Scientific Data Platform Engineer

Tropic; Norwich; Hybrid; GBP 60,000 - 90,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Private Health Care

Medical Cash Plan

25 days annual leave

Life Assurance

Job summary

Tropic is seeking its first dedicated data engineer to define and build the shared data foundation for a high-value scientific estate in Norwich. You will connect gene-editing outcomes, field trials, genotyping and phenotyping data into scalable architectures to enable AI-driven crop decisions.

Based onsite in Norwich with two days a week in the office, you will collaborate with Bioinformatics, IT and business data owners to design data models, pipelines and standards that support analytics,

Qualifications

• Around five years' experience in data engineering, software engineering or a related data-platform role, with experience taking ownership of technical design.
• Strong hands-on experience with Python and SQL.
• Experience designing data models and data architectures across multiple systems and building and operating production-quality ETL/ELT pipelines and automated data workflows.
• Experience integrating heterogeneous data sources, databases and APIs.
• Experience with workflow orchestration tooling (e.g. Airflow, Dagster or dbt) for scheduling and operating production data pipelines.
• Good understanding of data quality, metadata, lineage, testing and reproducibility.
• Ability to evaluate technical options and make pragmatic, scalable and cost-aware architecture decisions.
• Strong problem-solving skills and the ability to translate ambiguous requirements into implementable solutions.
• Strong communication and collaboration skills across technical and non-technical teams.

Responsibilities

• Design and build scalable data architecture, models, pipelines and integrations across scientific and business systems.
• Establish consistent approaches to identifiers, metadata, data quality, lineage and traceability.
• Create reusable data foundations that support bioinformatics, analytics, machine learning and AI.
• Evaluate technical options and help establish data-engineering standards and best practices.
• Work closely with scientists, Bioinformatics and IT to translate complex questions into practical data solutions.

Skills

Python

SQL

Data modeling

Data architectures

ETL/ELT pipelines

APIs integration

Workflow orchestration

Airflow

Dagster

dbt

Tools

Airflow

Dagster

dbt

Job description

We are looking for our first dedicated data engineer to define and build the shared data foundation for a complex, high-value scientific estate.

Tropic has built a decade of proprietary scientific evidence spanning gene-editing outcomes, field trials, genotyping, phenotyping and product decisions. This role will make that evidence more connected, traceable and reusable, enabling scientists and AI applications to learn from previous results and improve future crop-development decisions.

You will define the architecture that connects Tropic's scientific and operational data through shared identifiers, metadata, lineage and governance. Working with Bioinformatics, IT and business data owners, you will recommend the data engineering stack to support AI programmes across science, commercial, pipeline and supply.

Within your first year, you will launch the first connected scientific data layer and operationalise the shared architecture supporting Tropic's AI programs connecting genome-editing designs with experimental, genotyping and phenotypic outcomes so that we can systematically learn from our own data and improve future design decisions. The architecture developed through this work will provide a foundation for wider scientific, operational, analytics and AI applications.

What you will do

• Design and build scalable data architecture, models, pipelines and integrations across scientific and business systems.
• Establish consistent approaches to identifiers, metadata, data quality, lineage and traceability.
• Create reusable data foundations that support bioinformatics, analytics, machine learning and AI.
• Evaluate technical options and help establish data-engineering standards and best practices.
• Work closely with scientists, Bioinformatics and IT to translate complex questions into practical data solutions.

Essential skills and experience

• Around five years' experience in data engineering, software engineering or a related data-platform role, with experience taking ownership of technical design.
• Strong hands-on experience with Python and SQL.
• Experience designing data models and data architectures across multiple systems and building and operating production-quality ETL/ELT pipelines and automated data workflows.
• Experience integrating heterogeneous data sources, databases and APIs.
• Experience with workflow orchestration tooling (e.g. Airflow, Dagster or dbt) for scheduling and operating production data pipelines.
• Good understanding of data quality, metadata, lineage, testing and reproducibility.
• Ability to evaluate technical options and make pragmatic, scalable and cost-aware architecture decisions.
• Strong problem-solving skills and the ability to translate ambiguous requirements into implementable solutions.
• Strong communication and collaboration skills across technical and non-technical teams.

Desirable skills and experience

Experience in one or more of the following would be an advantage, but is not required:

• Scientific, biotechnology, life-sciences or other R&D data.
• Azure and/or Google Cloud Platform.
• ELN or LIMS platforms such as Benchling.
• Preparing data for analytics, machine learning or AI applications.
• Semantic modelling, ontologies or knowledge graphs.
• CI/CD, infrastructure-as-code or other modern software-engineering practices

About Us

Tropic is one of the world’s leading agricultural gene-editing companies. Our team is dedicated to the development and commercialization of high-performing varieties of tropical crops to provide significant benefits to growers, processors, and consumers globally, tackling real-world problems around food security and sustainability.

Our vision is to become a leading seed business with significant ownership of its products from the laboratory to the field, while maintaining constructive relationships with growers and consumers based on transparency and trust.

Why Join Tropic?

Competitive compensation and benefits including Private Health Care, Medical Cash Plan, 25 days annual leave and Life Assurance

Excellent learning and career development opportunities

Diverse workforce operating in a dynamic working environment

Further Information

Job Location – Norwich UK (on-site two days a week)

Time Requirement – Full Time

Contract – Permanent

Closing date – 20/09/2026