Senior Research Software Engineer - Breakthrough Listen

Corehr; Oxford; On-site; GBP 65,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

Oxford University’s OxRSE seeks a Senior Research Software Engineer to join the embedded RSE group in the Department of Physics. You will work on Breakthrough Listen, developing scalable pipelines and software for multi-petabyte datasets, with a focus on reproducible research and high-quality code.

The role offers opportunities to mentor, deliver training, and progress to project leadership as you grow, collaborating across physics and computer science domains on impactful astronomical computing

Qualifications

• PhD or substantial post-qualification software experience in research.
• Strong experience in Python, web frameworks, and API development.
• Experience with large-scale data, HPC, and distributed computing.

Responsibilities

• Lead development of software for Breakthrough Listen project.
• Collaborate with researchers to design reliable software for scientific questions.
• Provide training and mentoring on software engineering best practices.

Skills

Python

Django

REST API

Linux

Shell scripting

Kubernetes

Slurm

AI-assisted software

Education

PhD or Doctoral degree

Tools

Docker

Kubernetes

Relational databases

Job description

UK date and time: 26-September-2026 12:37

Senior Research Software Engineer - Breakthrough Listen

MPLS Doctoral Training Centre, 1-4 Keble Road

The Oxford Research Software Engineering Group (OxRSE - www.rse.ox.ac.uk ) is looking to recruit a Senior 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 post is part of OxRSE’s embedded RSE group within the Department of Physics.

This is an exciting opportunity to join a growing team and work as a Senior RSE on world-leading and impactful projects. For at least the first two years, the RSE will work exclusively on the Breakthrough Listen project in the Department of Physics. Breakthrough Listen (BL) is the world’s most comprehensive Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, operating wideband receivers on leading radio telescopes including the Green Bank Telescope, Parkes, MeerKAT, the Very Large Array, and the Allen Telescope Array. BL is collecting multi-petabyte datasets and developing state-of-the-art pipelines to detect technosignatures (indicators of technology as a proxy for the existence of extraterrestrial intelligence). A primary goal of BL is also to make the data accessible and usable by the broader astronomy and scientific communities, and by the general public. This is a high-impact role at the frontier of astronomy, machine learning, and large-scale scientific computing.

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. The successful candidate will, following the initial two year period, have the opportunity to work on a variety of research projects across the Physics subject area and the broader University of Oxford. They will also have the opportunity to deliver workshops and training in software development best practices, and further develop their own technical and research skills as well as those outside of software development, such as project management and consultancy. As a Senior RSE, the postholder will also in time take on responsibility for the management of projects and the supervision of RSEs.

We are looking for candidates who hold a doctoral degree with a significant software development component, with post-qualification research and software engineering experience. We will also consider candidates without a doctoral degree but with substantial experience of software engineering 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. The successful candidate will have substantial experience, and proven efficiency, across the majority of: Python and web frameworks (especially Django) programming; REST API development; Linux and shell scripting; implementation, deployment and management of large (multi-billion row) relational databases; containers and orchestration; AI-assisted software development; distributed systems (e.g. Slurm, Kubernetes) and high performance computing.

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).

The closing date for applications is 12 noon on 23rd October 2026.