Job Description 

This is a new and structural position offered within the Department of Communication and Cognition at Tilburg University. It is funded by the Sectorplan Social Sciences and Humanities and partly associated with a recent NWO-KIC grant. The successful candidate will divide their time primarily between these two domains.

In the Department of Communication and Cognition, we increasingly rely on computational methods, for example, to collect and analyze data, but also to develop new digital applications which can be used for research purposes.  The research software engineer will offer support to researchers, PhD candidates and (research master) students by developing, maintaining, and/or customizing new and existing tools for research purposes. Since this is a new function, we anticipate that the successful candidate will help set-up a digital support structure for the department, maintaining an overview of available tools, and offering small-scale programming support for individual researchers. 

In the NWO-KIC project, we will develop a digital self-management platform that aims to help people with, for example, a history of depression to better monitor their own well-being, in order to prevent relapse. The platform to be developed will rest upon an existing experience sampling method (an app which asks participants repeatedly to briefly report on, for example, their thoughts, activities, and emotions on various moments during the day) and we will explore to what extent other sources of information can be integrated in this platform as well. The research software engineer will spend half of their time supporting the development and implementation of this platform.

In short, the main tasks of the successful candidate will be offering computational support to researchers with their research, helping to manage the computational research infrastructure of the department, offering support in the education of technical skills, such as programming or (automated) data collection and annotation, and collaborating with researchers within the NWO-KIC project for the technical development of a self-management platform for people with severe mental illness.

Who we are

Tilburg School of Humanities and Digital Sciences is seeking an enthusiastic colleague for the position Research software engineer in the Department of Communication and Cognition.

Research and education at the Tilburg School of Humanities and Digital Sciences (TSHD) has a unique focus on humans in the context of the globalizing digital society, on the development of artificial intelligence and interactive technologies, on their impact on communication, culture and society, and on moral and existential challenges that arise. The School of Humanities and Digital Sciences consists of four departments: Communication and Cognition, Cognitive Science and Artificial Intelligence, Culture Studies and Philosophy; several research institutes and a faculty office. Also the University College Tilburg is part of the School. The School has approximately 3100 students and around 270 employees.

The Department of Communication and Cognition (DCC) is responsible for the Tilburg center for Cognition and Communication (TiCC), where research is conducted into cognitive and social aspects of human communication through a multidisciplinary approach combining careful experimentation with survey methods, corpus analyses and computational modeling. The research group consists of about 80 researchers covering a broad range of topics relevant for cognition and communication, and this includes approximately 20 PhD students. Core research domains include communication and technology, cross-cultural communication, computational linguistics, information visualisation, marketing and business communication, language production, and non-verbal communication, with a strong emphasis on digital methods.

The NWO-KIC project “Technology-assisted Self-Management: Preventing Relapse and Crisis by the Severe Mentally Ill Themselves” is a six year program that started September 2023, and is conducted under the umbrella of the university-wide Academic Collaborative Center on Digital health and Mental Wellbeing. The project is conducted by a team of researchers which also includes people from The Tilburg School of Social and Behavioral Sciences (TSB), the universities of Delft, Maastricht and Leuven (B) as well as the societal partners GGzE, GGz Breburg and the Tilburg Municipality. 

• Either a degree in a relevant technical discipline (for example, Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, Computational Linguistics) or in Communication and Information Science, Cognitive Science (or comparable), combined with ample programming experience.
• An interest in (computational) research in communication and cognition (for example in generative AI tools, chatbots, social robots, virtual reality, game or app design). An interest in tools and techniques to analyze language data is considered a plus.
• Good programming skills in a variety of tools and languages (including Python, R, JavaScript) and the ability to quickly and independently learn the basics of new libraries and languages.
• Experience with version control systems and collaborative coding tools. 
• An awareness of applicable regulations (e.g., data protection laws) relevant for the tasks described above.
• Good communicative and collaborative skills in English and (ideally) in Dutch.

We realize this is a lot to ask. Hence also people who are enthusiastic about the position, and are willing to acquire certain missing skills along the way, are invited to apply.

Fixed-term contract: 1 year with the option to contract for indefinite period.

This is a position for 0,8 fte (32 hours per week) of full working hours. Working hours can be flexible for caring responsibilities. The salary amounts to a minimum of € 3.266 and a maximum of €5.090 gross per month for full time employment contract, based on UFO profile ICT Developer 3 and salary scale 10 of the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities. This is a vacancy for a structural position in accordance with Article 2.3, paragraph 1 of the CLA for Dutch Universities. You will be given a temporary employment contract for the duration of 12 months. After this period, if your suitability has been proven and you continue in the same position, you will receive an employment contract for an indefinite period.  

You are entitled to a vacation allowance of 8% and a year-end bonus of 8.3% of your gross annual income. If you work 40 hours per week, you will receive 41 paid days of leave per year. 
Researchers from outside the Netherlands may qualify for a tax-free allowance of 30% of their taxable salary if they meet the relevant conditions. The university applies for this allowance on their behalf. All employees of the university are covered by the so-called General Pension Fund for Public Employers (Stichting Pensioenfonds ABP).  

We make clear agreements about career paths and offer all kinds of facilities and arrangement to maintain an optimal balance between work and private life. You can also follow numerous training courses, for example, in the areas of leadership skills, personal effectiveness, and career development. 

Tilburg University values an open and inclusive culture. We embrace diversity and encourage the mutual integration of groups of employees and students. We focus on creating equal opportunities for all our employees and students so that everyone feels at home in our university community. 

Tilburg University has a lively campus in beautiful green surroundings that is easily accessible by public transport. We are committed to a sustainable society and challenge you to make an active contribution.

Please visit working at Tilburg University for more information on our terms of employment. 

Tilburg University

Tilburg University's motto is Understanding Society. Based on this vision, our more than 2,800 employees conduct research, inspire more than 20,000 students of 110 nationalities, and bring people from different disciplines and organizations together to learn from each other. In this way, we want to contribute to solving complex social issues. In doing so, we work from the fields of economics, business and entrepreneurship, social and behavioral sciences, law and public administration, humanities and digital sciences, and theology. We seek the connection between the various disciplines to find solutions to the major issues we face as a society. Our students are educated to become responsible and entrepreneurial thinkers, driven by solidarity, a sense of responsibility, and empathy, who are able to influence and give direction to a rapidly changing society in an innovative way. Tilburg University has a culture of collaboration and co-creation, at local, regional, national, and international level.