Junior Data Platform Developer

imec EDiT & the Data Economy

As a high-tech research centre that is partially publicly funded, imec carries a responsibility to ensure global as well as local impact. imec’s EDiT (Enabling Digital Transformations) department plays a major role in realising local impact by conducting demand-driven R&D, in collaboration with authorities, other imec divisions, (academic) research institutes, companies, and citizens’ organisations. Our mission is to tackle so-called “wicked problems” in domains such as smart cities & regions, mobility & logistics, public health & sustainable environment. We are guided by an “Open for Impact” vision, which puts an emphasis on open knowledge, open source, and open data. Our research programmes include City of Things, Mobilidata, VLOCA, and Nervocity – read more about these and other activities on https://www.imec.be/nl.

All above-mentioned domains, and society at large, experience a trend towards the so-called data economy. This journey is accelerated by recent regulatory initiatives such as the European Data Strategy and the Data Governance Act, and EU programs like Gaia-X, all of which aim to create markets for novel applications, business models, and “smart” public policy, enabled by data spaces built on sovereign, but trusted, sources supplying ever-increasing amounts of data. To facilitate this revolution at the local level, and thus create a sustainable and interoperable data ecosystem for the Flemish region and beyond, EDiT collaborates with multiple departments of the Flemish government, academic research groups, and several other (commercial) parties.

What you will do

As junior data platform developer you will contribute to the forthcoming VSDS project which aims to design and develop components for Flemish Data Spaces. You will help us build, deploy and test scalable data pipelines based on state-of-the-art technologies. With our team you will also contribute to our Open Digital Twin and Smart Data Platform projects, which seek to build next-gen decision support tools for local and regional authorities in Flanders and beyond.

Who you are

You are a junior software developer interested in developing data streaming, processing, or publishing solutions. You take pride in tweaking code to maximise versatility, scalability, and performance, and don’t mind that the magic stays mostly behind the scenes (think back-ends, not consumer apps). Having an interest for the domain of smart cities and data spaces is desirable, but prior experience is not required. Being keen to learn and willing to take initiative will be valued as much, if not more, than specific technical or domain expertise.

Must-haves (the essentials):

• You hold a BSc or MSc degree in Computer Science, (Applied) Informatics or similar;
• At least 1 year of proven experience in software development;
• Able to quickly learn new technologies (paradigms, languages, frameworks, libraries, patterns, …);
• An interest in innovation with societal relevance;
• Javascript/TypeScript, preferably in the context of Node.js;
• Relational & document-based databases (PostgreSQL, Mongo, etc.);
• Git (duh!);
• English (professional proficiency).

Should-haves (a great candidate is familiar with most of these):

• Team player, preferably accustomed to Scrum or similar Agile process;
• Scala, Python, Java, Kotlin, Golang, or Rust;
• Experience with Docker/Kubernetes micro-services;
• Experience with or interest for CI/CD, DevOps & IaaS technologies;
• Experience with or interest for software testing (unit, functional, integration, regression testing);
• Experience with HTML/CSS and (Web) front-end frameworks;
• Experience with MS Azure, or similar cloud ecosystem;
• Dutch (or intention to learn).

Could-haves (it is nice to tick a few of these boxes):

• Experience with Big Data technologies, notably the Apache stack (Kafka, Hadoop, Spark, Hudi, etc.);
• Knowledge of or interest for open data and semantic web technologies such as RDF, SPARQL, JSON-LD or LDES;
• Having made contributions to open-source projects (please mention in your application!).

What we do for you

In exchange for your talent, passion, and expertise, imec offers you a high-tech environment and a stimulating diverse culture. Employees enjoy market-competitive compensation and benefits packages, engaging career opportunities, and state of the art facilities. EDiT’s main offices are centrally located in Ghent & Antwerp, but we are also present at imec’s HQ campus in Leuven. We embrace a hybrid working culture where teams and individuals are empowered to strike a balance between multi-site office presence and remote/home working.

As a software developer you will become part of EDiT’s DEV competence centre, where we provide coaching, arrange training, fine-tune your role and responsibilities, and plan your career path together. Additionally, through our Community of Practice initiative you will regularly interact with other developers, architects, designers, and user researchers across EDiT.

We are committed to being an inclusive employer and proud of our open, multicultural, and informal working environment with ample possibilities to take initiative and show responsibility. We commit to supporting and guiding you in this process; not only with words but also with tangible actions. Through imec.academy, 'our corporate university', we actively invest in your development to further your technical and personal growth.