation of software architectures and information systems
• Securing third-party funding and project management
• Liaising with all departments of the Herder Institute
• Running cross-departmental working groups on topics such as research data and metadata management
• Strategic representation of the Herder Institute in the Leibniz Association’s internal collaboration structures, in the national research data infrastructure (NFDI) context, etc.

You will need a university degree (Diplom, MA or equivalent) and must be multiskilled in the areas of the humanities, information/computer science and information technology, as demonstrated either by suitable qualifications or relevant work experience.

Relevant experience in the following areas is required:

• Proven management experience
• Planning, developing and running digital services (ideally in the area of humanities research infrastructures)
• Securing third-party funding and managing IT/DH projects
• Networking in the area of humanities research infrastructures
• Interdisciplinary communication skills
• Understanding of good scholarly practice
• Familiarity with the world of academia and academic publishing
• Very good German and English, both written and spoken

You will also need in-depth knowledge of at least one of the following areas:

• Software development (ideally in humanities contexts, e.g. Semantic Web technologies)
• Research data management (ideally in historical studies and/or art history)
• Collection management in libraries, archives, collections and/or museums: metadata standards (e.g. LIDO, MARC21, EAD) and use/development of universal vocabularies (e.g. Integrated Authority File (GND)) and thesauruses (e.g. Getty AAT), cataloguing and documentation software, digitalisation workflow

We offer a friendly and motivated working environment and are looking for a candidate who is able to work effectively in a team, possesses strong communication and leadership skills, is assertive and able to work under pressure, and would like to make a constructive contribution to digital transformation in academia in collaboration with all departments of the Herder Institute and external partners.

Further details about this post are available from Prof. Peter Haslinger (peter.haslinger(at)herder-institut.de ).

The Herder Institute is committed to gender equality in the workplace and so we actively encourage qualified women to apply. Special consideration will be given to applicants with severe disabilities if they are equally qualified. The Herder Institute prides itself on being a family-friendly institution and applicants with children are welcomed. We offer flexible working hours and locations, and have a parent and child room available if needed at short notice.

Please email your application, including all the usual documents and quoting the reference number given above, to the Herder Institute’s administration team (bewerbung(at)herder-institut.de ) by 30 November 2021. The application should be submitted as a single PDF file. In the interest of preventing discrimination, please do not include photographs with your application.

Interviews are expected to be held in the week commencing 17 January 2022.

Further information can be found on our website https://www.herder-institut.de .