Research Software Engineer

Department: RECETOX  – Faculty of Science
Deadline: 19 Apr 2025
Start date: upon agreement
Job type: full-time
Job field: Science and research

Bursar of the Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, announces an open competition for the position

Research software engineer

Workplace: RECETOX, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University in Brno, Czech Republic
Type of Contract: temporary position with a 1-year contract (with possible extension), non-academic
Working Hours: 1,0 FTE (full-time employment of 40 hours per week) Expected Start Date: negotiable with respect to immigration timelines for non-EU candidates
Number of Open Positions: 1
Pay: CZK 45 000-55 000 CZK per month Application Deadline: 19.4.2025                                           

About the Workplace

Masaryk University  is modern, dynamic and the most attractive university in the Czech Republic with ten faculties, more than 6500 staff and 33 000 students, a wide range of research areas and a strong international position. We are the largest academic employer in the South Moravian Region.

Faculty of Science  MU, holder of the HR Excellence in Research Award  by the European Commission, is a research-oriented faculty, offering university education (Bachelor’s, Master’s, and Doctoral degree programs) closely linked to both primary and applied research and high school teaching of the following sciences: Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, and Earth sciences. We are the most productive scientific unit of Masaryk University, generating around 40 % of MU research results.

RECETOX   focuses on interdisciplinary research and education in the area of Environment & Health, studying toxic compounds and their behaviour, transport & bioaccumulation to evaluate environmental effects, assess the exposure and health risks to humans, and develop technologies and biotechnologies to break them down. http://www.recetox.muni.cz/en/career/career-at-recetox

Job Description

We seek a motivated research software engineer (RSE) with solid technological and scientific background who combines expertise in software development and methodology with deep knowledge of one or more research fields. The overarching goal is to develop software packages and Galaxy tools to process mass spectrometry data for the identification and quantification of small molecules (e.g pesticides and other environmental pollutants) in biospecimen to understand the interactions of the environment and health as part of the newly established Environmental Exposure Assessment Research Infrastructure (EIRENE ).

The EIRENE RI mission is to establish a sustainable research infrastructure enabling the advancement of exposome research in Europe by bringing together complementary capacities available in the member states, harmonizing them and upgrading to address current scientific and societal challenges in the areas of chemical exposures and population health.

We emphasize on sustainable, long-term and open developments and rely on professional standards to obtain reproducible results. As part of our international and multidisciplinary team in the Spectrometric Data Processing and Analysis  Research Infrastructure (RI), you will implement robust and well tested software (mostly R & Python) and contribute to open-source projects with respective methodologies (pull requests, code reviews, etc.). As an RSE, you will also focus on best practices, including documentation, licensing, archiving, version control and testing of research software, as well as (supporting) the development and maintenance of existing software and workflows.

The position offers time flexibility, a high level of interdisciplinarity within fields of applied informatics, bioinformatics and analytical chemistry with a vast potential for the development of your expertise. As being part of the RI, the position offers a unique opportunity for long term engagement in the academic field and potential for international collaboration with other European RIs.

Key Duties:

• To take a leading role in re-using and developing complex methodologies, applications and software of internationally recognized quality, with a view to answering complex research questions and promoting the sustainable use of eScience Technologies
• Safeguard the quality of the eScience components within projects, including design, documentation and testing
• Continuous communication with the scientists & users to understand the problem to be solved
• Informal algorithm specifications and requirements engineering with internal & external stakeholders
• Engagement in open-source projects with external partners
• Creating presentations for internal & external use (e.g workshops, conferences, …)

Skills and Qualifications

The applicant must have:

• Knowledge at the level of a master’s degree in computational disciplines (in natural sciences) and affinity with academic research
• Experience in collaborative software development and research-oriented digital methodologies
• Good English skills

The applicant should have:

• Creativity, open mind, continuous search for improvements, innovative thinking
• Ongoing self-education as part of the job
• Extensive engagement in collaborative software development tasks (code reviews, documentation writing, upstream contributions)
• Ability to travel abroad for meetings, workshops and conferences

Beneficial to have/know:

• Knowledge of additional programming languages (Java, C++, C#, Julia)
• Experience with the following frameworks/technologies: Workflow Engines (e.g. Galaxy), Containers (e.g. Docker), Package Managers (e.g. Conda, CRAN)
• Experience in mass spectrometry data processing or other domain knowledge
• Working experience as a software engineer (or comparable) in industry

We Offer

• The dynamic group surrounded by an international team of experts
• Involvement in national and international projects
• An interesting job in a dynamically expanding university area
• Flexible working hours and occasional home office to support personal needs in family and career compatibility
• Employee benefits such as 6 weeks of paid vacation per year, pension insurance contribution or nursery/children´s group allowance, a financial meal allowance, lunches in canteens of MU, Multisport card, vaccinations free of charge, discounted language courses, exclusive mobile tariff offer by Vodafone, childcare groups at Campus and Komenského náměstí
• Opportunity to work and live in a modern and dynamic city  (for more information on costs of living, you can refer to  Numbeo )
• Welcome Office  provides support with your relocation to Brno

The application shall be submitted online by 19.4.2025 via an e-application, please find the reference to the e-application in the beginning and end of the advertisement.

The candidate shall provide following:

• CV Cover letter describing candidate's research interest and experience
• Summary of research outputs and publications
• Summary of publications and research outputs
• Names and contact details of professional referees

After submitting your application successfully, you will receive an automatic confirmation email from jobs.muni.cz. In case of problems with filling in the e-application form, please contact us by e-mail: rcx-hr@recetox.muni.cz .

Selection Process

Received applications will be considered carefully in line with principles of the EU Charter and Code for Researchers . Selection criteria: (i) meeting qualification requirements described above, (ii) all required documents provided.

Shortlisted candidates will be invited for a personal or online interview.

The Faculty Recruitment Policy (OTM-R) can be seen here .

Faculty of Science, Masaryk University is an equal opportunity employer. We support diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. Visit our Career page .

We are looking forward to hearing from you!