Senior Software Engineer - Recontact

Our Future Health UK; City of Westminster; Hybrid; GBP 85,000 - 98,000; Full time

Job summary

A health research charity in the UK is seeking a Senior Engineer to join their Recontact team. The role involves building cloud-hosted backend services and developing frontend capabilities using modern technologies. The ideal candidate will have experience with Python, data modelling, and agile development methods. The position offers a competitive salary starting from £85,000, generous holiday, and career development opportunities. This role supports remote working arrangements, contributing to a mission aimed at preventing diseases.

Benefits

Competitive salary starting from £85,000

Generous Pension Scheme - employer contributions up to 12%

30 Days Holiday + Bank Holidays

Enhanced Parental Leave

Career Growth & Development - £500 per year for training

Cycle to Work Scheme

Home & Tech Savings

£1,000 Employee Referral Bonus

Wellbeing Support

Flexible and remote working arrangements

Qualifications

• Experience in cloud-hosted backend services and open source technologies.
• Strong knowledge of modern frontend technologies.
• Experience with sensitive personal data and compliance standards.

Responsibilities

• Build backend services using open source technologies.
• Design data movement and access systems.
• Develop frontend capabilities using modern frameworks.

Skills

Cloud-hosted backend services

Python or equivalent

Frontend capabilities (TypeScript, JavaScript, Next.js)

Infrastructure as Code (Terraform)

Kubernetes and Docker

Data modelling and design patterns

Agile development methods (TDD, CI/CD)

Relational databases (PostgreSQL)

Security and compliance standards

Mentorship and guiding less experienced engineers

Job description

We're looking for a full-stack Senior Engineer to join our Recontact team. Recontact studies allow researchers to invite participants into further studies, making them a core part of Our Future Health's mission to accelerate health research. This is a chance to work in a small, growing team where you'll contribute both to early design and hands-on delivery. You'll help shape and build the systems that enable Recontact, making pragmatic decisions about what to develop, when to reuse, and how to integrate with existing platforms. The work will involve developing cohort selection capabilities, creating participant-facing flows for consent and engagement, and designing secure, auditable systems that manage sensitive health data with trust and transparency. It will also include implementing mechanisms for invitations and communications at scale, as well as supporting experimentation to understand what drives participant engagement. The role combines practical engineering with opportunities to influence how Recontact evolves, ensuring we deliver value quickly while laying the foundations for scalable solutions in the future. Our Future Health will be the UK's largest ever health research programme, bringing people together to develop new ways to detect, prevent and treat diseases. We are a charity, supported by the UK Government in partnership with charities and industry. We work closely with the NHS and with public authorities across all nations and regions of the UK. Our plan is to bring together 5 million volunteers from right across the UK who will be asked to contribute information to help build one of the most detailed pictures we have ever had of people's health. Researchers will be able to use this information to make new discoveries about human health and diseases. So future generations can live in good health for longer.,

• Build cloud-hosted backend services using open source technologies in a start-up or scale-up environment (preferably Python, or equivalent experience).
• Design and implement backend systems for data movement, processing, storage, and data access for non-technical users.
• Develop frontend capabilities using modern technologies (e.g., TypeScript, JavaScript, Next.js) or equivalent frameworks.
• Work with cloud providers (Azure preferred, AWS or GCP also acceptable) and Infrastructure as Code (Terraform preferred); containerisation with Kubernetes and Docker.
• Apply good data modelling and design patterns; deep knowledge of relational databases (e.g., PostgreSQL) and familiarity with other data stores (blob, document, graph).
• Practice modern, agile development methods (code review, TDD, CI / CD, pairing) using Git / GitHub; operate and monitor software components in production (observability, logging, metrics, incident management).
• Work with sensitive personal data with awareness of security and compliance standards.
  Experience in cross-functional teams with engineers, product, UX, and non-technical stakeholders.
• Ability to translate technical concepts for diverse audiences and stakeholders.
• Experience in small, growing organisations with ambiguity; flexibility is valued.
• Strong software quality mindset; ability to mentor and guide less experienced engineers; facilitate technical discussions and collaborative decision making.
• Experience in supporting a culture of collaboration and rapid delivery.
  Competitive salary starting from £85,000
• Generous Pension Scheme - employer contributions up to 12%
• 30 Days Holiday + Bank Holidays
• Enhanced Parental Leave
• Career Growth & Development - £500 per year to spend on Learnerbly, plus regular appraisals
• Cycle to Work Scheme
• Home & Tech Savings - up to 8% off on IKEA and Currys products
• £1,000 Employee Referral Bonus
• Wellbeing Support - Mental Health First Aiders, 24 / 7 online GP, Employee Assistance Programme
• A Great Place to Work - flexible and remote working arrangements

Join us - let's prevent disease together. We advise not delaying your application, as this advert may close early if a high number of applications are received.