The Plant

The PLANT: Playground and Laboratory for New Technologies is the new infrastructure at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASoS), opening in April 2023. The mission of the PLANT is to support FASoS staff and students in engaging with technologies and to open up new societally relevant research and teaching paths, through collaboration, exchange, and experimentation. The PLANT will add to the digital infrastructure at Maastricht University (UM) by catering to needs that are specific to the humanities and social sciences, while also fostering groundbreaking interdisciplinary research and education: group-based and technology-oriented with diverse and atypical outputs, including but not limited to podcasts, (online) digital exhibitions and collections,videos, datasets, interactive 2D/3D visualisations, databases, prototypes, and software. The PLANT will also support current and future efforts in the areas of Open Science, data management, FAIR data and data-related ethical and legal requirements.

As an RSE you will:

• Take the lead in software/data engineering, including building, testing, and maintaining research software, and processing large-scale (digital trace) data and metadata;
• Be involved in technical leadership, including the translation of research goals into software deliverables and the development of software and information architectures;
• Participate in the PLANT activities, including training, collaborating, and contributing to grant applications in relation to your expertise, and consulting (for FASoS members and external collaborations) in the context of (big) data and digital technology.

What we are looking for:

• Master’s or PhD degree in Computer Science, Data Science, Information science, Digital/Computational Humanities/Social Sciences or any other related fields;
• Experience with humanities and social sciences research and demonstrable ability to communicate within an interdisciplinary group and diverse stakeholders;
• Ability to support researchers and students working on research projects;
• Programming skills in one or more programming languages used in humanities and social sciences research (e.g., Python, R/RStudio, SQL);
• Experience with or willingness to learn systems for operating containerised applications (e.g., Kubernetes) and Dockers;
• Expertise in one or more skillsets or methodologies typical in humanities and social sciences research, e.g., text analysis, (big) data analysis and visualisation, machine learning etc.;
• A creative, independent, and communicative team player;
• Ability to manage projects (and data) and come up with realistic time plans;
• Affinity with open-source research software and a commitment to open science and FAIR data principles;
• Excellent oral and written communication skills in English.

You stand out if you have:

• Experience in a position with similar responsibilities, particularly in an environment that required work on data related processes, systems, and outputs;
• Experience in data modelling and data structures, e.g., relational databases (e.g., SQL/MySQL) and XML;
• An existing (research) portfolio relating to technology in the social sciences and humanities.
• Experience with or willingness to learn working on Unix-like operating systems (e.g., Linux), as necessary.

Fixed-term contract: 1 year, with opportunity to extend.

We offer a dynamic and challenging job in an internationally oriented organisation where people receive an advanced education and scholars conduct exciting research.

Specifically, we offer a 1,0 fte appointment for 1 year. Thereafter, in case of good performance and equal prospects for the faculty, a tenure appointment will be offered.

Remuneration will be according to standard salary levels, depending on education and relevant work experience, in salary scale 10 or 11 (between 2.960,00 and a maximum of
€ 5.439,00  gross per month, based on a fulltime appointment) according to the collective labour agreement (CAO) of Dutch Universities (UFO-Profile Ontwikkelaar ICT 3 or 2).

Each year the standard salary is supplemented with a holiday allowance of 8% and an end-of-year bonus of 8.3%. Other secondary conditions include e.g. a pension scheme and partially paid parental leave, up to 40 days off per year for full-time employment, bicycle plan and other attractive and contemporary conditions.

You have to be willing to move to (the vicinity of) Maastricht. If you do not already live in Maastricht (or its direct surroundings), you will be eligible for an allowance for moving costs. If you do not already live in Maastricht (or its direct surroundings), you might be eligible for an allowance for alternative housing.

The terms of employment of Maastricht University are set out in the Collective Labour Agreement of Dutch Universities (CAO). Furthermore, local UM provisions also apply. For more information look at the website www.maastrichtuniversity.nl > About UM > Working at UM.

Maastricht University

Maastricht University is renowned for its unique, innovative, problem-based learning system, which is characterized by a small-scale and student-oriented approach. Research at UM is characterized by a multidisciplinary and thematic approach, and is concentrated in research institutes and schools. Maastricht University has around 22,000 students and about 5,000 employees. Reflecting the university's strong international profile, a fair amount of both students and staff are from abroad. The university hosts 6 faculties: Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences, Faculty of Law, School of Business and Economics, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience.

Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences

In the teaching and research at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASoS), we highlight major developments in societies and cultures as they have unfolded during the modern and contemporary eras. We seek to gain understanding of the interrelationships of Europeanisation, globalisation, scientific and technological development, political change, and cultural innovation. We are interested in how today’s societies cope with these challenges through, amongst others, practices of remembrance, governance techniques, strategies for managing knowledge, technologies, and risks and ways of dealing with diversity and inequality. Yet, understanding our present world is impossible without insight into its past. This is why historical research serves as a key element of our scholarly and educational identity.

FASoS has ca. 270 staff members and ca. 1,730 students. More than 77% of our students are non-Dutch (65 different nationalities) and 42% of our staff comes from abroad. All programmes are offered in English. FASoS offers four 3-year Bachelor’s programmes: Arts and Culture, European Studies, Digital Society, and Global Studies. It also offers eight different 1-year MA programmes and two 2-year ReMA programmes. Research is organised around four programmes: Politics and Culture in Europe; Science, Technology and Society Studies; Arts, Media and Culture; and Globalisation, Transnationalism and Development. The Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences is housed in the historic city centre of Maastricht.

Further information on the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences is available on our website: www.maastrichtuniversity.nl/fasos.