Front-End Developer (Research Software Engineer)

Mission

EPFL, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, is one of the most dynamic university campuses in Europe and ranks among the top 20 universities worldwide. The EPFL employs more than 6,500 people supporting the three main missions of the institutions: education, research and innovation. The EPFL campus offers an exceptional working environment at the heart of a community of more than 18,500 people, including over 14,000 students and 4,000 researchers from more than 120 different countries.

ENAC-IT4R is a team of software developers and data engineers dedicated to supporting researchers in the fields of architecture, civil and environmental engineering with their data pipelines & research code throughout the whole research data lifecycle.

We’re looking for a RSE to complement our team of 6 RSEs (research software engineers), with combined experience in data engineering, data management, full-stack development, data wrangling and data science. Our RSEs are service-oriented and work closely with researchers to tackle a wide range of data and code challenges across diverse scientific domains. They’re true Swiss Army knives — versatile, curious, and collaborative.

👉 About ENAC-IT4R: enac-it4r.epfl.ch

Main duties

• Develop tools to access, query, and interact with research data, including implementation of web applications such as maps, dashboards with custom data visualizations, and database frontends.
• Design custom user-friendly interfaces, following UX/UI best practices
• Build backend APIs in Python or other suitable languages depending on the project.
• Support researchers in implementing data management plans and building automated data workflows — with a strong service-oriented mindset
• Anticipate and assess emerging technologies — particularly AI and open-source tools — to continuously improve the ENAC research data ecosystem
  
  

Profile

Must have

• Autonomous, service-minded, problem-solver spirit, enjoys taking initiatives, juggling several projects simultaneously, and working in a team
• Fluent in English and French
• Higher education (Master's degree or equivalent)
• Knowledge in frontend development, and at least basic backend development skills
• Familiar with UX/UI best practices
  
  

Nice to have

• Familiar with or interested in academia, research, reproducibility and open science.
• Application containerization and deployment
• Building and querying APIs.
• Data visualization libraries (e.g., ECharts), including webmapping.
• UI/UX design experience with tools such as adobe xd, Figma...
• Database basics : design, administration, and deployment (PostgreSQL, MongoDB…) and optimizing performance.
• Familiar with object storage (e.g., Amazon S3)
• Experience handling complex data in research.
  
  

Experience Level

• Professional experience with leading front-end tools and libraries (VueJS preferred).
• Entry-level to 3 years of experience, as a full-stack developer or software dev.
• Interest in research environment and data management
• Open source development
  
  

We offer

• Work at a world-class institution ranked in the global top 10 for engineering and technology.
• Support for personal growth as an IT professional through trainings & courses.
• A supportive, flexible work environment promoting work-life balance.
• Language courses relevant to your role.
• Diverse, multicultural working environment.
• Family-friendly policies, including child and education allowances.
• Discounts for public transport and car sharing services at reduced price
  
  

Informations

Start date: upon agreement

Activity rate Activity rate min : 60,00

Activity rate max : 100,00

Contract type : fixed term contract

Duration : 1 year renewable

Référence : 1614

How To Apply

We invite you to apply by submitting your CV and a cover letter via EPFL’s official recruitment platform!

In Your Cover Letter, Please Include a Table That Outlines Your Level Of Knowledge And Hands-on Experience In The Following Areas

• Front-end development
• UI/UX
• Collaborative code (ideally in an open-source context, e.g. link to version control repository, one of your Pull requests etc)
  
  

For each area, briefly describe your level of knowledge by giving real-life examples of what you are able to accomplish, and ideally links to codebases, even if simple side projects. Kindly note that only applications with the above mentioned table duly filled will be considered.

Please include in your complete application the contact details of two references (we will only contact them with your prior consent).