Technical R&D Coordinator

Description

Are you a specialist in the research fields of Semantics and Metadata, and interested in the challenges of digital culture data? Would you like to contribute with your technical expertise to the R&D activities of Europeana? Then we might have the right job for you.

As Technical R&D Coordinator you will be responsible to advise, communicate on and participate to Europeana's technical R&D activities. Europeana is a catalyst for change for cultural heritage and Europe's digital economy. We have been transformative in opening up data and access to culture. Through Europeana today, anyone can explore 27 million digitised objects including books, paintings, films and audio. Our office is based in the National Library of the Netherlands in The Hague. You will work on a wide variety of European projects together with a network of cultural institutions, research organizations and creative industries from all over Europe to provide new forms of access to culture. You will play a crucial role in our R&D team. Its mission is to facilitate the R&D work being carried out in Europeana's vast network of partners. In particular, we are dedicated to make data work smarter, improving its quality and the way it is made available and shared,in the culture sector and beyond.

What will be the core responsibilities of this job?

1. Research coordination & implementation

Europeana Data Model development

• Control and advise the implementation by the Development Team in requirements and on data storage, validation, enrichment and publication
• Advise the Data Ingestion team on the technical quality of incoming EDM data
• Participate to the specification of new EDM extensions
• Contribute to the writing of all technical documentation related to EDM
• Contribute to other areas of development within the Europeana technical R&D network("semantic enrichment" and linked data; user-generated data)
• Assess and make recommendations on relevant tools (enrichment services, metadata mapping tools, annotation tools, data repositories
• Participate to the development of pilots and prototypes by the Foundation and its network (including projects, strategic partners)
• Review relevant scientific and technical documentation (articles, deliverables)
• Contribute to the implementation of Europeana's access and data exchange strategy
• Create recommendations for Dev Team / MarComms to exploit existing or new third party data relating to Europeana (annotations, enrichments)
• Advise on search specifications dependent on richer (semantic, multilingual) metadata

2. Research communication & knowledge sharing

• Assist in scientific coordination of all partner and subcontracted Europeana projects: advising on technical R&D deliverables, pro-actively provide feedback to their R&D efforts on metadata enrichment, vocabulary alignment, vocabulary services.
• Participate in the dissemination of R&D results from the Europeana Foundation and its network (papers, presentations, workshops, blog posts).

3. R&D Network Community development

• Development and contribution to task forces of the EuropeanaTech R&D community and other EDM-related community groups.
• Participate in EuropeanaTech community management and development

What set of skills and knowledge should you bring?

• Computer science background (master's degree-level or higher): Semantic Web and Linked Data technology (RDF, RDFa, OWL, SKOS…), data modeling and ontologies, Information retrieval and extraction, machine learning and evaluation thereof.
• Experience with programming, working knowledge of XML technology
• Familiarity with the culture sector is highly welcomed, experience with digital libraries and working with humanities and/or multilingual data is a strong advantage
• Team player, ability to collaborate remotely and/or on tight deadlines
• A thirst for oversea collaboration, readiness to travel widely and regularly (up to once a month within Europe, once a year outside of Europe
• Analytical
• Curiosity and eye for detail
• Keeping balance between abstract thinking and pragmatism
• Project management skills welcome
• Good presentation skills – showcasing others' work
• Very high level written and spoken English (technical reports, research papers, presentations), other European languages advantageous

What are the benefits?

• You will have a good basic salary, which is in line with the Collective Labour agreement for Research Institutes Scale 9 or 10 depending on your experience and skills. Your monthly gross salary will be between EURO 2,636 – 3,804. Furthermore you will have: 42 days holiday per year, a holiday allowance (around 8%), an annual bonus (around 8%).
• It's also important to know that we are based in the National Library of the Netherlands in The Hague, close to Central Station.

How to apply?

• Send us your CV (in English) with a covering letter outlining what interests you about this position to: jobs.europeana@kb.nl
• Should you have any additional questions or require more information before deciding to apply, please send us an email.
• You should respond before 7 October 2013, but applications received before Sept. 22 will be examined before this, first interviews taking place as early as 30 Sept. 2013.

More about us
For more information see: http://pro.europeana.eu/documents/900548/6e60b1c8-bd7d-4e7b-86bb-cf421ef09341