Research Data Engineer
Role details
Job location
Tech stack
Job description
CERES is a Central Research Unit of the Ruhr-Universität Bochum. It currently brings together over 50 researchers, making it one of the largest centers for the comparative study of religion in Europe. The position will be filled within the CRC 1475 "Metaphors of Religion" combining digital research methods with philology and religious studies to study the role of metaphors in religious communication. Based on a linguistically and historically wide-ranging corpus (including Avestan, Sanskrit, Hebrew, Arabic, Classical Chinese, Tibetan, and several European languages; from the second millennium BCE to the present), the CRC comparatively analyzes metaphors across traditions such as Christianity, Islam, Zoroastrianism, Jainism, Buddhism, Confucianism, and Daoism. Its research is strongly collaborative, grounded in a shared digital infrastructure and a common methodological and theoretical framework. Further details can be found at https://sfb1475.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/Subject to a pending funding commitment from the German Research Foundation (DFG) expected in mid-May 2026, the CRC 1475 is seeking to fill a position as a research data engineer in subproject Information Infrastructure (INF) under the direction of Prof. Dr. Volkhard Krech, Prof. Dr. Christoph Sander, and Prof. Dr. Frederik Elwert.
The Ruhr-Universität Bochum is one of Germany's leading research universities, addressing the whole range of academic disciplines. A highly dynamic setting enables researchers and students to work across the traditional boundaries of academic subjects and faculties. To create knowledge networks within and beyond the university is Ruhr-Universität Bochum's declared aim. Aufgaben
- Acquisition and conversion of textual corpora from diverse sources into a shared TEI schema
- Refinement of the shared TEI schema and documentation as a TEI customization (ODD)
- Supporting full-text digitization via OCR/HTR pipelines
- Management of image collections
- Modeling metadata for text and image collections (TEI and IIIF)
- Publication support for digital scholarly editions Profil, The position is salaried and based on the collective agreement of the Länder (TV-L).If the personal and collective agreement requirements are met, the employee will receive pay grade E13 TV-L.
Requirements
MA degree in Digital Humanities, or MA degree in either a humanities discipline or a computer science related discipline with documented experience in digital humanities (PhD desirable)
- Knowledge of XML encoding (esp. TEI XML)
- Solid programming skills in at least one programming language relevant to the digital humanities (e.g., Python)
- Good communication skills and abilities to explain abstract technicalities for non-DH domain experts
- Excellent language skills in English; German skills desirable
In addition, the following qualifications are desirable:
- Experience with XML databases and frameworks (eXist-db, TEI Publisher)
- Experience with bibliographic metadata schemes and authority data vocabularies
- Experience with non-Latin script in Unicode (e.g., Arabic, Chinese)
- Experience with OCR/HTR pipelines
- Experience with IIIF image resources
The campus languages are German and English. Competence in at least one of the two languages and the willingness to learn the other are a prerequisite. Wir bieten
Benefits & conditions
An interdisciplinary research environment including colleagues from computational linguistics, digital humanities, religious studies, and various philologies
- The opportunity to pursue a Ph.D. in a structured graduate program with strong support
- Flexible and family-friendly working conditions
- Professional development, mentoring, and training
- The opportunity to join one of the largest universities in Germany, embedded in the University Alliance Ruhr
- Possibility to work part-time
