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At the VU FSW Societal Analytics Lab, we are looking for a Post-doctoral Researcher / Research Engineer to join our team to work on the development of OPTIMA: the Observatory for Political Texts, Images, and Multimedia.

Researchers working with digital traces are at a crossroads. While the digital age offers unprecedented access to multimodal data, copyright restrictions and privacy concerns often make that data impossible to share. OPTIMA is a 2-year project funded to solve this. Building on the software prototypes AmCAT and AnnoTinder, OPTIMA creates a collaborative infrastructure for securely storing, sharing, analyzing, and enriching multimodal data—making them "as open as possible, and as closed as necessary."

As a Post-doctoral Researcher or Research Engineer on this project, you will bridge the gap between infrastructure development and social scientific research. In order to build a real-world infrastructure that social scientists will want to use, you need to be an experienced developer that can think like the user. So at the start of this project, you need to either be a social scientist with experience in developing software, or an engineer with a passion for developing social science research infrastructure.

You will work directly with Kasper Welbers, Wouter van Atteveldt, and Sofia Gil-Clavel to transform two existing open-source prototypes (AmCAT and AnnoTinder) into a unified tool to enhance the creation and sharing of multimodal data. You won't just be writing code; you will be designing the standards for how social scientists handle sensitive data and practice FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) science. This involves presenting at international conferences and workshops, and collaborating on academic publications.

The Post-doctoral Researcher / Research Engineer will:

Lead Technical Implementation: Act as the primary engineer of the OPTIMA roadmap: implementing standardized vocabularies, integrating AmCAT and AnnoTinder, and expanding sharing and non-consumptive research features.
Architect Open Science Tools: Develop "non-consumptive" research facilities that allow scholars to run analyses on sensitive data without violating privacy or copyright. Implement standardizing vocabularies. Enable more fine-grained access control.
Integrate Ecosystems: Seamlessly connect AmCAT (data management) and AnnoTinder (human annotation) using modern web standards and standardized vocabularies (RDF/linked data).
Foster Co-creation: Work with the project team to run workshops and hackathons, ensuring the infrastructure actually meets the needs of scientists and ensuring they have a good user experience.
Publish & Disseminate: Co-author methodological papers and technical reports on the infrastructure, presenting your work at major conferences like ICA or CompText.

Your profile

A Ph.D. in the social sciences with a strong computational focus, OR a Ph.D. in a computational field with a demonstrated passion for social science research, OR an experienced research engineer with passion for open computational social science.
Strong Programming Skills: Proficiency in Python (backend/data science) and/or TypeScript (modern web development). Ideally, you are comfortable moving between both.
Infrastructure Affinity: Experience with (or eagerness to learn) Docker, API design, and version control (Git/GitHub).
Methodological Breadth: Interest in Automated Content Analysis, including LLMs, image analysis, and manual annotation workflows.
Collaborative Mindset: Excellent social skills and the ability to translate "technical speak" into "researcher speak" during co-creation sessions.
Commitment to Open Science: A firm belief in the importance of transparency, reproducibility, and FAIR data principles.

As a university, we strive for equal opportunities for all, recognising that diversity takes many forms. We believe that diversity in all its complexity is invaluable for the quality of our teaching, research and service. We are always looking for talent with diverse backgrounds and experiences. This also means that we are committed to creating an inclusive community so that we can use diversity as an asset.

We realise that each individual brings a unique set of skills, expertise and mindset. Therefore we are happy to invite anyone who recognises themselves in the profile to apply, even if you do not meet all the requirements.

What do we offer?

At VU Amsterdam, you contribute to education, research and service for a better world. And that is valuable. So in return for your efforts, we offer you:

Duration: The project runs from September 2026 to September 2028. You would start September 1, 2026, or as soon as possible thereafter.

Position: The position is for 0.8 FTE (per year), but can be raised to 1.0 FTE depending on starting data, inclusion of teaching and/or work on related funded projects. Whether teaching is possible is dependent on language proficiency in Dutch and/or English (at least C1).
Salary: A salary of minimum € 3.546,00 and maximum € 5.538 (Scale 10) gross per month, on a full-time basis. This is based on UFO profile Researcher 4. These tasks are intended as development opportunities and will be performed under guidance, depending on your experience and growth within the role. The exact salary depends on your education and experience.
Environment: You will be embedded in the Department of Communication Science and the Societal Analytics Lab, a hub of innovation with access to high-performance computing and a vibrant interdisciplinary community.
a position for at least 0.8 FTE. Your employment contract will initially last 1 year. Afterwards, the possibility of expansion exists.

We also offer you attractive fringe benefits and regulations. Some examples:

A full-time 38-hour working week comes with a holiday leave entitlement of 232 hours per year. If you choose to work 40 hours, you have 96 extra holiday leave hours on an annual basis. For part-timers, this is calculated pro rata.
8% holiday allowance and 8.3% end-of-year bonus
solid pension scheme (ABP)
group insured for partial disability with employer contribution of 50% of the premium
contribution to commuting expenses

About us

About the faculty, lab

The Societal Analytics Lab at the VU Faculty of Social Sciences & Humanities (FSSH) is a pioneer in bringing computational methods to the study of society. By joining the OPTIMA project, you become part of a team that doesn't just use tools—we build them. Our work is institutionally anchored in MEDem (https://www.medem.eu/), an emerging European Research Infrastructure, ensuring that the software you build will have a life and impact long after the project ends.

Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities

A better understanding of ourselves and social communities, values and meaning, through social sciences and humanities. That is the aim of The Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities. No single discipline can do this alone. The SSH disciplines are characterised by an open way of thinking and the natural urge to seek coherence and connection.

The faculty consists of nine academic departments within three schools: School of Religion & Theology (SRT), School of Social Sciences (SSc) and School of Humanities (SH).

Are you interested in joining Social Sciences and Humanities? You become part of a dynamic academic community with approximately 900 staff members, over 5,000 regular students and more than 5,000 course participants. In an inspiring and collegial environment, we work together on education and research with impact.

Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam stands for values-driven education and research. We are open-minded experts with the ability to think freely - a broader mind. Maintaining an entrepreneurial perspective and concentrating on diversity, significance and humanity, we work on sustainable solutions with social impact. By joining forces, across the boundaries of disciplines, we work towards a better world for people and planet. Together we create a safe and respectful working and study climate, and an inspiring environment for education and research. Learn more about our codes of conduct

We are located on one physical campus, in the heart of Amsterdam's Zuidas business district, with excellent location and accessibility. Over 6,150 staff work at the VU and over 31,000 students attend academic education.

Diversity
Diversity is the driving force of VU Amsterdam. VU wants to be accessible and receptive to diversity in disciplines, cultures, ideas, nationalities, beliefs, preferences and worldviews. We believe that trust, respect, interest and differences lead to new insights and innovation, to sharpness and clarity, to excellence and a broader understanding.

We stand for an inclusive community and believe that diversity and internationalisation contribute to the quality of education, research and our services.

Therefore, we are always searching for people whose backgrounds and experience contribute to the diversity of the VU community.

Interested

Ready to build the future of communication research? Please apply via the application button by June 14, uploading your CV and a cover letter detailing your experience with Python/TypeScript and your vision to help us develop open science infrastructure. Submitting a diploma is part of the application process.

Questions? Reach out to dr. Kasper Welbers (k.welbers@vu.nl) or prof. dr. Wouter van Atteveldt (wouter.van.atteveldt@vu.nl).

Applications received by e-mail will not be considered.

Acquisition in response to this advertisement is not appreciated.

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Post-doctoral Researcher / Research Engineer (OPTIMA)