Senior Platform and Data Engineer

Location: Switzerland (remote; candidate must be physically located in Switzerland and within commuting distance of the Zürich / Aargau region preferred) Part-Time/Full-Time: [80%-100%] Special Note: Applicants must already have the legal right to live and work in Switzerland. Applications from recruitment agencies will not be reviewed. We accept direct applications exclusively. About Us: We are a Swiss non-profit association committed to advancing environmental sustainability through open life-cycle assessment (LCA) data and tools. Founded in 2022, we organise the annual Brightcon conference, as well as schools and training for PhD students and practitioners. We engage diverse audiences in open sustainability assessment, support new open-data platforms (such as our Sentier platform), run research and development projects, and honour outstanding contributions in open environmental sustainability software and data. In 2024, we decided to expand our mission to reinvent how LCA was performed. Current practice produces data which is difficult to maintain, share, adapt, or reproduce. We have developed the foundation for a new approach - our Sentier platform - based on three fundamental building blocks of data science: ● Semantic taxonomy of terms for products, processes, units, and parameters. See a rough first implementation at https://vocab.sentier.dev. ● Clean separation of data and models, with data stored as (geo)parquet with additional standardized column metadata. ● Models instead of static documents. Models can operate across spatial, temporal, and technological scales, and build life cycle inventories dynamically as data is updated. We have received project and grant funding for this new approach, and already have potential collaborators and data providers worldwide. We are growing our team and seeking a motivated Senior Platform and Data Engineer to join us in Switzerland to build the Sentier platform. The position is expected to begin in January-March 2026 (or as mutually agreed), initially limited to a one-year contract with a probation period of 1 month, but with strong potential for extension. Role Overview: You will work closely with our director, members, domain experts, and partner organisations to advance open sustainability assessment, and will lead the design, development, and maintenance of the Sentier platform for collaborative life cycle inventory (LCI) modelling and data sharing. Your efforts will directly enable our association to build, iterate, scale, and deploy services; roll out new membership offerings; and realise our strategic objectives. What We Offer: ● The opportunity to work on high-impact solutions in the field of sustainability and help shape the future of open sustainability assessment on the European and global level. ● Collaboration with a diverse set of stakeholders (academia, industry, public agencies) across the LCA and sustainability domain. ● A strong international network of world-leading experts and practitioners dedicated to open software and data for environmental sustainability assessment. ● Flexible working arrangements and a supportive, mission-driven team environment. ● Professional development opportunities: learning new tools, contributing to open-source code, attending conferences or workshops. ● Join a small team of individuals with genuine passion and ambition to make a difference through open data and tools development for environmental sustainability assessment. Application Process: If you are excited by the possibility of joining our association and helping us build the next generation of open sustainability data platform/modelling tools, please submit the following: ● Your CV ● A short cover letter (max 1 page) explaining why you are interested and how your experience aligns with the role ● Links to your Gitlab/GitHub/similar profile and/or examples of code/projects ● Names of 1-2 references Please send your application by 20.12.2025 to [email protected] with the subject line: “Senior Platform and Data Engineer – ”. For inquiries, contact Xiaojin Zhang at [email protected]. Salary: We aim to offer a fair and competitive salary within our available resources. We are happy to discuss compensation in person to find an arrangement that works for everyone. Salary increases are possible based on performance and the future growth of the association. Equal Opportunity: Départ de Sentier is an equal-opportunity employer and greatly values diversity. We welcome applications from candidates of all backgrounds and will ensure an inclusive selection process.