Solutions Architect & Developer Metadata and AI-based Search

With around 180 employees, Switch supports Switzerland's universities, research institutions, and critical infrastructure organizations on their way to a secure and trustworthy digital age. With innovative IT services, secure infrastructures, expert advice, and the networking of relevant specialist communities, we help our customers effectively and efficiently use the opportunities offered by digitization.

Our Data circle consists of 4 persons who build data infrastructures and services that contribute to projects with the aim to advance research and education in Switzerland and Europe. We are looking for an experienced Solutions Architect & Developer

with a strong background in building data solutions on the basis of metadata and data warehouses to join for this exiting project-based (34 months) role. We need someone with deep technical know-how who can take initiative and work closely with the team and project partners to enable seamless and reliable continuous delivery.

Solutions Architect & Developer Metadata and AI-based Search (100%, project-based - all identities and backgrounds)

Your main tasks and responsibilities are

In this position you will lead the design of a unified metadata schema based on various other schemas and establish a metadata warehouse with extensible plugins to support AI-driven discovery. Together with project partners, you will co-develop advanced search features such as indexing, vector and graph search, and LLM/RAG-based approaches. You’ll also help integrate FAIR metadata assessment tools and a user-friendly interface connected to the metadata warehouse. In addition, you’ll contribute to the overall system architecture and support the Data Team with data pipelines, harvesting, knowledge graphs, and code quality.

What you bring

• Expertise with data & metadata
• Extensive experience with relational databases and data warehouses (data modeling, normalization, SQL)
• Solid background in metadata harvesting, transformation, and storage
• Familiarity with metadata standards (e.g. Dublin Core) and different data formats (JSON, XML, CSV)
• Experience in designing and managing complex metadata structures, including versioning
• Expertise with search & discovery technologies
• Practical experience with vector databases (e.g. embeddings, index search), graph databases (e.g. SPARQL), and recommendation engines (e.g. OpenSearch)
• Helpful other technical knowledge
• Proficient in programming (Python, JavaScript) and DevOps practices (CI/CD pipelines)
• Basic knowledge of modern UI frameworks (e.g. React, TypeScript)
• Mindset & Interests
• Strong interest in AI-driven technologies (e.g. LLMs)
• Motivation to support Open Science and contribute to the advancement of research

What you should know about us

• Being part of an innovative team in an attractive European project setup where you will collaborate with multiple Partners from various countries while still contributing to local activities to advance research in Switzerland.
• Use of modern technologies including AI technologies, Knowledge Graphs etc.
• Project-based employment for around 34 months
• An attractive work model with flexible working hours, remote work options, overtime compensation, and more
• Company language is German and English, project language is mainly English, and we provide support to help employees achieve a comfortable level of proficiency in German and/or French.
• Offices in the heart of Zurich or in Lausanne at the EPFL Innovation Park.

Does that sound exciting in itself? Then find out more about what it's like to work at Switch

and get an overview of the benefits.

Switch is made up of people from a wide variety of backgrounds and lifestyles. We embrace diversity and invite applications from people of all walks of life. We do not discriminate based on gender identity, sexual orientation, ethnicity, religion, age, disability, pregnancy status, or any other differences. Also, if you have a disability, please let us know how we can make the interview process better for you; we're happy to accommodate!