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Agent guide: [/agents.md](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/agents.md). --- # Research Engineer - Application Lifecycle and Research IT - **Company:** Wageningen Universiteit - **Location:** Wageningen, Netherlands - **Experience:** Expert - **Salary:** €3,554 - €5,698 - **Contract:** Temporary contract - **Skills:** Agile Methodology, Artificial Intelligence, Application Integration Architecture, Application Lifecycle Management, Automation of Tests, Big Data, Cloud Computing, Configuration Management, Databases, Continuous Integration, Software Architecture, Scientific Computating, Management of Software Versions, Data Logging, Software Security, Technical Debt, Kubernetes, Software Version Control - **Published:** November 2, 2026 - **Apply:** https://www.academictransfer.com/en/jobs/365208/senior-research-engineer-application-lifecycle-and-research-it/apply/ ## About the Role You're an experienced engineer who enjoys making complex IT solutions work reliably in practice. You combine technical insight with a pragmatic approach to processes, and you understand that research needs room to evolve., * A relevant technical background: a bachelor's degree in computer science, Software Engineering, Engineering, Physics, Mathematics or another technical or scientific discipline. * Practical lifecycle experience: several years of experience as a research engineer, DevOps engineer, application engineer, platform engineer or similar IT professional, including demonstrable experience managing applications throughout their lifecycle. * Container and infrastructure expertise: experience operating or supporting applications on Kubernetes or another container orchestration platform, alongside cloud infrastructure, clusters or other large-scale computing environments. * Modern development and deployment practices: experience with CI/CD, version control, automated testing and infrastructure or configuration management. * Operational and security skills: experience with monitoring, logging, alerting, troubleshooting, patching, dependency management and application security. * Engineering and collaboration skills: an understanding of software architecture and the integration of applications, databases and infrastructure, ideally gained in Agile, multidisciplinary teams. Experience with scientific research processes is a strong advantage. You're a pragmatic communicator who can work comfortably with researchers and IT specialists. You bring structure to application management without turning research into enterprise bureaucracy. You understand that research applications have different needs and that requirements can change as new insights emerge. Above all, you're curious about both technology and research. You take responsibility for making solutions work today and keeping them useful, secure and maintainable over time. You don't need to be an expert in every corner of Kubernetes or application management. What matters most is substantial hands-on experience managing applications throughout their lifecycle-and the judgement to know what each application needs to keep supporting research. ## Description Build it. Keep it running. Make research possible. Research applications do more than support scientific work. They help researchers test ideas, work with data and make new discoveries. But delivering an application is only the beginning. Keeping it secure, reliable and maintainable throughout its useful life takes thoughtful engineering. At Wageningen University & Research (WUR), research increasingly relies on advanced IT, from AI and IoT to high-performance computing, cloud platforms and large-scale data processing. Our Research Engineering team develops and supports solutions for research groups across WUR. We also increasingly run research applications on our Kubernetes-based container infrastructure. As our Senior Research Engineer, you take the lead in application lifecycle management. You help research applications move from onboarding and deployment to monitoring, maintenance, upgrades and eventual retirement. Your challenge is to build reliable ways of working without taking away the flexibility researchers need as their work evolves. What you'll do You combine hands-on engineering with clear processes and collaboration. You help researchers and IT colleagues keep applications working well - not just at launch, but over time. Research engineering * Work directly with researchers to understand their workflows and technical challenges and help turn their needs into practical IT solutions. * Design and implement secure, scalable and maintainable solutions using software, databases, cloud, Kubernetes and other computing infrastructure. Projects may involve AI, IoT, scientific computing or data-intensive research. * Coordinate implementation with platform teams, architects and security specialists, ensuring solutions align with WUR requirements for architecture, security, privacy and maintainability. Application lifecycle management * Develop and improve how research applications are managed throughout their lifecycle, from onboarding and deployment to monitoring, maintenance, upgrades and retirement. Establish practical approaches to configuration, versioning, patching, dependencies, logging, alerting, backup and recovery. * Help research teams and developers prepare applications for reliable operation on Kubernetes, while addressing technical debt and outdated components. * Clarify responsibilities between researchers, developers, Research Engineering and platform teams. Create practical documentation and coach colleagues so application management becomes clearer and easier to sustain.