Research Hardware Engineer | Mosquito Behavior & Open Hardware

You will be based at Radboud University Medical Center (Radboudumc) in Nijmegen, embedded in the Hol group within the Department of Medical Microbiology. The group studies what makes mosquitoes such efficient disease vectors. By combining biophysics, engineering, and machine vision, we develop new ways to quantify mosquito behavior — from how individual mosquitoes find and bite a host, to how populations respond to environmental cues — with the aim of informing better strategies against malaria, dengue, and other mosquito-borne diseases. The lab has a strong culture of building custom instrumentation, sharing data, and collaborating across disciplines.

The OSHNED project
This position is part of OSHNED (Open-source Hardware Infrastructure for The Netherlands), an ambitious initiative funded by Open Science NL that integrates successful open-hardware efforts in the Netherlands into a robust national infrastructure. OSHNED maintains a centralized digital repository of open hardware designs, provides training and capacity building, and curates existing open-source hardware across the consortium. The OSHNED consortium consists of Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e), TU Delft, Utrecht University, Wageningen University & Research, Radboud University Medical Center, and the Netherlands eScience Center.

Who are you?

The Builder — technical generalist. You are comfortable across prototyping (e.g. CAD, 3D printing, CNC, laser cutting), embedded electronics (Raspberry pi, microcontrollers, sensor integration), and imaging / machine-vision hardware (cameras, lenses, lighting, image-acquisition pipelines). You understand what it takes to make a prototype reproducible for others.

The Open Science Ambassador. You are intrinsically motivated to share knowledge, and you have — or are eager to learn — experience with open-source hardware documentation. You communicate with students in the workshop, PhDs at the microscope, PIs in a meeting, and national partners in the OSHNED consortium. You enjoy giving presentations and workshops and actively encourage others to adopt open hardware.

Curious about biology. You do not need to be a biologist, but you are excited to work in a life-science environment and to learn enough about mosquitoes and behavioral assays to be a genuine technical partner for the researchers you work with.

We expect you to

• Have an MSc in a relevant engineering, applied-physics, biomedical-engineering, or life science discipline.
• Be able to work independently, take initiative, and have enthusiasm for learning new skills.
• Be enthusiastic about learning new skills, willing to help, and approachable.
• Communicate fluently in English.

Nice to have

• Experience with scientific instrumentation in a biology or biomedical lab..
• Basic Python (or similar) for hardware control, data acquisition, and simple image processing..
• Experience in mentoring or teaching.
• Experience with version control (Git) and FAIR data/documentation practices.

If you are concerned that you do not meet every requirement but the role excites you, please apply — we would love to look at your profile.

• The first job interviews will take place in June 2026.
• This position requires a Certificate of Conduct (VOG).

We are recruiting for this position ourselves. Unsolicited marketing is not appreciated, but do feel free to share the vacancy in your network!