Research IT Specialist; m​/f​/x

at the earliest possible date, full-time or part-time

Reference number: 293 | 8710

Research at the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry depends to an increasing degree on digital infrastructure, data services and AI. To address this, we are creating a new position and are looking, at the earliest possible date, for a Research IT Specialist.

The position is anchored between the Institute’s leadership and the head of IT, and combines hands‑on technical work with conceptual work and strategic input to relevant governance bodies.

In your role, you will work closely with the IT Department, Science Coordination and Information Management at the Institute. Besides the needs and challenges of the Institute, a substantive focus of the position will be shaped by your own background and your ideas for developing it.

Depending on your profile and interests, a scientific contribution of your own, e.g., in data science or AI in psychiatry, is explicitly possible and welcome. Do you want to shape the future of Research IT in a highly dynamic environment? Then we’re looking forward to your application!

• Single point of contact for the research faculty and group leaders on specialist IT, data and computing needs
• Assessment of research IT needs and their translation into actionable demands
• Onboarding and key user management: making sure that our researchers can work productively from day one
• Building and maintaining an adaptive technical environment for research data management, incl. research storage, quota management, repositories, offboarding and archiving
• Liaison, onboarding and user management for external high-performance computing and research infrastructures
• Identifying and piloting AI use cases in research, curating the AI tool and LLM landscape available to the institute, and exploring agentic approaches to scientific work
• Skills and empowerment across the institute: hands‑on support, training formats, and liaison with internal working groups (such as the Open Science working group and the Code Club)

• Translation of research requirements into operational and technical requirements for the IT department and for external service providers, and co-implementation of the resulting solutions
• Hands‑on engineering work in close cooperation with the IT department - you are expected to be part of how sustainable solutions are built
• Coordination with external providers and partners in the MPG ecosystem (e. g. GWDG, MPCDF, MaxIT, Digital Office), including orchestration and deployment of services
• Information security: liaison with the Information Security Officer and co-developing solutions for regulatory requirements (such as NIS2) and risk in a basic research environment
• Development and implementation of adaptive monitoring and maintenance schemes

• Direct support and consulting: preparing briefings, decisions and risk assessments on research IT and AI
• Co-development of the Institute’s research IT and AI agenda, including the operationalization of frameworks for AI in research and research data management
• Representation of research IT demands in the Institute’s governing and coordinating bodies, and in dialogue with strategy, science management, risk and compliance functions
• Early identification of regulatory and technological developments relevant to the research side, and their translation into concrete solutions

• University degree (M.Sc., PhD or equivalent), e. g. in neuroscience, psychiatry, psychology, medicine, biology, bioinformatics, computer science or a related field
• A genuine research background: you have done research yourself and know from the inside how a scientific project is…