TDCC-LSH Bioinformatician/technical specialist (0,8 - 1,0 fte)

Are you passionate about improving digital competencies and enhancing the reuse of health and life sciences data? Do you specialize in improving the technical interoperability of tools, resources and workflows? Are you enthusiastic about the transition to Open Science and excited by the prospect of collaborating with national and international stakeholders to build a learning data-driven health and life sciences system? If so, Health-RI has the perfect opportunity for you as a bioinformatician/technical specialist in the Thematic Digital Competence Center Life Sciences & Health (TDCC-LSH) programme.

About Health-RI 
Health-RI is a non-profit organisation and realizes a health data infrastructure for research, innovation and policy development in the Netherlands. Availability of health and life science data is important to enable researchers, healthcare professionals and companies to conduct better data-driven research and healthcare innovation, thus contributing to improving the health of citizens and patients.  

We work towards enabling a learning healthcare system by promoting FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) data principles. As the national coordination hub, we foster collaboration across all stakeholders in the data driven health and life sciences ecosystem, support researchers, and participate in international initiatives to ensure global interoperability.  

 Health-RI obtained funding from the Dutch Government to realize these ambitions in the coming years, with the goal of achieving a sustainable design and financing of the health data infrastructure in the Netherlands. Through the TDCC-LSH programme, we are broadening our scope to cover all areas of life sciences research, also beyond human health. To strengthen our team, we are seeking a colleague with a background in life sciences and health who specializes in bioinformatics and data interoperability. 

 Health-RI coordinates the Thematic Digital Competence Center Life Sciences & Health (TDCC-LSH), which is an NWO-funded programme aimed at strengthening and harmonizing digital research practices across life sciences, biomedical sciences, and health sciences stakeholders in the Netherlands. The TDCC-LSH programme also actively supports the transition to Open Science.  

Your role 
We are seeking a highly motivated colleague to take a leading role in driving technical alignment and implementation of a research data workflow assembly by connecting FAIR resources to improve the interoperability of data, datasets and tools among research initiatives in the Dutch LSH research field.  

 As a TDCC-LSH team member, you will collect requirements and existing solutions, using these insights to organize workshops and coding sessions with key stakeholders in the field. Your efforts will focus on fostering engagement and co-creation, bringing together experts to drive convergence in solutions and establish concrete steps toward technical interoperability of research tools and workflows. The ultimate goal of your efforts will be to develop a comprehensive, integrated research data workflow assembly, enhancing efficiency and collaboration across the Dutch Life Sciences & Health (LSH) domain. In this role, you will also serve as a trusted bioinformatics/technical advisor and primary point of contact for stakeholders within the TDCC-LSH network, providing expert guidance on making data resources interoperable. You will work closely with researchers, research infrastructures and organizations to drive innovation and harmonization in the digital research landscape. 

Your profile 
We are looking for someone with: 

• Educational background: A degree in data science, bioinformatics, computer science, or a related field, preferably at the post-MSc or PhD level in life sciences or health-related domains.
• Knowledge of FAIR Principles: Familiarity with standards, tools, and resources aligned with FAIR data principles.
• Technical expertise: Hands-on experience (1–3 years) or strong foundational knowledge of the architecture behind building and implementing technical infrastructures to publish semantically-rich and machine-actionable (meta)data schema’s according to the FAIR principles, preferably within the health or life sciences domain.
• Technical skills: Experience with ETL pipelines, microservices architecture, Python, knowledge of containerization (Docker, Kubernetes), understanding of data standards and ontologies in the life sciences (e.g., FHIR, RDF, SNOMED CT), familiarity with bioinformatics workflows and pipelines, knowledge of API development and integration. Experience in AI-models is a plus.
• Innovative thinking: Familiarity with knowledge graphs and their integration with Large Language Models (LLMs) is a plus.
• Soft skills: Strong analytical, problem-solving, and communication skills. You thrive in both independent and team settings and have experience with community engagement or collaborating with diverse stakeholders in complex, multidisciplinary environments.
• Languages: Good proficiency of Dutch and English, both spoken and written. 
   

Your tasks 

• Design and implementation of common workflows and tool assemblies for life sciences and health data: Build, implement and refine the architecture behind technical infrastructures, ensuring consistency and interoperability across projects or initiatives. 
• Drives alignment of tools and practices across networks, supporting interoperable, responsible data use and translating international developments into local best practices (such as Data Stewardship Wizard, Castor, REDCap, ISA tools, SURF Research Cloud, cBioPortal, Galaxy, FAIRDOMHub, and data archives like EGA)
• FAIR (meta)data practices: Collaborate with stakeholders to implement FAIR-aligned semantic (meta)data frameworks, ensuring data is Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable.
• Use case implementation: Apply your technical expertise to specific use cases, supporting data-driven solutions in research, innovation and policy in life sciences and health.
• Documentation and guidelines: Collaborate with (inter)national life Sciences and health data communities to facilitate workshops that drive interoperability and demonstrate best practices. Develop comprehensive documentation and best-practices guidelines to improve interoperability within the TDCC-LSH network.  

Our offer  
We offer you a job in a young and dynamic scale-up organisation. A place where you can really contribute to social impact. Our office is located in the Beatrix Building in Utrecht, within walking distance of Utrecht Central Station.  

You can work hybrid, although we do expect you to come to the office more than half the time. You will be compensated for travel and for working from home. We offer you an employment contract for the duration of 1 year with the prospect of extension. We have a 38-hour working week, 232 holiday hours (almost 6 weeks) when working full-time, are affiliated for pension with ABP and have an 8% holiday allowance in May and a year-end bonus of 8.3%. Based on education and experience, the position is graded in scale 10-11 of the NFU CAO.  

Procedure  
Are you the TDCC-LSH Bioinformatician/technical specialist we are looking for? Then apply now and send your CV with cover letter by May 7, by e-mail to recruitment@health-ri.nl.  

 After closing, we will make an initial selection based on the responses received. The procedure consists of two job interviews, checking references, an assessment if applicable and the ability to provide a Certificate of Good Conduct (VOG). This procedure ends with an employment interview. We will retain your details for up to three months after the closing date. 

 For more information about the vacancy, please contact recruitment@health-ri.nl and for substantive questions about the work please contact Kimberley Zwiers, community manager TDCC-LSH at kimberley.zwiers@health-ri.nl. 

 Acquisition in response to this vacancy is not appreciated.