Data Engineer & Developer Digital Twin Ocean

VLIZ - Flanders Marine Institute; West-Vlaanderen; On-site; EUR 65,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

VLIZ - Flanders Marine Institute in Ostend, Belgium, seeks a Data Engineer & Developer for the Digital Twin Ocean project. You will contribute to an interoperable, cloud-based digital ocean infrastructure, onboarding datasets, services, models and applications, and building scalable ETL pipelines.

You will implement cloud-native formats and APIs, work with geospatial data and open standards, and engage with European projects and international teams to advance FAIR data practices.

Qualifications

• Degree in computer science, informatics or engineering, or demonstrated equivalent via experience.
• Experience in software development, data engineering, geospatial tech or system integration.
• Proficiency with one or more programming languages (e.g. Python).
• Experience with APIs and modern web-based or machine-to-machine integration patterns.
• Practical experience with data transformation workflows and structured geospatial datasets.
• Familiarity with collaborative software development tools (e.g. Git).
• Knowledge of STAC, OGC standards, NetCDF, GeoJSON, GeoParquet, Zarr or related tech is a plus.
• Experience with Docker, Kubernetes or other container orchestration.
• Experience with cloud environments, S3 object storage or data lake architectures is a plus.
• Knowledge of CI/CD, infrastructure automation, monitoring and operations management is a plus.
• Ability to investigate problems and translate findings into practical implementations.
• Enjoy working across software, data engineering and infrastructure domains.
• Fluent written and spoken English; ability to collaborate in international teams.

Responsibilities

• Contribute to the development and operation of the EDITO infrastructure.
• Support onboarding of datasets, data services, models and apps to EDITO with researchers.
• Implement cloud-optimised formats and access methods for marine data.
• Develop scalable ETL data pipelines.
• Create and integrate APIs for machine-readable datasets and services.
• Assist metadata management, data discovery and cataloguing.
• Work with object storage, data lakes and cloud-native access patterns for large geospatial data.
• Contribute to open standards and FAIR/open-data practices.
• Provide code, docs, technical guidelines and onboarding procedures.
• Participate in European projects and represent VLIZ in technical meetings.

Skills

Python

APIs

Git

Docker

Kubernetes

Cloud computing

Data pipelines

Geospatial data

Education

Bachelor in Computer Science or Engineering

Tools

Docker

Kubernetes

Git

NetCDF

GeoJSON

GeoParquet

Zarr

Job description

Data Engineer & Developer Digital Twin Ocean

VLIZ - Flanders Marine Institute

Ostend, Belgium

You will contribute to the development of a modern, interoperable and cloud-based digital ocean infrastructure, with a focus on onboarding datasets, services, models and applications, by developing pipelines that make those efficiently usable in cloud environments.

YOUR TASKS

• You contribute to the technical development and operation of the European Digital Twin of the Ocean (EDITO) infrastructure and related projects;
• You drive and support the onboarding process of datasets, data services, models and applications onto EDITO in collaboration with data specialists and researchers;
• You investigate and implement suitable cloud-optimised formats and access mechanisms for diverse types of marine data;
• You develop scalable and reliable ETL data pipelines;
• You develop and integrate APIs that make datasets and services machine readable;
• You contribute to metadata management, data discovery and cataloguing solutions;
• You work with object storage, data lakes and cloud-native access patterns for large scientific and geospatial datasets;
• You implement open standards and contribute to FAIR and open-data principles;
• You contribute code, documentation, technical guidelines and reusable onboarding procedures;
• You participate in European projects and technical working groups and represent VLIZ in relevant international technical meetings and workshops;
• You proactively build expertise in emerging technologies relevant to cloud-native data infrastructures, Digital Twins, geospatial data and distributed scientific computing.

For each function, VLIZ considers enthusiastic involvement, service minded, excellent professionalism and integrity as important characteristics.

YOUR PROFILE

• You hold a degree in computer science, informatics or engineering, or you can demonstrate equivalent via relevant experience;
• You have experience in software development, data engineering, geospatial technologies or system integration;
• You are comfortable working with one or more programming or scripting languages (i.e. Python);
• You have experience working with APIs and understand modern web-based and machine-tomachine integration patterns;
• You have practical experience with data transforming workflows and structured scientific or geospatial datasets;
• You have experience with modern collaborative software development tools and practices (i.e. Git);
• Experience with STAC, OGC standards, NetCDF, GeoJSON, GeoParquet, Zarr or related technologies is an asset;
• Experience with Docker, Kubernetes or other container orchestration technologies applications is an asset;
• Experience with cloud environments, S3 object storage or data lake architectures is an asset;
• Knowledge of CI/CD, infrastructure automation, monitoring and operational service management is an asset;
• You are able to independently investigate technical problems, compare viable solutions and translate your findings into practical implementations;
• You enjoy working across the boundaries of software development, data engineering, and infrastructure;
• You can document technical solutions clearly and communicate effectively with both technical and non-technical colleagues;
• You can write fluently and communicate clearly in English;
• You enjoy collaborating within multidisciplinary and international teams.