Senior Technologist

National Physical Laboratory; Tewkesbury; On-site; GBP 65,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

National Physical Laboratory seeks a senior technologist to apply strong analytical skills and practical engineering judgement across scientific services and projects in partnership with the Lead Technologist.

The role balances hands-on build work with design review, documentation, incident response and continuous improvement, aligning with NPL's architecture standards and security controls.

Qualifications

• Strong analytical skills and practical engineering judgement.
• Experience delivering IT solutions across scientific services and platforms.
• Familiar with secure by design principles and architecture standards.

Responsibilities

• Deliver high-quality technology changes and IT solutions across scientific services and projects.
• Design, build and improve solutions using modern engineering practices (version control, automated testing, CI/CD).
• Contribute to code reviews, technical discovery, spikes and proofs of concepts.
• Support and improve live services, incident response and problem management, with better observability and resilience.
• Produce and maintain clear technical designs and documentation for handover and knowledge sharing.
• Identify technical debt and opportunities for incremental improvements with stakeholders.
• Research and evaluate cutting-edge IT hardware and software to support scientists and engineers.
• Support technical assurance activities by preparing evidence and recommendations for design review.
• Contribute to the Technical Delivery Authority process by aligning with standards and addressing actions.
• Proactively identify and manage technology risks and escalate as needed.
• Collaborate with product, delivery, operations, scientific and business stakeholders to communicate technical choices.
• Support suppliers by providing clear technical requirements and review deliverables.
• Mentor and share knowledge with junior team members.
• Maintain health and safety duties as required.

Job description

A senior technologist provides strong analytical skills, technical delivery capability and practical engineering judgement, working with the Lead Technologist to implement architectures that are secure, sustainable and aligned to organisational goals. This role balances hands‑on build work with design review, technical documentation, operational support and continuous improvement among scientific and business projects alike.

Key responsibilities

• Deliver high-quality technology changes and IT solutions across one or more scientific services, platforms and scientific project environments, working in multidisciplinary teams
• Design, build and improve solutions using modern engineering practices (version control, automated testing, CI/CD, infrastructure/configuration as code where appropriate)
• Contribute to code reviews, technical discovery, technical spikes and proof-of-concepts, helping teams make pragmatic trade-offs between speed, cost, risk and quality
• Support and improve live services, including participating in incident response and problem management, improving observability, resilience and runbooks
• Produce and maintain clear technical designs, diagrams, and documentation that can be understood, supported, and maintained by others aligned with the Lead Technologist’s direction and NPL’s architecture standards to enable handover and knowledge sharing
• Apply secure by design principles to ensure solutions are supportable, interoperable and compliant with relevant policies and controls
• Identify technical debt, single points of failure and opportunities for incremental improvements, contributing to prioritisation with product/delivery colleagues
• Research and evaluate cutting‑edge IT hardware and software to support our back catalog of solution options for enabling our scientists and engineers
• Support technical assurance activities by preparing evidence, options and recommendations for design/architecture review
• Contribute to the Technical Delivery Authority (TDA) process by aligning work with agreed standards and responding to actions and recommendations
• Proactively identify and manage technology risks (security, resilience, supplier lock-in and sustainability) and escal where appropriate
• Work closely with product, delivery, operations, scientific, and business stakeholders to understand outcomes and constraints, and communicate technical choices clearly
• Support suppliers and partners by providing clear technical requirements, reviewing deliverables and helping ensure effective knowledge transfer to NPL
• Develop, mentor, and share knowledge with more junior members of the team
• Responsible for taking reasonable duty of care for Health & Safety of themselves and of other persons who may be affected by their acts or omissions at work and always follow direct instructions given with regards to Health & Safety.