Software engineer

We are looking for a Software engineer with strong record in software development and interested in solving scientific questions related to Big data in biology. The successful candidate will be working in the organisation of large data sets of proteins for thousands of organisms in the database. This is a challenging and central development which requires mathematical and statistical expertise as well as strong software development skills.

Proteins are the building blocks of life and knowing how they function in the cells of living organisms gives us an insight on their health and disease states. A Proteome is the set of proteins encoded by the genome of a certain organism. With knowledge in biology generated at an unprecedented accelerating pace, the number of protein sequences in the database has increased dramatically and computational approaches are needed more than ever for organising the protein space for all these organisms.

As part of your daily work, you will analyse data, develop production software, create technical documents, take part in the daily Scrum meeting, as well as communicate with other teams at EMBL-EBI and/or with our international collaboration partners. Scalability will be an important feature of your clear, concise, well tested and documented code. You will also be interested in applying analytic engines and technical approaches to distributed processing of big data. The ability to work towards tight deadlines is essential.

The Protein Function development team maintains bioinformatics infrastructure of the world leading Universal Protein Resource (UniProt), and Gene Ontology Annotation resource. This is a very dynamic and interdisciplinary team comprising talented and enthusiastic software engineers and bioinformaticians working closely together with the biocurators in these resources. The UniProt resource is one of the most internationally used protein databases serving a large and diverse research community in genomics, proteins and proteomics

Responsibilities include:

• Design, development, test, document and maintenance of software for the proteomes production pipeline

• Assist with the data analysis and data processing algorithms in the proteomes pipeline

• Support and maintain the resource production and service release

• Engage and coordinate work with different teams in the organization

• Assist with innovative programming and big data technologies

• Assist with programming standards to promote best practices

• A degree in Computer Science, Mathematics, Life Sciences or a related discipline
• At least 3 years of working experience in software using Java and Python

You may also have

• Good understanding of Statistics, Graph theory, Probability theory
• Familiar with standard development tools (continuous integration e.g. Jenkins, build management e.g. Maven, and source code management systems e.g. GIT, etc)
• Understanding of good coding practices and approaches (OOP, IoC, automated testing, clean code principles, code review)
• Familiarity with SQL and relational database design principles, Unix shell scripting
• Knowledge of standard development tools and concepts (VCS, CI, etc)
• Experience working in bioinformatics and biological resource development would be an advantage, Your ability to work and live in the UK

• Financial incentives: depending on circumstances, monthly family/marriage allowance of £278 monthly child allowance of £336 per child. Non resident allowance up to £569 per month. Annual salary review, pension scheme, death benefit, long-term care, accident-at-work and unemployment insurances

• Hybrid working arrangements

• Private medical insurance for you and your immediate family (including all prescriptions and generous dental & optical cover)

• Generous time off: 30 days annual leave per year, in addition to eight bank holidays

• Relocation package including installation grant (as applicable)

• Campus life: Free shuttle bus to and from work, on-site library, subsidised on-site gym and cafeteria, casual dress code, extensive sports and social club activities (on campus and remotely)

• Family benefits: On-site nursery, child sick leave, generous parental leave, holiday clubs on campus and monthly family and child allowances

• Contract duration: This position is a 3 year project based contract

• Salary: Monthly salary starting at £3229 after tax but excl. pension & insurances) + benefits (Total package will be dependent on family circumstances)

• International applicants: We recruit internationally and successful candidates are offered visa exemptions. Read more on our page for international applicants.

• Diversity and inclusion: At EMBL-EBI, we strongly believe that inclusive and diverse teams benefit from higher levels of innovation and creative thought. We encourage applications from women, LGBTQ+ and individuals from all nationalities.

• Job location: This role is based in Hinxton, near Cambridge, UK. You will be required to relocate if you are based overseas and you will receive a generous relocation package to support you., * Financial incentives: Monthly family, child and non-resident allowances, annual salary review, pension scheme, death benefit, long-term care, accident-at-work and unemployment insurances

• Flexible working arrangements

• Private medical insurance for you and your immediate family (including all prescriptions and generous dental & optical cover)

• Generous time off: 30 days annual leave per year, in addition to eight bank holidays

• Relocation package including installation grant (if required)

• Campus life: Free shuttle bus to and from work, on-site library, subsidised on-site gym and cafeteria, casual dress code, extensive sports and social club activities (on campus and remotely)

• Family benefits: On-site nursery, 10 days of child sick leave, generous parental leave, holiday clubs on campus and monthly family and child allowances

• Benefits for non-UK residents: Visa exemption, education grant for private schooling, financial support to travel back to your home country every second year and a monthly non-resident allowance.

International applicants

Over ¾ of our workforce has joined us from outside the UK and we are proud of the diverse and multicultural working environment we offer.

Working at EMBL-EBI, you will join an inclusive community of 850+ amazing employees from 78 countries.

Working at EMBL-EBI gives you the opportunity to focus your energy and skills on something that really matters: using technology to contribute to discoveries that benefit humankind. We empower researchers everywhere to realise the potential of ‘big data’ in biology, and build sophisticated tools for exploring life at the atomic level.