Backend Developer

Information science » Information management

Organisation/Company University of Geneva Department Department of Philosophy Research Field Computer science » Informatics Computer science » Programming Computer science » Systems design Information science » Information management Researcher Profile Other Profession Positions Other Positions Country Switzerland Application Deadline 13 Jul 2025 - 00:00 (Europe/Paris) Type of Contract Temporary Job Status Negotiable Hours Per Week 22 Offer Starting Date 1 Sep 2025 Is the job funded through the EU Research Framework Programme? Horizon Europe - ERC Reference Number 101167470 Is the Job related to staff position within a Research Infrastructure? No

Offer Description

As part of the European research project ERC Synergy Grant 101167470 «RevLogRedux – Logic in Reverse Redux. Illegitimate Argumentative Moves in the Arabic, Byzantine, Hebrew and Latin Medieval Traditions», the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Geneva is recruiting a Backend Developer for an initial period of 2 years, renewable until end of April 2031.

The RevLogRedux project, supported by an exceptional €10 million ERC Synergy Grant over six years (May 1, 2025 – April 30, 2031), is co-led by Leone Gazziero (CNRS, France), Shahid Rahman (University of Lille), Tony Street (University of Cambridge), and Roberta Padlina (University of Geneva). Södertörn University, the University of Bari, and McGill University are also partner institutions.

The project’s goal is to map and analyze discussions on fallacious reasoning across four major medieval intellectual traditions (Arabic, Greek, Hebrew, Latin), offering a comprehensive, precise, transferable (across traditions and time periods), and portable (on the Web) reconstruction of medieval theories of argumentation. The medieval texts corpus will be encoded, annotated, and analyzed; resulting data will be processed and made openly accessible through a digital platform for scholarly editions, collaborative research, and open access publication.

The Digital Humanities Team, led by Prof. Roberta Padlina at the University of Geneva, will be responsible for designing and implementing the digital infrastructure at the heart of this interdisciplinary endeavor. The platform to be developed, named AskSten, will be open, extensible, and based on Semantic Web technologies, serving as:

• A collaborative work tool for the structured capture and management of data in a digital archive;
• A research tool for semantic identification and analysis of meaning, historical and doctrinal contexts, via a knowledge graph published as Linked Open Data;
• An open access presentation platform for scientific results (digital scholarly editions and an Encyclopedia of Fallacious Arguments);
• A space for experimenting advanced research in Machine Reasoning and Machine Learning applied to humanities data.

Within the Digital Humanities team and in close collaboration with the broader RevLogRedux consortium, the Backend Developer will be responsible for designing and maintaining the backend infrastructure of the platform. In particular, he/she will be responsible for :

• Setting up and maintaining the Web Stack, Web Framework, and servers (Web and IIIF image servers);
• Setting up a search engine (Elasticsearch or Solr);
• Designing and implementing a modular, flexible and layered system architecture;
• Implementing the digital archive (for digitized manuscripts and their descriptions, transcriptions, and translations), Digital Asset Management system, CMS (Drupal or Omeka S), Virtual Research Environment, databases (MongoDB, eXist-DB), and RDF knowledge graph (Apache Jena);
• Creating and managing ingestion workflows and backups;
• Developing data pipelines for transforming data into standard formats;
• Implementing SPARQL endpoints, RESTful APIs, interfaces, and microservices (e.g., for normalization, enrichment, text analysis);
• Contributing to the development and integration of Machine Learning and NLP modules (e.g., argument extraction, semantic analysis);
• Assisting in organizing project workshops and conferences.

Why Join the RevLogRedux Team?

• A high-profile research project funded by one of Europe’s most prestigious instruments, enabling a genuine synergy of knowledge, disciplines, and methods to achieve cutting-edge advances in research.
• An international, multidisciplinary team bringing together a broad network of experts in philology, philosophy, logic, Digital Humanities, and Semantic Web technologies.
• The opportunity to learn and contribute to the development of cutting-edge technologies by designing innovative solutions that are free, open source and closely linked to the human sciences.
• An agile, creative, and flexible working environment (adaptable schedules, 5 weeks of paid vacation per year, partial remote work from within Switzerland possible depending on the percentage of engagement).

An inspiring work setting at the heart of Geneva, a city with excellent connectivity to the rest of Europe.

Master's degree in Computer Science or equivalent qualification.
2–3 years of professional experience as a backend developer, ideally in Digital Humanities projects.
Intermediate to senior profile

Technical skills (or willingness to acquire them during employment):

• Sysadmin and server administration (Apache or Nginx);
• W3C standards, XML, JSON;
• Backend frameworks (Node.js, Django, or equivalent);
• Relational and NoSQL databases (MongoDB; eXist-DB; RDF store: Apache Jena);
• Containers and orchestration (Docker, Kubernetes);
• Version control (Git, GitHub/GitLab);
• CI/CD, unit/integration/load testing;
• Agile Development.

Social skills: curiosity and willingness to learn new technologies, interest in the humanities and Semantic Web, ability to work autonomously and collaboratively in an interdisciplinary environment, initiative, and a sense of responsibility.

Communication skills: fluent spoken and written English (B2 level); working knowledge of French (B1 level).

Languages ENGLISH Level Good

Languages FRENCH Level Basic

Research Field Computer science » Informatics Years of Research Experience 1 - 4

Additional Information

The University of Geneva offers motivating employment conditions in a stimulating work environment. By joining us, you will have the opportunity to showcase your skills and personality and actively contribute to the reputation of an institution founded in 1559.

Selection process

With a view to gender equality, the University encourages applications from the under-represented gender.

Additional comments

This is a privately-funded fixed-term contract for an initial period of 2 years, renewable in principle until 30 April 2031. The planned rate of activity for the first 3 years of the project is 60%, then 50% for the following years (flexibility possible).