Software Development Project Lead

Responsibilities

• Lead the technical development and long‑term architecture of Europe PMC and associated services.
• Define technical roadmaps so the platform scales with growth in data volume, AI capabilities and user demand.
• Lead, mentor and develop a team of software engineers, supporting both delivery and career development.
• Work across product, software engineering and data science teams to deliver new features and AI‑enabled services.
• Prioritise development work using Agile methods, balancing new functionality, operational stability and technical debt.
• Oversee large‑scale data ingestion and processing pipelines from multiple international content providers.
• Ensure the reliability, performance and availability of Europe PMC’s production services.
• Contribute to software engineering best practice, architecture, resource planning and delivery processes.
• Collaborate with colleagues across EMBL‑EBI and international partners to deliver shared infrastructure and strategic initiatives.

Qualifications

• A degree in Computer Science or equivalent professional experience.
• Experience managing technical delivery in Agile environments, including Scrum and Kanban.
• Experience designing, building and operating large‑scale, high‑availability systems handling substantial data volumes and user traffic.
• Experience managing software engineering projects from planning through delivery.
• Experience recruiting, mentoring and supporting software engineers.
• Strong stakeholder management skills and excellent communication in both technical and non‑technical settings.
• Technical expertise in Java and Spring; SQL and NoSQL databases (including MongoDB); Apache Solr/Lucene and large‑scale search; RESTful and SOAP web services; Unix/Linux environments and shell scripting; Git/GitLab and modern software development workflows; JIRA or similar issue tracking; application performance optimisation, debugging and production support; software testing, deployment and engineering best practices; and significant experience leading software engineering teams.
• Optional experience: working with scientific data resources, bioinformatics or biological databases; scientific publishing or scholarly communications; processing terabyte‑scale datasets; modern JavaScript frameworks such as Vue.js or React; high‑performance or distributed computing environments, including Slurm; machine‑learning workflows or production ML pipelines; or an interest in open science and scholarly communication.

Contract & Compensation

Contract length: Initial 3-year fixed‑term staff member contract, with potential extension based upon continued grant‑funding. Salary: Grade 7 – monthly salary starting at £4,395.66 after tax, excluding pension and insurance contributions.

Benefits

• 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 – including hybrid working patterns.
• Private medical insurance for you and your immediate family, including prescriptions and generous dental and optical cover.
• Generous time off: 30 days annual leave per year plus public holidays.
• Relocation package, including installation grant if required.
• Campus life: free shuttle bus, on‑site library, subsidised gym and cafeteria, casual dress code, extensive sports and social club activities (on‑campus and remotely).
• Family benefits: on‑site nursery, 10 days child sick leave, generous parental leave, holiday clubs and monthly family and child allowances.
• Benefits for non‑UK residents: visa exemption, education grant for private schooling, financial support to travel back to home country every second year and a monthly non‑resident allowance.

Diversity and Inclusion

We encourage applications from candidates of all genders, identities, nationalities and other diverse backgrounds.

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