Staff Engineer (Research Enablement)

We are hiring a Staff Engineer to act as a Tech Lead in our new Research Enablement squad. This squad has been set up to further empower researchers to uncover novel and impactful health insights using the Our Future Health resource through the provisioning of tooling and resources necessary for efficient health research. Our Future Health has a unique dataset - we have to ensure it can be used!

This squad works closely with our partner DNAnexus who provides the core of our Trusted Research Environment (the web-based application through which approved researches access the Our Future Health dataset). As the Tech Lead you will play a key role in the collaboration on work with the DNAnexus team. Youll lead the development/integration of products and services built internally.

About Us

Our Future Health will be the UKs largest ever health research programme bringing people together to develop new ways to detect prevent and treat diseases. We are a charity supported by the UK Government in partnership with charities and industry. We work closely with the NHS and with public authorities across all nations and regions of the UK.

Our plan is to bring together 5 million volunteers from right across the UK who will be asked to contribute information to help build one of the most detailed pictures we have ever had of peoples health. Researchers will be able to use this information to make new discoveries about human health and diseases. So future generations can live in good health for longer.

To be successful in this role you will need some of the following:

Technical skills

• You have led the architectural design of systems.
• Knowledge and experience of building cloud-hosted consumer web applications and backend services using open source technologies such as Ruby on Rails Python in a start-up or scale-up environment.
• Knowledge and experience of building backend systems for data movement processing and storage and provision of services for allowing access to data by non-technical users.
• Prior experience with Azure (ideally) AWS or GCP.
• Comfortable working with Infrastructure as Code ideally with knowledge of Terraform.
• Knowledge of good data modelling and design patterns; in-depth knowledge of relational databases (e.g. PostgreSQL) and familiarity other types of data store (blob document graph).
• Expertise in modern agile development practices like code review TDD CI/CD and pairing using tools like Git and GitHub.
• Experience of operationally managing software components once live including; observability logging metrics error reporting debugging and live incident management.
• Experience of working with sensitive personal data.

Competencies

• Strong experience working and collaborating with vendors/partners.
• Experience working in/with cross-functional teams consisting of engineers product UX and non-technical stakeholders.
• Proven ability to communicate with stakeholders and audiences at different levels.
• Understanding of the importance of operational security and legal factors when designing solutions with the ability to articulate trade-offs and make informed decisions around design and technology choices.
• Experience working in small growing organisations with a high degree of ambiguity where flexibility is valued.
• Strong understanding of software quality principles and practices.
• Experience in mentoring and coaching less experienced engineers.
• Comfortable in facilitating technical discussions encouraging collaboration and providing direction.

• Competitive base salary
• Generous Pension Scheme We invest in your future with employer contributions of up to 12%.
• 30 Days Holiday Bank Holidays Enjoy a generous holiday allowance with the flexibility to take bank holidays when it suits you.
• Enhanced Parental Leave Supporting you during lifes biggest moments.
• Career Growth & Development 500 per year to spend on Learnerbly our learning platform plus regular appraisals and development opportunities.
• Cycle to Work Scheme Save 25-39% on a new bike and accessories through salary sacrifice.
• Home & Tech Savings Get up to 8% off on IKEA and Currys products spreading the cost over 12 months through salary sacrifice
• 1000 Employee Referral Bonus Know someone amazing Get rewarded for bringing them on board!
• Wellbeing Support Access to Mental Health First Aiders plus 24/7 online GP services and an Employee Assistance Programme for you and your family.
• A Great Place to Work We have a lovely Central London office in Holborn and offer flexible and remote working arrangements.

Join us - letsprevent disease together.

We advise not delaying your application as this advert may close early if a high number of applications are received.

At Our Future Health we recognise the importance of having a diverse workforce and ensuring that all candidates regardless of their background have equitable access to our application process. We proactively encourage applicants who identify as having a disability neurodiversity or long-term health conditions to let us know if they require any reasonable adjustments as part of their application process.

If you do require any reasonable adjustments please email us at

Required Experience:

Staff IC