Junior Research Software Engineer for Sustainability Science - Full Stack

Job Description

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Junior Research Software Engineer for Sustainability Science - Full Stack

Job requisition Id: 16684

Job type: Academic staff

Contract hours min: 38

Contract hours max: 38

Location: Leiden

Applying is possible until: 31 december 2026

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Teaser Text

The Institute of Environmental Science CML at Leiden University is looking for a motivated Junior Research Software Engineer (RSE) with experience in full-stack development, data visualization, and modern software engineering practices to turn scientific insights into reliable and user-friendly software. In this role, you will help design, build, and maintain the next generation of industrial ecology research tools that support sustainability, circular economy analysis and decision making, as well as reproducible science across the institute. You will work closely with researchers to help create dashboards, APIs, and visual analytics that communicate scientific results to academic users, policymakers, and the wider public. Your contributions will directly empower transparent, open, and reproducible research within for sustainability decision making.

What you will do

In your role, you will work closely with a Senior Research Software Engineers, Principal Investigators and PhDs to strengthen the scientific software engineering basis of our institute. Specifically, you will be responsible for tasks such as:

Building and maintaining scientific software, web applications and dashboards for research dissemination and policy communication (e.g., WISE database , Activity Browser, Panorama web-app , ReLab )

Supporting the development and maintenance of data pipelines and reproducible workflows for environmental databases and analytics.

Collaborating with researchers to scope features, translate research needs into user-friendly tools, and ensure usability and accessibility.

Supporting deployment in cloud and/or open environments (e.g., containerized services), working with the senior RSE on infrastructure alignment.

Promoting good data and software management for FAIR and open science practices, version control (Git/GitHub), testing (pytest), packaging, documentation, etc.

Where you will work

Leiden University is situated between Amsterdam (36 km) and The Hague (15 km) and was founded in 1575, making it the oldest university in the Netherlands. It houses around 35,000 students originating from 112 nationalities, facilitated by approximately 8,000 staff.

The Institute of Environmental Science (CML) at Leiden University offers a vibrant and supportive community of scientists committed to the challenges of sustainability. CML distinguishes itself for its attention to professional development in coordination with the interests of its scientists. As such, there are plenty of opportunities to learn new skills, expand your knowledge, collaborate across disciplines, and experiment in a friendly environment fully embodying academic freedom across all career levels.

The core focus of CML is to perform research and education in the interdisciplinary field of Environmental Sciences. CML focuses on the sustainable use of natural resources and preservation of natural capital and biodiversity. CML has a culture of mutual support and collaboration between researchers. CML has two Departments: Industrial Ecology (CML-IE) and Environmental Biology (CML-EB). Presently, about 150 fte (includin