Scientific Developer (Chemical Biology Resources)

European Molecular Biology Laboratory; Hinxton; On-site; GBP 39,000 - 43,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Maternity cover

Generous benefits

Job summary

EMBL-EBI, located at the Wellcome Genome Campus near Cambridge, UK, seeks a Scientific Developer to build and maintain software infrastructure for ChEMBL data releases. You will work on pipelines spanning Python and Java, supporting ChEMBL, SureChEMBL and ChEBI, with an international team of scientists and engineers.

The role requires strong Python skills, cheminformatics libraries (RDKit/Open Babel), SQL databases, and Linux experience, plus collaboration with external partners.

Qualifications

• PhD or equivalent in Chemistry, Computer Science, Bioinformatics, Data Science or related field.
• Experience in cheminformatics or data engineering for life sciences.
• Proficiency in Python with cheminformatics libraries like RDKit/Open Babel.
• Experience with relational SQL databases and Linux environments.
• Strong communication and collaboration skills with international teams.

Responsibilities

• Develop and maintain software infrastructure for robust ChEMBL data releases.
• Enhance data workflows and pipelines across ChEMBL, SureChEMBL and ChEBI.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to improve data curation and analysis.
• Document workflows to improve reproducibility and maintainability.
• Support database management and deployment processes.

Skills

Python

SQL databases

Communication

Team collaboration

Education

PhD or equivalent

Tools

RDKit

Open Babel

InChI

SMILES/SMARTS

Docker

GitHub/GitLab

Job description

We are looking for a highly motivated Scientific Developer to join the Chemical Biology Resources team at the European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI), located on the Wellcome Genome Campus near Cambridge, UK. This is a 13-month fixed-term position offered as maternity cover.

The Chemical Biology Resources team provides world-leading chemogenomics resources to the scientific community. ChEMBL is a database of quantitative small-molecule bioactivity data curated primarily from the scientific literature widely used to support drug discovery projects in industry and academia. SureChEMBL is a complementary patent resource containing chemical structures extracted from patents daily. UniChem links chemical structures across databases. ChEBI is a highly curated database and ontology of compounds of biological interest. OPSIN converts systematic chemical names into chemical structures.

The EBI is part of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) and it is a world-leading bioinformatics centre providing biological data to the scientific community with expertise in data storage, analysis and representation. EMBL-EBI provides freely available data from life science experiments, performs basic research in computational biology and offers an extensive user training programme, supporting researchers in academic and industry.

Your role

You will develop and maintain software infrastructure to ensure robust, reliable, and automated ChEMBL data releases through streamlined build, packaging, testing, and deployment processes, while also assisting in the development and maintenance of other services supported by the team. You will be working closely with our team which consists of an international and interdisciplinary mix of professional scientists and software engineers.

Main Duties and Responsibilities

• Develop and maintain the scientific workflows underpinning the curation, integration and dissemination of the group's resources (e.g. the data pipelines for generating ChEMBL releases which are a mixture of Python and Java).
• Develop new innovative solutions for enhancing scientific data workflows and support our mission to disseminate scientific information publicly
• Manage and enhance scientific software tools essential for processing and storing chemical and biological data across the team's services, ensuring adherence to software development best practices.
• Collaborate with the ChEMBL, SureChEMBL and ChEBI teams to identify and resolve data inconsistencies and quality issues.
• Work cross-functionally to integrate computational methodologies into data curation and analysis workflows, including the incorporation of external chemical and bioactivity databases (e.g., BindingDB, PubChem) into the ChEMBL ecosystem.
• Support database management, including the maintenance and administration of database instances.
• Document workflows and processes to improve maintainability, efficiency, and reproducibility.
• Participate in cross functional project meeting with partners on campus (such as Open Targets) and external stakeholders
• Contribute to training activities, and participate in scientific meetings

You have:

• A PhD or equivalent experience in Chemistry, Computer Science, Bioinformatics, Data Science, or a related field.
• Experience in cheminformatics or data engineering applied to life sciences
• Proficiency in Python, with experience in cheminformatics libraries and topics (such as RDKit, Open Babel, InChI, SMILES/SMARTS)
• Experience working with relational (SQL) databases
• Familiarity working in a structured collaborative data and software development environment (git, GitHub/GitLab)
• Proficient in working with Linux operating systems.
• Self-motivated with good communication skills and the ambition to work with international collaborators and users.
• Can-do attitude and willingness to help solve problems
• Advanced English language and excellent interpersonal skills

You might have:

• Familiarity with containerization technologies (Docker)
• Basic understanding of Java, with a willingness to develop expertise and contribution to Java-based pipelines as needed
• Experience in using AI-based methods, such as NLP, LLM for efficient data processing

Contract length:

13-month fixed-term maternity cover. We are ideally looking for a January 2027 start to allow for a handover.

Salary:

Grade 5 or 6, monthly salary from £3,452 or £3,861 after tax plus generous benefits and allowances based on individual circumstances. Excluding personal pension and insurance contributions.

Why join us

Do something meaningful

At EMBL-EBI you can apply your talent and passion to accelerate science and tackle some of humankind's greatest challenges. EMBL-EBI, part of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory, is a worldwide leader in the storage, analysis and dissemination of large biological datasets. We provide the global research community with access to publicly available databases and tools which are crucial for the advancement of healthcare, food securit