Research Software Engineer

Society of Research Software Engineering; Oxford; On-site; GBP 40,000 - 55,000; Full time

Job summary

A prestigious research institution in Oxford is seeking a Research Software Engineer to collaborate on diverse projects and improve software for scientific research. This role offers the chance to deliver workshops, develop best practices, and further your technical skills. Candidates should have a doctoral degree or equivalent experience in software development within a research context. Flexible working options are available.

Qualifications

• Hold a doctoral degree or close to completion with software development experience.
• Equivalent experience in a research environment will be considered.
• Ability to rapidly acquire skills in new programming languages and technologies.

Responsibilities

• Collaborate with researchers to design and implement reliable software solutions.
• Deliver workshops and training in software development best practices.
• Work on a variety of research projects across the university.

Skills

Software development collaboration

Ability to learn new programming languages

Frontend/backend web development

Machine learning

High performance computing

Training course design

Education

Doctoral degree in a relevant field

Equivalent experience in software development

Job description

The Oxford Research Software Engineering Group (OxRSE – www.rse.ox.ac.uk) is looking to recruit a Research Software Engineer (RSE) to join our team. We work with other research groups across the University of Oxford to create, improve and maintain software used for scientific research and translational projects, as well as providing consulting and training to other researchers on best practices in software development and reproducible research.

This is an exciting opportunity to join a growing team and work as an RSE on a diverse selection of world-leading and impactful projects. Some of our past / current projects include Global.health (https://global.health): an improved, scalable platform for disease tracking created by an international team of researchers from leading institutions such as Oxford, Harvard and the Boston Children’s hospital; PyBaMM (www.pybamm.org), a NUMFOCUS sponsored library for solving PDE models of batteries; and LanguageScreen (languagescreen.com) a key tool for the Nuffield Early Language Intervention (NELI) programme and part of the COVID-19 catch up package offered by the Department for Education to primary schools in England.

We offer RSEs the potential to advance their career and to make a significant contribution to the development of good software practices at a world-leading university. You will work on a variety of research projects across the University of Oxford, deliver workshops and training in software development best practices, and further develop your own technical and research skills as well as those outside of software development, such as project management and consultancy.

We are looking for candidates who hold a doctoral degree (or are close to completion, i.e., thesis submitted) with a significant software development component. We will also consider candidates without a doctoral degree but with equivalent experience of software development in a research environment. You must be able to collaborate effectively with other researchers to design and implement reliable and maintainable software solutions to scientific questions and must be able to rapidly acquire skills in new programming languages, libraries and technologies. Any prior experience working with frontend/backend web development, machine learning, or high performance computing would be desirable, as would any experience designing or delivering training courses.

This post is offered as an open-ended position subject to external funding. It is full time, but flexible options will be considered (e.g., part-time, job share). Please note that we will assess applications as they are received, and this vacancy will close early if a suitable candidate is appointed.