Senior Data Engineer Research Data Platform

Position

Non academic staff (supporting staff)

Irène Curie Fellowship

No

Service(s)

Library and Information Services

Reference number

V81.7394

The goal of the Research Data Infrastructure Lab (RDI Lab) is to support our university's academics throughout the research life-cycle, with means and expertise required for them to design and materialize their research by using modern data platforms and tooling. As research matures, the accompanying complexity of the technology stack supporting the work also increases. The RDI Lab aims to offer the right technical abstraction for various research profiles by leveraging industry-hardened, but also experimental, solutions.

The RDI Lab covers a broad landscape where it is futile to ‘do it all’. Therefore, we are looking for people who can smartly navigate the domain and are capable to discuss the reasoning behind several approaches with our researchers to support them in their decision-making and our platform design. The RDI Lab is a young team, with a lot of room for personal development and growth. We are looking for people who are not afraid to take initiative and are willing to take on a pioneering role in the development of our services. The RDI Lab covers the entire research data lifecycle ranging from planning phase to data collection, analysis, publication and sharing of data with FAIR principles in mind. Over the past years, the team has focused on establishing the foundational components such as version control systems and CI/CD (GitLab, GitHub), infrastructure for deploying applications (Azure), lab support systems (ClusterMarket), data platforms (Databricks, Microsoft Fabric), Atlassian and other essential tooling for researchers.

We are starting to develop a Research Data Lakehouse to ingest and make available data from various sources. We also want to offer a Trusted Research Environment to process sensitive data. We are looking for a
Data Engineer with a proactive mindset who can collaborate with our multidisciplinary team and contribute to the development and acquisition of these and other systems together with our researchers, institutes, and engineers within the team.

What does the job entail?

• As Data Engineer, you will be co-creating solutions for the Research Data Lakehouse and Trusted Research Environment developments.
• You will collect, load, prepare, clean and deliver access to data to a wide range of research stakeholders.
• You will ensure that proper infrastructure is implemented to guarantee data quality and security practices are in place.
• You will become an essential part of our RDI Lab team to develop and further operationalize new tooling and services for our university.

What will you be doing?

• Working on a data lakehouse implementation based on Azure Databrick, together with our team and occasionally with third-party vendors.
• Designing, implementing, and maintaining data pipelines for data ingestion, processing, and transformation - regarding both realtime and batch data.
• Implementing required cloud infrastructure based on Terraform and using CI/CD.
• Propose and implement cloud-based strategy focused on reducing maintenance and costs.
• Work with our cloud platform team to harden security.

• Proficiency in Databricks: This includes understanding Databricks clusters, notebooks, jobs, libraries, and integrating Databricks with other services.
• Experience with Azure services: A strong understanding of Azure data services such as Azure SQL Database, Azure Data Factory, Azure Event Hub, or equivalent services with other cloud providers.
• Proficiency in Terraform: Ability to write Terraform scripts for provisioning and managing infrastructure as code (IaC) on cloud platforms.
• Strong programming skills in Python: Python is used for data manipulation, processing, and automation tasks.
• Solid understanding of infrastructure concepts: Knowledge of networking, security, virtual machines, containers, storage solutions, and other infrastructure components relevant to cloud environments.

• A challenging job in a dynamic setting, where you can develop both your technical skills and communication competences;
• A unique mix between academic and industrial environment, due to our close collaboration with research groups at the university and with our industrial partners;
• A competitive salary scheme (salary scale 10/11 with max € 5.929,- gross p/m) in accordance with the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities The salary level depends on your experience, education and knowledge. On top of this you also receive extra annual holiday allowance (8% in May), an end-of-year allowance (8.3% in November, a so-called 13th check.)
• An attractive package of fringe benefits, including an excellent technical infrastructure, excellent sports facilities, savings schemes, and 41 days of holiday based on 40 hours a week. Foreign experts may benefit from the tax ruling facility in order to get a higher net salary, the TU/e facilitates you in the application to our local tax authority.

• Do you recognize yourself in this profile and would you like to have more information about the function, please contact Mart Wetzels –  Lead RDI Lab at telephone 040-2473883 or per e-mail: m.h.wetzels[at]tue.nl 

• For other questions about conditions of employment contact internal Recruiter Rob van der Linden via [email protected] . 

Application
If you are interested in this vacancy you can apply by uploading your motivation and your curriculum vitae via the “Apply for this job” button.  

In case of equal suitability, internal candidates will have preference over external candidates.