The Rosalind Franklin Institute is a national interdisciplinary research centre, funded by the UK government through UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). We are dedicated to creating new disruptive technologies which will allow us to see the biological world in new ways, from picometre-scale atoms to centimetre-scale tumours. These technological advances will speed up the discovery of new medicines, help find new diagnostics and contribute to a deeper understanding of human health and disease.
The Franklin operates from a purpose-built research facility on the Harwell Science and Innovation Campus near Didcot, a unique community of government, academia and industry working to accelerate progress on key issues. The 700-acre campus is steeped in world-firsts, and technology and research are at the heart of everything Harwell does.
Our building houses both specialist laboratories, research scientists and operational staff within a state-of-the art facility designed to inspire our people in their work and create a welcoming hub for our collaborations and visitors. Our research values of adventure, novelty, engagement, and utility are drawn on and exemplified by the Franklin team through our collaborations with universities and industrial partners, both in the UK and internationally.
The role
The Rosalind Franklin Institute is currently expanding and looking to recruit a Research Software Engineer (RSE) for its Advanced Research Computing (ARC) group. RSE is a protected title with its own society. The ARC group’s remit is to support the Franklin’s scientific mission through developing and implementing the latest computing technologies. Across the group, this includes software development, the application of artificial intelligence (AI) and data science to solve scientific challenges and managing compute and data infrastructure to support scientific workloads.
A successful candidate will be working collaboratively with our research project teams to provide expert advice and assistance as they tackle challenging problems across the scientific disciplines at the Franklin. They will also work on developing centralised data and compute infrastructure including high performance computing (HPC), cloud and data storage/management.
The Franklin faces cutting edge technological challenges, and by leveraging software development in tandem with scientific discovery, it presents a unique and exciting environment for Research Software Engineering. We are a lean, agile and collaborative team that works on a wide variety of scientific and infrastructure projects. As an RSE in the ARC group, you will be working on developing software and technology solutions to drive AI research in bioscience, implementing best practices for scientific data management, and leveraging cloud and HPC platforms to provide powerful compute capabilities to our users. In this role, your contribution will help to deliver the Franklin’s mission to drive forward technology development in the life sciences.
Responsibilities
The ARC group currently has the following responsibilities, as a member of the team, your role would be to support one or more of the following technologies involved with our infrastructure:
- Develop and deploy bespoke scientific software, collaborating with scientists across the Franklin, and making the best use of our existing data infrastructure. This can include web applications, APIs, machine learning tools, and image processing pipelines.
- Utilise good software development practices such as CI/CD, writing tests, documentation, and using installers where appropriate.
- Requirements gathering; being able to convert discussions with scientists into a software development specific and implementation plan.
- Create and maintain a comprehensive and up to date best practice documentation for all members of the Franklin.
- Attend scientific seminars and meetings to keep up to date with developments in software and methodology.
- User support and service management (e.g. training, writing documentation, support)
- Learn to develop and maintain the Franklin’s Cloud/HPC/Data infrastructure.
About you
Essential:
- Hold or be close to completion of a PhD (or equivalent) in a relevant field, or significant experience working in a scientific, academic, or research-focused industry setting (3-4 years).
- Demonstrate good software engineering practices, specifically with Python and its scientific ecosystem (NumPy, SciPy, Pandas)
- Use version control such as git.
- Working with containers, e.g. Docker.
- Comfortable using Linux
- Excellent organisational and communication skills
- Ability to co-ordinate multiple aspects of work to meet deadlines • Ability to work as part of a team, as well as independently
- Ability to solve problems using innovative and flexible thinking
- Passionate about learning new technologies
The Rosalind Franklin Institute is committed to equality, diversity and inclusion and welcomes applications from all. This job description set outs the skills and experience we believe are needed to be able to do this job but, research also tells us women are much more likely than men to take this list of requirements as absolute and self-select out of the process. If you think you can deliver this role then we want to hear from you, regardless of the boxes you did not tick.
In return we offer
- 25 days holidays plus bank holidays and Christmas holiday shutdown
- Generous pension scheme (employer’s contribution currently up to 18%)
- Group Life Assurance (also known as Group Life Insurance or Death in Service)
- Hub building with state-of-the-art laboratories
- Hybrid and flexible working
- Professional development in software engineering through courses and conferences
- Bus pass discount scheme and good transport links to Oxford and surrounding areas
- Cycle to Work Scheme
- Access to employee discount platform (Perkbox)
- Occupational Health and wellbeing support including Employee Assistance (24/7 support and counselling)
- Health Cash Plan
- Subsidised canteen and food outlets on campus
- Free on-site parking
- Campus location in beautiful countryside with social and sports clubs open to staff
To be considered for this role, please submit a CV and cover letter explaining why you think you are the right person for this job. Please including information about your education and work experience.
