Metadata Specialist

Description

Job Description

DataCite is looking for a Metadata Specialist to join the DataCite community engagement team. This is a fully remote position for an initial period of 1 year to support the initialization phase of the PID4NFDI project. This is a full time or part time position at 30-38.5 hours per week. In this phase, the Metadata Specialist will analyze which technical measures and metadata harmonization processes are needed to improve the ease-of-use and integration of scalable PID services within the NFDI.

About DataCite

DataCite is a community-led organization with a vision to connect research and advance knowledge. We are a global community that share a common interest: to ensure that research outputs and resources are openly available and connected so that their reuse can advance knowledge across and between disciplines, now and in the future.

As a community, we make research more effective with metadata that connects research outputs and resources–from samples and images to data and preprints. We enable the creation and management of persistent identifiers (PIDs), integrate services to improve research workflows, and facilitate the discovery and reuse of research outputs and resources.

About PID4NFDI

NFDI is Germany’s national research data infrastructure organization, which operates through various NFDI consortia to coordinate national infrastructure and strategies for research data management (RDM). The aim of the national research data infrastructure (NFDI) is to systematically manage scientific and research data, provide long-term data storage, backup and accessibility, and network the data both nationally and internationally. PID4NFDI is a new project which aims to develop an NFDI-wide PID strategy that captures the existing consortium- and community-focused solutions and requirements, and provides a blueprint for further development phases to roll out a portfolio of services that covers the various RDM use cases and the exceptional variety of requirements of the NFDI consortia.

Working at DataCite

We are a fully remote team, which means we don't have a physical office. The team is distributed across four continents, supporting a global community of organizational members across 50 countries.

Responsibilities and duties

• Analyze how existing metadata in open scholarly infrastructure fits together—including DataCite DOI metadata, local repository metadata, and harvester metadata.
• Identify, define, and refine metadata best practices.
• Support the development of the DataCite Metadata Schema, in coordination with the DataCite team and the Metadata Working Group.
• Coordinate with PID4NFDI project partners.

Requirements

• University degree.
• Familiarity with research infrastructure and the open science landscape.
• Knowledge of the German research landscape and NFDI.
• Experience with open scholarly metadata and metadata standards.
• Data science skills.
• Clear written, oral, and visual communication in English.
• Ability to work with a distributed team across time zones.
• Self-motivated to succeed and take initiative and seek continuous improvement.

Nice to haves:

• Based in Germany.
• Experience with a relevant scripting language, such as Python or R, that can be used for metadata analysis.
• Experience working with large datasets.

Why work for us

• Fully remote position.
• Competitive local salary.
• 30 days vacation time annually and 1 day paid extra for volunteer work of your choice.
• Flexible working hours.
• Option to work in co-working with a paid contribution from us.
• Opportunity to learn something new every day, we are an evolving community and team
• Adaptable - We embrace change and uncertainty and work together to adapt to new situations

To apply

Please send a resume and statement of interest to Kelly Stathis (kelly.stathis@datacite.org) by August 20, 2023. We only accept applications by individuals. We would like the candidate to start around October 2023. Please don’t hesitate to contact us with any questions.

DataCite is committed to a policy of non-discrimination and equal opportunity for all employees and qualified applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, pregnancy or a condition related to pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, ancestry, age, physical or mental disability, genetic information, veteran status, uniform service member status, or any other protected class under applicable law. DataCite will make reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with known disabilities in accordance with applicable law.