Research Infrastructure Specialist (Postdoc) for Trusted Research Environments

GESIS - Leibniz-Institute for the Social Sciences is an internationally active research institute, funded by federal and state governments and member of the Leibniz Association.

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Starting on the next possible date our Department Data Services for the Social Sciences, Team Data Acquisitions and Access located in Cologne is looking for a

Research Infrastructure Specialist (Postdoc) for Trusted Research Environments (Salary group 13 TV-L, working time 100 %, 39,5 h/week - initially for 4 years, tenure track)

The department Data Services for the Social Sciences offers sustainable infrastructures and services for data management, curation, and long-term preservation. Its mission is to foster FAIR data, open science, and reproducible research in the quantitative and computational social sciences. This includes archiving services with different curation levels for individual researchers, projects, and institutions, providing access to archived data, including access to sensitive data, the data registration agency da|ra, and data management trainings.

We also operate the GESIS Secure Data Center, our Trusted Research Environment (TRE) for providing controlled access to sensitive research data in the social sciences. Building on this infrastructure, the project RIDLOP (Research Infrastructure for Data from Large Online Platforms) develops the next generation of the Secure Data Center toward a scalable, compliant, and remotely accessible research environment for different types of sensitive social science data collected from online platforms and other types of digital behavioral data.

Your task will be:

Translation of TRE governance, research, and data-access requirements into technical specifications for external IT developers

Coordination between researchers, IT specialists, data curators, legal/data protection experts, governance bodies, external technology providers, and user communities

Design, testing, and documentation of secure TRE workflows for data ingestion, access management, analysis, output review, archiving, and reproducible research

Development and adaptation of lightweight tools, scripts, templates, and prototypes for TRE operations, user support, and reproducible research workflows

Support for the operational implementation of legal requirements (e.g. GDPR, Digital Services Act, AI Act, copyright), research-ethics, and Five Safes requirements in technical and organizational TRE processes

Your profile:

A completed master's degree and a completed (or soon-to-be-completed) doctoral degree in a related field such as for example computational social science, social sciences, information systems, data science, computer science, including peer-reviewed publications in relevant academic outlets

Strong practical experience with R, Python, reproducible research workflows, and data-intensive empirical research

Good understanding of secure research environments (for example, access-control models, remote desktop solutions, audit logging, APIs, databases, or workflow automation) and willingness to engage with adjacent areas of IT architecture

Experience with sensitive data (for example social science data, digital behavioral data, social media data, platform data, linked data, or comparable restricted research data)

Strong ability to communicate complex technical, legal, and methodological requirements to both specialist and non-specialist audiences in very good written and verbal English (German language skills are not expected at first but will be required by the start of the tenure process)

Our Benefits:

A fast growing, international and interdisciplinary working environment with strong ties to regional and international labs and experts in related fields

Interdisciplinary team and diverse opportunities for networking and further qualification

Flexible working hours and regulations for mobile working

Very good conditions for reconciling work and family life, e.g. subsidies for childcare for children who have not yet attained the age of compulsory schooling

Holistic company health management and discounted participation in the university's sports programme

Generous support for your pension provision as a direct insurance policy

Promotion of your skills through further training measures

Contact

For further information concerning the tasks please contact Dr. Olivier Y. Rouquette via phone or via E-Mail ( ). If you have questions about the application process, please contact Christine Laßmann via E-Mail ( ).

Interested?

Please apply via our Online-application portal. Applications will be accepted until the position is filled.

Our reference number is: DSS-26

About us

Discover what it means to be part of GESIS - watch our recruiting movie here!

GESIS is one of the world's leading social science infrastructure facilities, supporting researchers at all levels of their research projects with expertise and infrastructure services. We help ensure that socially relevant questions can be answered on the basis of reliable data, the latest scientific methods and research information. We help with study planning and data collection, provide high-quality research data, support data preparation and analysis, and finally, data archiving.

GESIS supports you in furthering your qualifications. We offer our employees a wide range of career opportunities in an appealing work environment with a high degree of personal responsibility and creative freedom. With us, you will work in an international environment in the heart of Mannheim and Cologne and benefit from a flexible work environment as well as internal and external networks.

GESIS ensures compliance with the guidelines for the severely disabled and promotes professional equality between women and men.

Full-time positions can also be filled part-time. xbzrezb

As a family-friendly employer, we have been certified by the «berufundfamilie» (work and family) audit since 2010.

Further information on working at GESIS can be found here.