Digital Humanities Scientist

The Bibliotheca Hertziana – Max Planck Institute for Art History in Rome promotes advanced research in Italian and global art and architectural history. As part of the Human Sciences Section of the Max Planck Society, it is recognized as one of the world's foremost research institutes in its field.

The Bibliotheca Hertziana is a leading institution in digital art history. Since 2017, it has invested in the digitization of its photographic and bibliographic collections, the development of digital research infrastructures, and research at the intersection of artificial intelligence and art history. Its Digital Humanities Lab (DH Lab) develops new methods and systems at the interface of art history and computer science and coordinates the institute’s digital infrastructures. The DH Lab maintains a network of researchers and developers across the institute and beyond, including collaborations with other Max Planck Institutes and international partners. Its projects span digital mapping, text and image digitization, computer vision, digital publishing, and open science. The DH Lab is a member of the Consortium for Open Research Data in the Humanities (CORDH). The institute also hosts the Max Planck Research Group for Machine Visual Culture (MPRG-MVC) and collaborates closely with the Center for Digital Visual Studies (DVS) and the International Max Planck Research School for Multimodal Digital Humanities (IMPRS-MDH), both based at the University of Zurich.

The Bibliotheca Hertziana is seeking a new colleague for the position of 

Digital Humanities Scientist

to join its interdisciplinary DH Lab team. 

With this position, the Bibliotheca Hertziana aims to:

• expand its leadership in digital art history with a focus on machine-learning technologies 
• innovate and strengthen foundational art historical research through the application of artificial intelligence 
• connect cultural heritage data infrastructures with new developments in computer science and emerging art historical research questions
• intensify collaborative research across the institute’s departments, library, and photographic collection
• create synergies between the DH Lab, DVS, IMPRS-MDH, MPRG-MVC, and CORDH
• grow its international network of scientific collaborations
• make legacy data productive for research
• provide data stewardship
• train early-career researchers and staff in adopting new digital technologies

The Bibliotheca Hertziana offers:

• a full-time position of Digital Humanities Scientist within its DH Lab
• a one-year fixed-term contract that can be converted to a permanent position
• either a German employment contract in accordance with the TVöD, including a foreign service allowance, or an attractive local contract (according to the standards of the German Embassy)
• support for balancing work and family life, and opportunities for professional development
• a strong commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion, and a particular welcome to applications from underrepresented groups
• unique premises in the historic center of Rome
• a highly international and diverse research context
• access to a broad scientific network across the Max Planck Society
• collaboration with excellent early-career art historians in an innovative research context
• inspiring team spirit and integrative institutional culture

The Bibliotheca Hertziana welcomes candidates, who:

• hold a PhD with a thesis in the digital humanities, preferably related to art and architecture, or a thesis in computer science with several years of successful research experience with digital cultural heritage; the PhD thesis must be defended latest by the first six months of employment
• demonstrate an excellent track record of innovative digital humanities research 
• have experience in the development and application of machine learning and artificial intelligence
• have published digital humanities research in leading scholarly outlets
• are familiar with in machine learning, retrieval-augmented generation, data modelling, and semantic web technologies
• is able to develop use or develop multimodal models in the digital humanities
• have experience developing, leading, or participating in funded research projects
• are able to work across multiple projects and departments
• communicate effectively and work well in teams
• possess very good English language skills

Application procedure:

Applications must be submitted by April 30, 2026, via the institute’s recruitment platform: https://recruitment.biblhertz.it/position/19759117.

Online interviews will take place at the beginning of May, while shortlisted candidates will be invited for on-site visits in May/June. Applicants must upload separate PDF files containing: 

• a letter of motivation (max. 2 pages)
• a detailed curriculum vitae
• a list of publications
• a vision for potential collaborative research projects for the institute (max. 2 pages)
• optional writing samples (max. 10 MB each)

The preferred starting date is September/October 2026.