Applied AI Engineer

Applied AI Engineer to contribute to MetaBuddy within CropXR. Responsibilities include contributing to core algorithmic development, designing and evaluating experiments involving large language models, retrieval-based approaches, and agentic workflows, and investigating how AI can help researchers capture, interpret, and organize metadata for submission to the Resilience Hub. Assess model performance across workflows and architectures; help define technical requirements and coordinate project planning; collaborate with researchers, software engineers, and external partners; contribute to iterative development through evaluation and user feedback. Ideal candidates have experience applying LLMs to scientific/technical documents, with structured information extraction from heterogeneous sources, knowledge of workflows for extracting and normalizing metadata with AI, and proficiency in Python; familiarity with PyTorch/JAX or modern LLM tooling, and experience with RAG, agentic systems, or document understanding. Bonus in areas like FAIR data practices, bioinformatics, plant sciences, or interdisciplinary research environments. Dutch work regulations require EU or valid Dutch work permit eligibility; TU Delft affiliation. The role is a 2-year temporary contract with 38-40 hours per week and a salary scale of €3546-€5538 gross per month plus benefits. Experience with evaluating AI systems, benchmarking, and robust design is valued.