Research IT Specialist (m/f/d)

Research IT Specialist (m/f/d)

at the earliest possible date, full-time or part-time

KENNZIFFER: 293 | 8710

Research at the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry depends to an increasing degree on digital infrastructure, data services and AI. To address this, we are creating a new position and are looking, at the earliest possible date, for a Research IT Specialist.
The position is anchored between the Institute’s leadership and the head of IT, and combines hands-on technical work with conceptual work and strategic input to relevant governance bodies.
In your role, you will work closely with the IT Department, Science Coordination and Information Management at the Institute. Besides the needs and challenges of the Institute, a substantive focus of the position will be shaped by your own background and your ideas for developing it.
Depending on your profile and interests, a scientific contribution of your own, e.g., in data science or AI in psychiatry, is explicitly possible and welcome.
Do you want to shape the future of Research IT in a highly dynamic environment? Then we’re looking forward to your application!

Your Responsibilities

Towards Research:

• Single point of contact for the research faculty and group leaders on specialist IT, data and computing needs
• Assessment of research IT needs and their translation into actionable demands
• Onboarding and key user management: making sure that our researchers can work productively from day one
• Building and maintaining an adaptive technical environment for research data management, incl. research storage, quota management, repositories, offboarding and archiving
• Liaison, onboarding and user management for external high-performance computing and research infrastructures
• Identifying and piloting AI use cases in research, curating the AI tool and LLM landscape available to the institute, and exploring agentic approaches to scientific work
• Skills and empowerment across the institute: hands-on support, training formats, and liaison with internal working groups (such as the Open Science working group and the Code Club)

Towards IT:

• Translation of research requirements into operational and technical requirements for the IT department and for external service providers, and co-implementation of the resulting solutions
• Hands-on engineering work in close cooperation with the IT department - you are expected to be part of how sustainable solutions are built
• Coordination with external providers and partners in the MPG ecosystem (e.g. GWDG, MPCDF, MaxIT, Digital Office), including orchestration and deployment of services
• Information security: liaison with the Information Security Officer and co-developing solutions for regulatory requirements (such as NIS2) and risk in a basic research environment
• Development and implementation of adaptive monitoring and maintenance schemes

Towards the Institute’s Leadership:

• Direct support and consulting: preparing briefings, decisions and risk assessments on research IT and AI
• Co-development of the Institute’s research IT and AI agenda, including the operationalization of frameworks for AI in research and research data management
• Representation of research IT demands in the Institute’s governing and coordinating bodies, and in dialogue with strategy, science management, risk and compliance functions
• Early identification of regulatory and technological developments relevant to the research side, and their translation into concrete solutions

Your Profile Requirements

• University degree (M.Sc., PhD or equivalent), e.g. in neuroscience, psychiatry, psychology, medicine, biology, bioinformatics, computer science or a related field
• A genuine research background: you have done research yourself and know from the inside how a scientific project is planned and executed
• Substantial hands-on technical competence: Linux, scripting (e.g. Python, R), version control, data pipelines, and experience with HPC or cloud environments
• The ability to translate between researchers and IT professionals
• Willingness to take on a science management role and shape the science management infrastructure of the Institute
• Very good English and German language skills

Desirable

• Experience with research data management: repositories, metadata standards, storage architectures, archiving
• Practical experience with AI in research contexts: LLMs, agentic workflows, adaptive AI governance
• Familiarity with information security frameworks and related regulation (NIS2 / BSIG, ISO 27001, IEC 62443) or a demonstrable willingness to get into them
• Experience in a scientific computing, research software engineering or research infrastructure role

Personal Skills

• A highly agile and communicative mindset
• Working with a high degree of independence
• Translating complexity into solutions
• A real appetite for uncharted territory: this is a new role in a dynamic field, and you will be shaping it together with us

Your Application

We look forward to receiving your application and the following documents:

• Cover letter stating your available start date and salary expectations
• Resume
• Relevant work-related certificates and references

What we offer

• Diverse, independent, and responsible tasks at one of the leading research institutes in the field of psychiatry
• We support your personal development through a wide range of individualized professional development opportunities and offer you a comprehensive range of health promotion programs
• A positive work atmosphere in a motivated, performance-oriented, and multidisciplinary environment
• Our salary policy is based on the TVöD-Bund (classification depends on qualifications and professional experience, up to pay grade E14) with all public sector benefits, such as an attractive retirement plan (VBL)
• Annual bonus
• A monthly recruitment allowance may be paid
• Temporary housing may be provided if needed, subject to availability
• Assistance with finding childcare and care for family members
• We are very easily accessible by public transportation (tram, subway, and bus) in the heart of Munich’s Schwabing district (Scheidplatz)
• To support your sustainable mobility, we provide a subsidy toward the Deutschland JobTicket

The position is offered on a two-year fixed-term contract.

The Max Planck Society is committed to gender equality and diversity. We welcome applications from people of all backgrounds, and to ensure equality, applications from qualified women are especially welcome. In addition, we strive to employ more people with disabilities. The institute’s leadership strongly supports the use of parental leave, particularly by fathers.

Visual in the job posting: © Katharina Högel

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Detailed information about the institute's clinic and research can be found on our homepage:

www.psych.mpg.de