Scientific Solution Architect

The German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) is one of Europe’s largest cancer research centers. “Research for a life without cancer" is the mission of our world-class scientists and all our team members.

The DKFZ is a place where the brightest minds pursue bold ideas and seek answers to pioneering scientific questions through collaboration, innovation, and exploration across many disciplines. We provide a dynamic environment which empowers excellence with state-of-the-art technologies, cutting edge infrastructure, and a global scientific network.

Contribute your knowledge, vision, and dedication to create a space where scientific discovery in cancer research is transformed into benefits for human health.

The Division of Intelligent Medical Systems is seeking for the next possible date a

Reference number: 2026-0118

• Heidelberg
• Full-time
• Intelligent Medical Systems

The Division of Intelligent Medical Systems (IMSY) is an interdisciplinary research division working at the interface of computer science, physics, and medicine. Our mission is to address the unique methodological and translational challenges of medical imaging AI to enable robust, clinically meaningful applications, with a particular focus on surgical AI. IMSY is highly international and strongly embedded in large collaborative research consortia, meta-research initiatives, and community-driven projects.

Project Description:

Medical imaging AI is advancing rapidly, however, research effort is often shaped by data availability rather than clinical need. MEDAL (Medical Imaging AGI's Last Exam - https://www.carl-zeiss-stiftung.de/en/project-overview/detail/medical-imaging-agis-last-exam) is an international initiative funded by the Carl-Zeiss-Stiftung that aims to change this by building a globally relevant benchmark grounded in real clinical priorities. Through a large-scale crowdsourcing campaign, clinicians, and researchers worldwide will contribute challenging clinical questions and medical imaging data. An international, multidisciplinary expert panel will curate the benchmark to ensure clinical relevance, diversity, and rigor.

Role and responsibilities:

We are looking for a Scientific Solution Architect to design and build the technical foundations of the MEDAL platform. This is a technically demanding role with real architectural ownership: you will shape how clinical data flows into the project, how it is stored and protected, and how AI models are evaluated against the benchmark, and you will be hands-on in implementing these systems alongside a software developer.
You will work closely with researchers, clinicians, legal and ethics experts, and a dedicated software developer.

Key responsibilities include:

• Conceptualizing secure workflows for international submission of sensitive medical imaging data
• Defining architectural concepts for the benchmarking and evaluation platform, including controlled and secure execution of externally submitted models
• Translating scientific, regulatory, and ethical requirements into practical technical concepts, including security and compliance requirements
• Making and documenting architectural decisions and technical trade-offs
• Designing concepts for access control, data storage, and security mechanisms
• Acting as a technical interface between research teams, software developers, legal experts, and external infrastructure providers
• System implementation in close collaboration with a dedicated software engineer and contributions to technical development where appropriate

What we are looking for:

• A university degree in computer science, software engineering, or a related field
• Hands-on software development experience, including academic positions or PhD work
• Experience in software, platform, or systems architecture, or in a comparable technical role
• Strong programming skills and comfort working across the stack
• A solid understanding of secure systems design and data protection principles
• Ability to communicate technical concepts clearly to interdisciplinary and non-technical stakeholders
• A structured and solution-oriented working style
• Excellent English communication skills, written and verbal

Desirable qualifications (optional):

• Experience with cybersecurity or compliance frameworks
• Familiarity with cloud or hybrid infrastructures, data ingestion and storage systems, modular or service-oriented architectures, or isolated execution environments
• Experience with AI/ML systems
• Experience with medical imaging or other sensitive data

What makes this position special:

• A central role in a high-visibility international research project (including high-impact publications)
• Full architectural ownership from day one: you will be building the platform from scratch, not maintaining or extending a legacy system
• An interdisciplinary team of researchers, clinicians, and engineers who work closely together and take each other's expertise seriously
• Training and professional development in areas where you want to grow (including security, cloud infrastructure, AI systems, and working with medical data)
• State-of-the-art computational resources
• Flexible working hours, hybrid work options, and part-time arrangements and a family-supportive environment (including a parent-child room and subsidised childcare places)

Application:

Please submit your application, including the following documents, via our online application tool:

• a motivation letter
• your curriculum vitae
• relevant academic transcripts
• ideally two references (letters or contact details)

The position is initially limited to 2 years with the possibility of prolongation.

Application Deadline: 18.06.26

Applications by e-mail cannot be accepted.
Please also note that we cannot return applications submitted by post.

Are you interested?

Then become part of the DKFZ and join us in contributing to a life without cancer!

We are convinced that an innovative research and working environment thrives on the diversity of its employees. Therefore, we welcome applications from talented people, regardless of gender, cultural background, nationality, ethnicity, sexual identity, physical ability, religion and age. People with severe disabilities are given preference if they have the same aptitude.

Notice: We are subject to the regulations of the Infection Protection Act (IfSG). Therefore, all our employees must provide proof of immunity against measles.

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