We are looking for a research software engineer with experience in open source scientific software engineering to join the Huber group at EMBL in Heidelberg. You will maintain and future-proof widely used existing R/Bioconductor packages for single cell RNA sequencing and multi-omics data analysis, for spatial omics, for integrative / multi-modal machine learning on large datasets.

You will be working in a community of research software engineers and expert scientists, including Bioconductor, EMBL's large and active community for bioinformatic services and data science, de.NBI and ELIXIR.

Specific tasks include necessary and important reengineering work on the packages DESeq2, EBImage, biomaRt, Rarr, DEXSeq, IHW, rhdf5 (all on https://www.bioconductor.org/packages/). You will also contribute to training and support efforts for these packages and their use cases, through workflows, improved documentation, use of LLM-based tools, containerisation and cloudification. You will be embedded in a vibrant research team and wider research and scientific services community at EMBL that enables you to work at the cutting edge of scientific and technological developments.

The position is funded by Baden-Württemberg's State Institute for Bioinformatics Infrastructure (LIBIS) and aligns, in alignment with the aims and goals of de.NBI/ELIXIR-DE. It is thus embedded in the coordinated European-wide effort ELIXIR (European Life Science Infrastructure for Biological Information).

You have

• Demonstrable experience in authoring interoperable open-source software
• Strong knowledge of R, and ability to converse in Python, C, Javascript, Julia; familiarity with Bioconductor, tidyverse, quarto are a plus
• Enthusiasm for driving a project through all stages of the software development life cycle
• Willingness to engage with cloud computing tools, containerisation, GitHub actions
• Interest in supporting users, providing training, building community efforts

About

EMBL is Europe's life sciences laboratory - an intergovernmental organisation with more than 110 independent research groups and service teams covering the spectrum of molecular biology. It operates across six sites in Heidelberg (headquarters), Barcelona, Cambridge, Grenoble, Hamburg and Rome. Our mission is to perform basic research in molecular biology; train scientists, students and visitors at all levels; offer vital services to scientists in the public and private sectors within the member states; develop new instruments and methods; and engage actively in technology transfer.

About the team

The research group of Wolfgang Huber at EMBL develops statistical data analysis and machine learning methods for modern biotechnologies, applies them to biological and biomedical discovery, and translates them into reusable tools by engaging in open source software communities. The interdisciplinary and international team has strong collaborations with researchers in cancer and developmental biology. They use cutting edge experimental data to discover and understand biological processes and to develop new biomedical applications.

How to apply

Please go to https://www.embl.org/careers/ and look for "JR466" or "Research Software Engineer".