„Research for a life without cancer“ is our mission at the German Cancer Research Center. We investigate how cancer develops, identify cancer risk factors and look for new cancer prevention strategies. We develop new methods with which tumors can be diagnosed more precisely and cancer patients can be treated more successfully. Every contribution counts – whether in research, administration or infrastructure. This is what makes our daily work so meaningful and exciting.

For The Core Facility Omics IT and Data Management we are seeking for as soon as possible a Software Developer.

Reference number: 2025-0106

The Omics IT and Data Management Core Facility at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) provides comprehensive support for large-scale omics projects, including secure data storage, high-throughput analysis, and tailored software solutions. By collaborating closely with researchers, we ensure robust bioinformatics pipelines and efficient workflows to drive breakthroughs in cancer research. To achieve this we develop custom software for data management and workflow execution.

We are looking for a software developer to work at the interface of the two in-house developed open-source applications WESkit (https://gitlab.com/one-touch-pipeline/weskit) and OTP (https://gitlab.com/one-touch-pipeline/otp).

WESkit is a Workflow Execution Service (https://github.com/ga4gh/workflow-execution-service-schemas) and submits bioinformatic workflows implemented with Snakemake or Nextflow into our high-throughput cluster. The One-Touch Pipeline (OTP) is a metadata management and workflow orchestration or meta-workflow management system specialized on biological high-throughput data. Our short-term goal is to let OTP submit and manage all workflow executions via WESkit. The long-term goal is to develop WESkit into a standalone workflow execution service for the research community, including its interaction with other GA4GH standards (https://www.ga4gh.org/our-products/#), such as TES, TRS, or DRS.

Your main activities will be:

• Work in a small team on making WESkit production ready
• Communicate with and support the OTP team in WESkit's installation, interfaces, and operation

The following skills are particularly important for this position:

• Python, including typed Python using Mypy, Celery, Flask
• Teamwork and communication, including working in a distributed team
• Agile software development, e.g. SCRUM
• Container technologies, in particular Docker and Singularity

The following topics are relevant and experience in them is considered a bonus:

• Software design and architecture
• Object-oriented design patterns
• Building robust, scalable, usable, production-quality software
• Workflow management systems, in particular Snakemake and Nextflow
• High-throughput cluster systems, in particular IBM LSF and SLURM
• Kubernetes, Helm
• OAuth2
• Java, Groovy, Grails, Hibernate, Spring, Gradle (OTP software stack)

Knowledge of bioinformatics is not required, but you should be motivated to understand the domain.

The applicant must hold a university degree (including of applied sciences) in computer science, or a related field. Excellent communication and organization skills and proficiency in English are mandatory.

• Excellent framework conditions: state-of-the-art equipment and oppor­tunities for inter­national networking at the highest level
• 30 days of vacation per year
• Flexible working hours
• Remuneration according to TV-L incl. company pension scheme and capital-forming benefits
• Possibility of mobile work and part-time work
• Family-friendly working environ­ment
• Sustainable travel to work: subsidized Germany job ticket
• Unleash your full potential: targeted offers for your personal development to further develop your talents
• Our Corporate Health Manage­ment Program offers a holistic approach to your well-being