Architect International Education Standards

Architect International Education Standards

• 32 to 40 hours
• €5450 - €8982

Are you a strategic thinker with in-depth knowledge of educational technology and standards? Would you also like to play a key international role and contribute to the digital transformation of Dutch and European education? You can do this by collaborating on the adoption, further development, and harmonization of international standards. Does this appeal to you? Then we would love to hear from you!

Where you will work

SURF is the ICT cooperative for Dutch educational and research institutions. Together with them, we work on digital services and complex innovation challenges to enhance the quality of education and research. SURF works closely with the National Growth Fund Program Npuls. Npuls focuses on making education future-proof. SURF supports this program with appropriate ICT solutions and infrastructure. The growing internationalization of education, with programs such as Erasmus+ and the European University Alliances, necessitates international services and innovations. As an architect of international standards, you make an important contribution to this.

Working at SURF means working for a unique and open organization. This is evident in everything: the structure of the organization, the setup of the project teams, the culture in our offices, and the atmosphere among colleagues. SURF offers excellent terms of employment and is flexible when it comes to work/life balance. Employees enjoy working independently. In addition, everyone is given the space and freedom to use and develop their talents as effectively and broadly as possible.

The team you will join

You will be working in the Architecture & Interoperability team. This team is responsible for the architecture in this entire domain within the Accessible and Open Education & Research unit. In your role, you will work closely with the Flexible Education team. This team works on services such as eduXchange, edubadges, and SURFeduhub. These are important services that can be used in (international) collaborations, where standards are important building blocks.

What you will do

You bring together national and international developments in the field of educational standards and interoperability and translate these into a clear and widely supported vision and strategy for SURF. You follow and present developments abroad, share insights at (international) conferences and meetings, such as those of European university alliances, and link educational innovation to the technical preconditions required for this. You will be involved in ongoing and new (international) projects, often in an initiating or connecting role, and will collaborate with architects, standardization experts, and other partners from Europe and beyond. You will contribute to SURF's European Interoperability program, in which colleagues from different teams work together on strategic issues related to interoperability and standards.

What else you will be doing

• You will represent SURF and Npuls in the international arena surrounding international standards (such as 1EdTech / EDEH / IEEE / W3C) and translate international developments into strategy formation.
• You will translate policy objectives and user requirements into architectures and information models that are compatible with and provide input for European models.
• You act as a bridge between educational institutions, EdTech suppliers, and (inter)national standardization organizations.
• You support European initiatives to promote cooperation between institutions, such as the European Digital Education Hub and GÉANT.

Your skills and experience

You have substantive knowledge of educational standards and know how to translate this into a clear vision and strategy that you can convey convincingly, both in conversations and in presentations, including in an international context. You are a team player and get others on board with your ideas. You have an entrepreneurial attitude and see opportunities to initiate international collaboration or translate it into concrete projects, thereby delivering added value to the education sector. You can work independently, are proactive and analytical, and feel at home at the intersection of content, strategy, and technology.

In addition, you have

• Good command of English and Dutch and an entrepreneurial, results-oriented work attitude;
• Academic level of working and thinking (preferably in the field of Management Information Systems, Business Administration, and/or Computer Science) and at least 3 years of relevant work experience;
• Experience with stakeholder management and creating support;
• Experience with interoperability and semantic standards in education;
• Thorough knowledge of at least one standard such as OOAPI, Open Badges/Verifiable Credentials, QTI, LTI, OneRoster, or Edu-API;
• Knowledge of Linked Data, RDF, SHACL, or OpenAPI;
• Willingness to travel and participate in international consultations in other time zones.

SURF takes pleasure in doing its recruitment itself; acquisition is therefore not appreciated.

Applying for a job at SURF

This is what you can expect

Apply

After submitting your application, you will immediately receive a confirmation e-mail.

Response

After the the closing date, you will receive a response from our recruitment team.

First interview

We invite you to our office, because we want to get to know you.

Second interview

We invite you again for an interview with others who also want to get to know you.

Assessment

We may ask you to do an assignment (assessment).

Are you the right person?

Then you will receive a salary offer from one of our HR advisors.

Welcome to SURF!

You join onboarding activities with other new colleagues.

Location Moreelsepark 48, 3511 EP, Utrecht, Netherlands Degree Master of Science (MSc) Employment Permanent Salary €5450 - €8982 Hours per week 32 to 40 hours Deadline 29 March 2026 Substantive questions Arie van Nistelrooij

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