Job description
Build the (data)ecosystem that will shape the future of microbiome innovation at the Holomicrobiome Innovation.
Holomicrobiome Innovation Institute (HMBI) | 0,8-1,0 FTE | Amersfoort
What if your work could help accelerate solutions for healthier people, more sustainable food systems, and a more resilient planet?
At the Holomicrobiome Innovation Institute (HMBI), we're building a national ecosystem around one of the most promising scientific and societal developments of our time: microbiomes. Microbiomes play a crucial role in the health of humans, animals, plants, soils, and water systems. Their potential to address challenges in health, agriculture, food production, and sustainability is enormous. But unlocking that potential requires more than scientific excellence alone. It requires collaboration.
That's why HMBI brings together researchers, entrepreneurs, companies, policymakers, and societal organizations from across the Netherlands. Together, we are creating the connections, knowledge, and innovations needed to translate scientific breakthroughs into real-world impact.
The role
As a full-stack developer in the Holomicrobiome technical team, you will work on the design and implementation of the HMBI technical infrastructure, the digital backbone of the institute. Your main activities include:
- Building a prototype application framework that includes a web-based data portal and supporting data ingress, storage, and processing infrastructure.
- Partnering with our data scientists to test and implement ML/AI tooling that supports and enhances our data ingress/curation pipelines and data portal.
- Developing, testing, and implementing our core data model across all components of our infrastructure, together with our data steward team.
You will work as part of a small engineering team together with the institute's architect and data stewards. You will not only be writing software from finished specifications but will be challenging design choices, proposing alternatives, and actively helping to shape the software solution you will build. There is room to build and test prototypes before anything is fixed, so that the choices for a robust architecture are made on evidence rather than on paper.
This role places you at the forefront of microbiome research and data space development, blending technological and societal innovation through secure, ethical, and responsible data reuse. The work is inherently multi-disciplinary, and you will regularly be communicating with a diverse range of academic and industrial researchers and other public partners.
Key responsibilities
- Design and implement the core data space infrastructure, the data portal, ingress and curation pipelines, and implementation of the HMBI data model, together with the architect.
- Translate architectural choices into working software solutions and bring what you learn back into the architecture.
- Develop workflows for integrating external data sources.
- Run what you build on Dutch national research infrastructure and deploy using continuous integration, development, and testing.
- Work with data scientists and researchers on implementing LLM-based solutions for data curation and workflow support and optimization.
- Work with the data stewards on the data model, its standards, and implementation across the entire infrastructure.
Expected deliverables
- A working data portal, from proof of concept to working prototype.
- A data ingress and curation pipeline that reads from public repositories and partner (meta)datasets.
- A software implementation of the HMBI code data model, versioned and documented, that partners can validate against.
- A deployed, tested, and documented codebase that incorporates sustainable and reproducible software best practices.
Who you are
You feel at home in multidisciplinary teams and enjoy working at the interface of technology, science, and software development. You are proactive, curious, and motivated to translate emerging technologies into practical solutions with societal impact. You are as comfortable in a design discussion as you are reading through a codebase. You consider trade-offs, boundaries between components, data flows, and standards and actively engage in discussion and analysis of your design and implementation choices.
You have
- An MSc in computer science or a closely related field, or a bachelor's degree with equivalent experience (e.g., also software engineers from HBO are encouraged to reply).
- Fluency and demonstrable software development experience in Python and at least one systems-level language, e.g., TypeScript, Go, or C++.
- A strong background in software engineering and a proven track record in software development, version control, CI/CD workflows, and development frameworks such as React and FastAPI.
- The ability to think and communicate at the level of architecture: you can read and write a design, weigh alternatives with an architect, and explain the reasoning to non-technical colleagues.
- Experience with containerization and deploying and operating web applications on Linux, preferably on cloud or research infrastructure.
- Knowledge or keen interest in implementing ML/AI tools to support our data processing workflows, running local LLM's, RAG, and schema enforcement (Pydantic) technologies is a bonus.
- Experience with HPC environments (job schedulers, national research infrastructure such as SURF) and with running data and compute workloads.
- Interest in working with data spaces (federated data sharing platforms such as IDS or Gaia-X), data portals, metadata catalogues, and implementing the FAIR data principles.
- Experience working in a research, innovation, or engineering environment with open-source software is a plus.
What we offer
- The chance to build a full-stack solution that will support the research and innovation on microbes that have the potential to resolve some of the major societal challenges (e.g., nitrogen crisis).
- A dynamic, purpose-driven environment at the interface of science, business, and policy.
- Collaboration with leading academic and research institutions, SMEs, corporate and government bodies.
- A collaborative team culture where people share ideas, knowledge, and success, and where you shape the technical direction from day one.
- Appointment of 0.8 – 1.0 FTE for initially one year with the possibility of extension.
- Depending on years of experience, gross monthly salary ranging between [contact details available in the full listing] euro, and 8% holiday allowance and 8.3% end-of-year bonus.
- Flexible working conditions, including 50% hybrid working.
Starting date: as soon as possible.
Interested?
Please send your application before 10 November 2026 and include:
- a letter of motivation,
- a CV that includes a summary of about 270 words,
- a link to a GitHub, or equivalent, repository and/or reference to projects you have been involved in that showcases your work,
- the names and contact information of 2 references.
Please use the email subject: "HMBI Job Application: Developer."
The Holomicrobiome Institute is committed to fostering an inclusive and diverse workplace and welcomes applications from candidates of all backgrounds.
