Lead/Senior Backend Software Engineer

We are hiring a Lead/Senior Software Engineer to design, build and operate the platforms that power Our Future Health. This is an exciting opportunity to join the UK’s largest ever research programme! In this role, you will join a small team that will enable us to delivery our mission of enabling cutting edge health research across a cohort of 5 million volunteers!

At Our Future Health, our mission is to transform the prevention, detection and treatment of conditions such as dementia, cancer, diabetes, heart disease and stroke.  We’re looking for people to join us on our journey. If you’re looking for a new challenge where you can contribute to helping future generations live in good health for longer, then we’re keen to speak with you.

What you’ll be doing

• As a Software Engineer for our data platforms, you’ll be focussing on the tooling and pipelines that allow ingestion and processing of questionnaire, NHS, and genetic datasets, at the petabyte scale. This includes working on the secure primary data store and the de-identification and sharing of data into accredited Trusted Research Environments (TREs)

• In this role, you’ll work collaboratively with other engineers from data, platform and Technical Operations

• This role will challenge you by being a blend of architecture, software and platform engineering

• We are looking for someone who is confident leading software development, troubleshooting, design and architecture skills as we create new systems

• You will collaborate with colleagues to develop plans related to the architecture, technical design, data flows, scaling and functionality of the services

• You’ll support the building and design of significant technology components within the projects

• You will participate in testing, troubleshooting and live operations issues that are escalated from other teams

What you won’t be doing

• Working in a siloed environment with no freedom to make decisions

• Working in a place where you can’t see the impact your expertise makes

Requirements

To succeed in this role you will be able to demonstrate a large portion of the following skills and experience:

• You’ll be an expert in at least one technology used in backend web/service/API development (Python/Django, Ruby/Rails, Node.js) and working knowledge of at least one other, along with general awareness of modern web development technologies and frameworks and their pros and cons

• Expert knowledge of API architectures, data transfer mechanisms and associated reliability, security and monitoring challenges

• You’ll enjoy working in cross-functional agile teams on large-scale cloud-hosted platforms made up of separate services

• Ideally have experience with Microsoft Azure but knowledge or experience with GCP or AWS will be considered

• Proven ability with good data modeling and design; in-depth knowledge of relational databases (e.g. PostgreSQL, MySQL) and NoSQL databases (e.g. MongoDB)

• You’ll have a modern approach to engineering and be comfortable as part of an Agile development team following best practices like code review and pairing using tools like Git and GitHub

• Any experience of operating software components once live – observability, logging, metrics, error reporting, debugging, etc.

• Generous company pension package with employer contributions of up to 12%.

• 30 days annual leave (plus bank holidays.)

• Continuous career development with regular appraisals and learning and development opportunities.

• A lovely new office in Holborn, Central London – we offer flexible and remote working arrangements