Software Research & Development Engineer / Software Research & Development Engineeress

Software Research & Development Engineer

80%-100%, Zurich, fixed-term

The Swiss Data Science Center (SDSC) is a national research infrastructure in data science and artificial intelligence (AI) within the ETH domain, with EPFL and ETH Zurich as founding partners. Its mission is to support academic labs, hospitals, industry, and public sector stakeholders, including cantonal and federal administrations, throughout their entire data science journey, from data collection and management to machine learning, AI, and industrialization. With a large multidisciplinary team of professionals across three locations (Lausanne, Zurich, Villigen), the SDSC provides expertise and services across various domains, such as health and biomedical sciences, energy and sustainability, climate and environment, and large-scale scientific infrastructures.

Project Background

The Swiss Data Science Center (SDSC) is hiring a Software Research & Development Engineer to join its project-based engineering team in Zürich. This team focuses on transforming research outcomes into production-ready data science infrastructure, operating in a complementary role to platform teams by exploring, building, and validating solutions before they are adopted as sustainable services.

In this role, you will work at the intersection of research and engineering, taking early-stage ideas, prototypes, and emerging solutions to turn them into reusable systems ready for real-world deployment. This involves aligning with FAIR principles while ensuring that what is FAIR is also practical, usable, scalable, and sustainable.

Projects are driven by concrete needs across domains such as health and biomedical sciences, climate and environment, energy and sustainability, digital society, and large-scale data ecosystems.

Start of position: June 1, 2026 (negotiable)

Job Description

• You will contribute to projects that evolve through two complementary modes.
• In early phases, you will engage in focused exploration and prototyping, shaping solution spaces, testing approaches, and making technical choices.
• As projects mature, you will contribute to Minimum Viable Product (MVP) development, building operational, reusable components that can transition into production environments.
• You will collaborate with engineers across the stack to build end-to-end solutions, primarily contributing to backend, data, and infrastructure components, while occasionally supporting lightweight user-facing elements as needed.
• A key aspect of the role is to ensure continuity beyond the project lifecycle. You will work closely with internal platform teams and partner IT units to transition successful MVPs into production, ensuring they are maintainable, transferable, and ready for operational use.
• Across all phases, you will co-design solutions with users and domain experts, participate in collaborative workshops, and iteratively refine requirements into robust implementations.
• Our work follows established engineering and data best practices, with a strong focus on reproducibility, maintainability, interoperability, and production readiness.

Profile

• We welcome candidates across different levels of experience. Whether you are early in your career or already experienced, your approach to problem-solving and collaboration is what matters most.
• You enjoy building systems that work in practice, not just in theory. You are comfortable navigating ambiguity, engaging with stakeholders, and iterating towards optimal solutions.
• You prioritize quality, clarity, long-term usability, and building systems that are secure by design and aligned with best practices.
• You likely have a background in software engineering, data engineering, or a related field and an interest in data-intensive systems.
• You possess a solid foundation in software or data engineering, typically acquired through a Master’s degree or higher (e.g., PhD) in Computer Science or a related field, or equivalent professional experience. Experience in one of the application domains is a plus but not mandatory.
• Importantly, you are adept at working at the interface between teams, helping bridge research, engineering, and operations, ensuring what is built can be successfully adopted and sustained.
• You may have experience with modern software and data engineering practices such as version control, testing, APIs, data pipelines, containerization, reproducible workflows (e.g., Docker, CI/CD, Nix), and programming in languages such as Python, Go, Rust, or similar.
• Exposure to data modeling or semantic interoperability (e.g., ontologies, common data models) is a plus.
• We do not expect you to know every technology we employ; we value attitude, curiosity, and a drive to learn, as technical skills can be developed on the job.

Workplace

Join us in a stimulating, collaborative, cross-disciplinary environment within a world-class research institution.

We Value Diversity and Sustainability

In line with our values, ETH Zurich encourages an inclusive culture. We promote equality of opportunity, value diversity, and nurture a working and learning environment in which the rights and dignity of all our staff and students are respected. Visit our Equal Opportunities and Diversity website to learn how we ensure a fair and open environment that allows everyone to grow and flourish. Sustainability is a core value for us, and we are consistently working towards a climate-neutral future.

Curious? So Are We.

We look forward to receiving your online application using the form below. Please ensure that your application includes:

• CV
• Motivation letter
• Diplomas
• References
• Any other relevant documents

Further information about SDSC can be found on our website. If you have any questions about the position, please contact Oksana Riba Grognuz at oksana.riba@epfl.ch (no applications).

Please note that only applications matching the job profile will be considered.

About ETH Zurich

ETH Zurich is one of the world’s leading universities specializing in science and technology. We are renowned for our excellent education, cutting-edge research, and the direct transfer of new knowledge into society. With over 30,000 people from more than 120 countries, our university promotes independent thinking in an environment that inspires excellence. Located in the heart of Europe, we strive to develop solutions for the global challenges of today and tomorrow.