Data Engineer

ppVIB (Vlaams Instituut voor Biotechnologie) is an entrepreneurial non-profit research institute, with a clear focus on ground-breaking strategic basic research in life sciences and operates in close partnership with the universities in Flanders. /p pThe ICT department at VIB ensures that assets, technology, information, and data are managed securely and efficiently. Our focus includes: /p ul liSupporting and improving the ICT infrastructure, including networks, hardware, and critical systems. /li liEnabling digital transformation initiatives across the organization. /li liSecuring and supporting applications, information and data flows, and software integrations. /li liHelping researchers and support services work efficiently through modern, reliable digital services. /li /ul pTo strengthen our team, VIB headquarters in Ghent is looking for a Data Engineer who will help build and evolve the data foundations that enable reliable reporting, analytics and data-driven decision-making across the organization. /p h3About The Role /h3 pAs a Data Engineer, you play a hands-on role in turning data from different business systems and sources into reliable, reusable and well-structured data solutions and data products that support reporting, analytics and other data-driven use cases across VIB. Working directly with data, pipelines, transformations, models and code, you build and implement robust and scalable data solutions as part of your day-to-day work. /p pThe role spans the full data lifecycle, from understanding source data through data ingestion, transformation and modelling to making trusted data available for analytical consumption. /p pYou take hands-on responsibility to the development, implementation and continuous improvement of the data solutions and data products delivered by the team. As part of a collaborative team, you build and improve these solutions while ensuring they are maintainable, testable, secure, observable and designed for reuse. /p pYou work closely with business analysts, reporting specialists and application teams to understand both the technical characteristics and business context of data. Together, you help translate reporting, analytical and operational needs into sustainable data solutions rather than solutions built around individual reports or isolated use cases. /p pReporting to the Data Analytics and Reporting Architect, you will contribute to the continued development of our data platform and engineering practices, including data quality, automation, governance and maintainability. /p pOur current data platform is built around Microsoft Fabric and related Microsoft technologies, while strong data engineering principles and the agility to evolve alongside changing technologies and business needs remain equally important. /p h3Your Responsibilities /h3 h3Engineering building data solutions /h3 ul liDevelop and optimize scalable data pipelines and transformations across our institutional data platform. /li liBuild and maintain integrations that reliably bring data from different applications, systems and other sources into the data platform. /li liDevelop and implement data models for analytical consumption, applying appropriate data warehouse and lakehouse modelling principles. /li liBuild and maintain reusable data products that can support multiple reporting, analytical and other data-driven use cases across VIB. /li liWrite and maintain code where appropriate, while pragmatically using standard platform capabilities where these provide the most maintainable solution. /li liTroubleshoot and resolve technical issues across pipelines, transformations and data products. /li /ul h3Quality and engineering /h3 ul liBuild data quality into solutions through appropriate validation, testing, monitoring and error handling. /li liEnsure that data pipelines and products can be effectively monitored and that technical issues can be efficiently identified, investigated and resolved. /li liApply sound software and data engineering practices, including version control, automated deployment, testing, documentation and reusable components. /li liDesign and build solutions with performance, security and maintainability in mind. /li /ul h3Delivery ownership /h3 ul liTake hands-on ownership of the implementation and quality of data engineering solutions, from understanding source data and requirements to building, testing, deploying, monitoring and continuously improving reliable data solutions. /li liAnalyze technical challenges, propose practical solutions and implement them within the agreed technical and architectural principles. /li liContinuously improve existing data solutions by applying simplification, standardization and sound engineering practices to increase quality and maintainability. /li /ul h3Collaboration continuous improvement /h3 ul liCollaborate with business analysts, reporting specialists and application teams to understand source data, business context and analytica