Software & Systems Engineer

About us

EMBO is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to promoting excellence in the life sciences in Europe and beyond. We fund talented researchers at all career stages, facilitate scientific exchanges through high-quality academic publishing, conferences, and lectures, and foster a research environment where scientists can achieve their best work. 

Our diverse international team of approximately 60 staff collaborate closely with one another and with external stakeholders to further our mission. EMBO is located on the international EMBL life sciences research campus in Heidelberg, Germany. 

EMBO depends on a four-person Information Support & Resources (ISR) team that designs, builds and runs the systems behind every grant and fellowship call. Our work ships and matters. It directly impacts grant applicants, peer reviewers, organisers of scientific meetings, and our colleagues.

ISR provides essential IT support for all EMBO activities by developing and maintaining central data storage and workflow management tools, as well as delivering services to the entire organisation. Our responsibilities range from desktop support to maintaining our server infrastructure (several Linux, Windows and a few Mac machines). Examples of applications under the ISR team’s purview include the central workflow database management (FileMaker) and the online applications & community portal (Python, Django, Vue.js, PostgreSQL), along with the main websites (typically WordPress). We work directly with our colleagues to convert their requests into practical solutions, and we occasionally coordinate with external partners and third-party vendors to implement them.

Your Role

We are hiring a mid- to senior-level Software & Systems Engineer to join and help the team further develop our software tools, keeping the stack healthy: patching Linux and Windows servers, hardening security and backups, and steering work with external vendors. This is a generalist role in which you will work together with our IT Administrator, and our Software Developer, and report directly to the Head of ISR.

By developing efficient internal tools, you’ll help scientists secure their funding faster and more fairly, which can significantly impact their careers and accelerate research. 

If you enjoy varied technical work, clear measurable impact, and a collaborative environment where engineers talk directly to end-users, read on.

Your Main Responsibilities

1. Software Development

• Contribute to ongoing web projects using Python, Django, JavaScript, Vue.js, etc., in collaboration with the rest of the team.
• Write clean, testable code and automate repetitive tasks to streamline staff workflows.
• Ensure our tools are always working and operating as expected, following Quality Assurance best practices
• Support and maintain our central database developed with Claris FileMaker.

2. Systems Administration & Infrastructure

• Operate and patch Linux and Windows machines hosted in the EMBL data centre; manage SSL certificates, monitoring, and storage.
• Administer EMBO server infrastructure, maintaining related services and liaising with other EMBO departments and EMBL IT Services.

3. Coordination & Vendor Liaison

• Liaise with external providers for migrations, incident resolution and upgrades.
• Advise internal teams on evaluating off-the-shelf solutions, gathering requirements, and coordinating roll-outs.

4. In-House Consulting & Ad-Hoc Support

• Serve as a backup for basic user support when the IT Administrator is unavailable (troubleshooting, minor AV issues, etc).
• Guide staff on best practices for Teams, SharePoint, Asana, and other IT tools.
• Provide a first line of support and troubleshooting for internal and external users of our in-house developed applications and databases.

5. Security, Compliance & Continuity

• Contribute to IT-governance processes: access reviews, risk assessments, security training, and policy documentation
• Review and refine backup and failover processes, ensuring business continuity, redundancy and compliance with good IT governance, own disaster-recovery playbooks and periodic restore tests.

6. Additionally

• Cover for teammates during absence to ensure minimum service levels.
• Perform other duties as required by the EMBO Director or Head of ISR.

You Have

• Experience programming in at least one of the main programming languages currently used at EMBO (Python, PHP, JavaScript) or a comparable alternative;
• A basic understanding of relational databases (we use PostgreSQL or MySQL for web projects and run a FileMaker server);
• Experience setting up and maintaining Linux or Windows servers;
• Understanding of security best practices
• The ability to work co-operatively within a group and across EMBO to achieve goals, displaying a helpful, supportive and problem-solving attitude.;
• A service-oriented and customer-focused mindset, with a commitment to understanding your customers’ needs and delivering high-quality services;
• Strong communication skills. You should be able to explain the reasons for your choices and decisions to non-technical colleagues;
• Fluent written and spoken English.

You Might Also Have

• Familiarity with some of the established good practices in the industry (e.g. test-driven development, design patterns, object-oriented programming, DevOps, CI/CD, etc.);
• Experience maintaining and developing for PHP-based CMS tools like WordPress or Boltcms
• Familiarity with containerization technologies such as Docker and Kubernetes;
• Experience with vendor management or project coordination;
• Awareness of IT governance and compliance frameworks;
• Experience developing and maintaining FileMaker databases;
• Demonstrated ability to translate user requests to features and into shipped projects and functionalities;
• Familiarity with Microsoft 365 and Asana;
• Contributed to open source projects, StackOverflow or other relevant communities.

Why join us
 

EMBO is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to promoting excellence in the life sciences in Europe and beyond. We fund talented researchers at all career stages, facilitate scientific exchanges through high-quality academic publishing, conferences, and lectures, and foster a research environment where scientists can achieve their best work.
 

Our diverse international team of approximately 60 members hails from various countries, personal backgrounds, and professional fields, collaborating closely to further our mission. EMBO is located on the international EMBL life sciences research campus in Heidelberg, Germany.

Promote the life sciences
 

At EMBO, you can contribute significantly to the advancement of life sciences in Europe and beyond. Your work will enable talented scientists to do great research and create an environment that enables their success.

Enjoy lots of benefits:

• Financial incentives: Salary free of income tax, monthly family, child and non-resident allowances, annual salary review, pension scheme, death benefit, long-term care, accident-at-work and unemployment insurances
• Flexible working arrangements
• Private medical insurance for you and your immediate family (including all prescriptions and generous dental & optical cover)
• Generous time off: 30 days annual leave per year, in addition public holidays
• Relocation package including installation grant (if applicable)
• Campus life: Free shuttle bus (select sites), on-site library, subsidised on-site gym and cafeteria, casual dress code, extensive sports and social club activities (on campus and remotely)
• Family benefits: Kindergarten (Heidelberg), 10 days of child sick leave, generous paid maternity/parental leave and monthly family & child allowances
• Benefits for international newcomers: Visa exemption, education grant for private schooling, financial support to travel back to your home country every second year and a monthly non-resident allowance.
• For detailed information please visit our employee benefits page here

What else you need to know

• International applicants: We recruit internationally and successful candidates are offered visa exemptions. Visit our International Applicants page, to find out more.
• EMBL/ EMBO is a signatory of DORA. Find out how we apply DORA principles to our recruitment and performance assessment processes here.
• Diversity and inclusion: At EMBO, we strongly believe that inclusive and diverse teams benefit from higher levels of innovation and creative thought. We encourage applications from women, LGBTQ+ & individuals from all nationalities. 
• How to apply: To apply please submit a cover letter and a CV through our online system. Applications will close at 23:59 CET on the date shown above. We aim to provide a response within two weeks after the closing date.