Research Software Engineer – Life Sciences

Netherlands eScience Center; Amsterdam; On-site; EUR 65,000 - 85,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Travel allowance

Communication allowance

Holiday allowance 8%

42 holidays (FT)

Year-end bonus 8.33%

Personal development budget

Fitness plan

Bicycle plan

Flexible work from home

Job summary

The Netherlands eScience Center is seeking a Research Software Engineer to contribute to the Research Software Sustainability Programme. You will work on multiple projects under RSSP, focusing on software engineering, documentation, and community-building to enhance sustainability of research software.

You will join a multidisciplinary team that values open science, collaboration, and reproducibility, with a start window in early 2027.

Qualifications

• Master's degree or higher in Life Sciences, Computational Science, Computer Science or related field.
• Proven experience in developing research software, methodologies, or open-source frameworks for research purposes.
• Experience with computational research in the life sciences and bringing research software to a robust, maintainable state.
• Familiarity with scientific workflows, data processing pipelines, and related domains such as bioimaging, biomedical data science, or omics.

Responsibilities

• Refactor, modularise, and improve test coverage and packaging of research software.
• Create and maintain documentation, tutorials, and onboarding materials; contribute to training.
• Engage in community-building activities, boost adoption, extend contributor base, or help set up governance structures.

Skills

Research software development

FAIR principles

Testing & documentation

Open-source

Education

Master's degree or higher in Life Sciences / Computational Science

Job description

Research Software Engineer – Life Sciences for the Research Software Sustainability programme (2-year contract)

The Netherlands eScience Center is looking for a Research Software Engineer (RSE) to join our dynamic team and collaborate on exciting research projects within the context of the Research Software Sustainability Programme. Join us in harnessing the power of technology to drive innovative research forward.

Supported by the Open Science NL Infrastructure programme, which strengthens open science infrastructure in the Netherlands, we are offering a temporary two-year position. The fixed-term contract reflects the project-based nature of the role and its associated funding. The preferred start date is 1 March 2027 or 1 April 2027.

If you are driven to continuously improve software and contribute to scientific progress, are creative and communicative, and enjoy tackling complex challenges, this could be the perfect opportunity for you.

Who are we?

The Netherlands eScience Center is the national center 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 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.

Our Research Software Engineers are distributed into four different sections, Natural Sciences & Engineering, Social Sciences & Humanities, Life Sciences, and Environment & Sustainability, with opportunities to exchange knowledge between the different sections.

We always work at the crossroads of digital technologies and academic research with projects ranging from machine learning for climate science to GPU for high-energy physics or linked data for digital humanities.

What will you do?

This position sits within the Research Software Sustainability Programme (RSSP), which the eScience Center runs on behalf of Open Science NL to improve the sustainability of existing research software. You will be assigned to 2 or 3 projects funded under this programme's 2026 call.

The exact tasks vary by project but typically fall into a few categories: software engineering work such as refactoring, modularisation, and improving test coverage and packaging; documentation and training, including writing tutorials and onboarding materials; and community-building activities, such as boosting adoption, extending contributor base, or helping set up governance structures for the project.

A typical day may include discussing project progress with researchers and developers, developing and testing software, exploring new computational approaches, improving existing workflows, or contributing to research outputs such as publications, documentation, and open-source software. You will participate in local, national and international events, acting as ambassador of your projects and the tools you contribute to.

Who are you?

You are motivated to tackle complex research challenges using digital approaches. You enjoy working at the intersection of research and technology and take pride in enabling researchers to answer cutting-edge questions through robust and innovative software solutions. You are curious, proactive, and collaborative, and you communicate effectively with both academic researchers and technical experts.

You bring a strong sense of ownership to your work, while remaining flexible and open to learning new tools, domains, and methodologies. You value software quality, sustainability, and reproducibility, and are eager to contribute to an open and inclusive research environment.

Furthermore:

• You hold a master's degree or higher in a relevant scientific or technical field, such as Life Sciences, Bioinformatics, Computational Science, Computer Science, or a related discipline.
• You have demonstrated experience in academic research and in development of research software, methodologies, or open-source frameworks for research purposes.
• You have proven experience in developing research software, including testing, documenting, and applying FAIR principles to research software, and you have an interest in building sustainable software which is adopted by others.
• You have experience with computational research in the life sciences and with bringing existing research software to a more robust, maintainable and reusable state, for example through refactoring, modularisation, improving scalability, or strengthening software quality. Familiarity with scientific workflows, data processing and analysis pipelines, and one or more areas such as bioimaging, biomedical data science, biological modelling, or omics is beneficial.

What we can offer you:

• We work at the forefront of cutting-edge international research.
• A temporary contract for 2 years, starting date: 1 March 2027 or 1 April 2027.
• You will be part of a team of 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 10 or 11, 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.

We are committed to fostering a diverse, equal and inclusive workplace, and we strongly encourage candidates from all backgrounds and communities to apply.

This vacancy is intended for candidates who are already living and working in the Netherlands. We are not offering international relocation support or visa sponsorship for this position.

For more information about job opportunities at the eScience Center or about the hiring process, send an e-mail to [e-mail].

In the context of handling the job application procedure, the Netherlands eScience Center processes your personal data. Please find more information about this in our privacy policy.