Open Research Data specialist, Expert on interoperability in the Environmental Sector

Eawag (Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology)

Dübendorf, Switzerland 🇨🇭

Eawag, the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, is an internationally networked aquatic research institute within the ETH Domain (Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology). Eawag conducts research, education and expert consulting to achieve the dual goals of meeting direct human needs for water and maintaining the function and integrity of aquatic ecosystems.

For an EU-Horizon2020 project, with close ties to the ETH Domain Open Research Data Program, at our site in Dübendorf ZH we are looking for a

Open Research Data specialist, Expert on interoperability in the Environmental Sector (80-100%)

In recent years, digitization has created a wealth of new opportunities for environmental research, e.g. for field research with sensor networks and for accessing and disseminating data and information. In the Horizon 2020 project, “Building Collaborative Urban Drainage research lab communities” (Co-UDLabs), we aim to develop innovative solutions and technologies to allow data sharing and re-use in the domain of urban drainage systems, with the goal to innovate for better facing current and future challenges such as increasing urbanization and climate change.

To improve using Open Research Data in the field of urban drainage for further research, analysis or interpretation, we are looking for an interoperability expert, who can support us in transferring existing information models from established communities, e.g. InfraML and WaterML2.0, to urban drainage observations. In addition, we want to break new ground in improving the interpretation of observations by providing dashboard-type previews of datasets to explore the quality and usability of data.

Job description

The PostDoc will work at the interface of data operability and environmental engineering. The work contributes to the integration across boundaries of not only different disciplines but also policy and practice, by:

  • Advancing the development of water interoperability standards, such as WaterML 2.0, for the sharing of monitoring data from urban drainage systems
  • Developing and exploring the use of common semantics (vocabularies/taxonomies) and technical scenarios
  • Developing methods and tools to explore collected datasets, such as flexible dashboarding solutions, for example Metabase, Streamlit or Jupyter notebooks
  • Assess solutions to explore openly accessible datasets in community archives, e.g. the CoUDlab community on Zenodo or distributed repositories
  • Testing the interoperability standard and dashboard previewer in the CoUDLabs community
  • Providing advice and support to researchers and technical staff working with measurement data, time series and databases at the stakeholders of the Co-UDLabs project

Your profile

  • PhD in Computer Science, Geography, Earth Science or Environmental Science or further education in the direction of applied computer science or data science
  • Experience with interoperability frameworks, OGC standards and their application in the water domain, such as Water-ML2.0, InfraML
  • Experience with components development, semantic patterns to exchange water monitoring data, water data serializations and OGC APIs (OGC API – Features / SensorThings API)
  • Water data vocabularies/taxonomies (e.g linked to I-ADOPT)
  • Experience with databases, version management (SQL, Git)
  • Knowledge in Open Science, e.g. Open Research Data management, data exchange and handling of meta-data

We expect the candidate will interact with multiple academic, government and non-government institutional collaborators, including leading international researchers in the field. The position requires close collaboration with partners in the CoUDLabs project. PostDoc funding is for 18 months, with the possibility of extension. The candidate must be willing to work in a team environment. We offer a very dynamic and collaborative research environment which profits from state-of-the-art infrastructure and support. Project intended start date is flexible, dependent on availability of the candidate.

Your personality

Successful candidates must have earned an excellent PhD in Computer Science, Geography, Earth Science or Environmental Science and must have demonstrated theoretical and practical experience with interoperability of environmental monitoring data. We expect good integrative skills, and social and emotional intelligence. Fluency in English is required.

Who are we?

Eawag is a modern employer and offers an excellent working environment where staff can contribute their strengths, experiences and ways of thinking. We promote gender equality and are committed to staff diversity and inclusion. The compatibility of career and family is of central importance to us. For more information about Eawag and our work conditions please consult www.eawag.ch and www.eawag.ch/en/aboutus/working/employment.

How to apply?

We will evaluate applications on an ongoing basis until the position is filled. For further information, please contact Dr Jörg Rieckermann or Christian Förster.

We look forward to receiving your application including  a letter of motivation, curriculum vitae and references, which we expect to obtain exclusively via our online application portal. Clicking on the button below will take you directly to the application form.


POSITION TYPE

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EXPERIENCE-LEVEL

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