Principal Researcher/Software Developer - Sandhu Faculty

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Salary range: £38989 to £49602 pa plus excellent benefits.

Three years fixed term.

The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute is seeking to recruit a Principal Software Researcher/Developer to join a team working on Global Health and Population Science under the leadership of Dr. Manj Sandhu. The successful candidate will work on the creation of a Federated Data portal and the requisite data management infrastructures for accessing health data in the UK and overseas. The post will involve close collaboration with Dr Jat Singh at the Computer Laboratory, University of Cambridge.

As part of the partnership between The International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) and The Uganda Medical Informatics Centre (UMIC), the Global Health and Populations group is facilitating the storage and analysis of an unprecedented health data resource hosted at the UMIC. In this context, the role will be pivotal in the design and implementation of a secure (cloud-hosted) data access portal, and the associated data security, management and provenance frameworks necessary for facilitating remote data access and computation in the context of e-Health infrastructures.

The successful candidate will have a strong understanding of cloud infrastructure and data security technologies. In addition to excellent technical skills, the role requires ability to work effectively as part of a multidisciplinary, culturally diverse team under pressure, on a constantly changing environment.

Essential Skills

* Degree in Computer Science or in a related quantitative field (e.g. Mathematics, Physics, Bioinformatics) coupled with substantial experience in software development. A PhD is highly desirable, but not essential.

* Detailed knowledge of core computer science concepts (e.g. object oriented design, memory management, algorithm implementation) and practices (e.g. version control, agile development, extreme programming).

* Significant experience in C/C++, and a high-level of skill in other programming languages (e.g. Go, Haskell, Java, Perl, Python, R, Ruby, Scala).

* Solid understanding of Linux/POSIX based operating systems, libraries, and tools. Experience in kernel development a definite plus.

* Experience with cloud virtualisation and management technologies (e.g. CernVM, Docker, Xen, LXC, KVM, OpenStack).

* Extensive coding experience, preferably where outputs were used by others (i.e. in an academic or industrial context), and in customising existing software packages, particularly in complex systems environments.

* Familiarity with user interface design, especially using modern web-­?based technologies (e.g. "HTML5").

* Experience with large scale data analysis (involving hundreds of gigabytes or more) using distributed computing clusters with scheduling/batch processing systems (e.g. LSF, Mesos, SLURM, Pegasus, Grid Engine).

* Excellent verbal and written communication skills

* The ability to think critically, pay attention to detail and to work to tight timelines.

* An interest in scientific research and a strong intellectual curiosity.

Ideal Skills

* Practical software development experience, either in an academic or industrial environment. Especially relevant is contributions to open-source initiatives.

* Experience in bioinformatics, or a related field.

* Relevant professional security certifications (e.g. CISSP, GSEC, SABSA, etc.)

* Exposure to data provenance methodologies, particularly in data-driven research environments.

* Experience with relational and non-­?relational databases (e.g. MongoDB, CouchDB, Titan, Neo4j, Cassandra, MySQL/MariaDB, PostgreSQL).

* A familiarity with statistics (e.g. statistical distributions, significance tests, inference).

* Knowledge of machine learning and algorithmic techniques (e.g. agent-­?based computing, artificial intelligence, dynamic programming, game theory, Gibbs sampling, hidden Markov models, information theory).

Other information

The Sanger Institute is a charitably funded research centre focused on understanding the role of genetics in health and disease. We use state of the art large-scale genomic approaches to drive world-leading projects to uncover the basis of genetic and infectious disease. Our goal is to provide results that can be translated into diagnostics, treatments or therapies that reduce global health burdens.

To help researchers to develop their skills and networks, the Institute hosts a range of scientific seminars with internal and invited speakers, scientific group meetings and skills development workshops.

Our Benefits include: Defined Contribution Pension Scheme, Group Income Protection, Healthcare scheme, Childcare Vouchers, Workplace Nursery and 25 days Annual Leave, increasing by one day per year up to a maximum of 30, plus Bank Holidays. We also have a gym, two cafes, dining facilities, and a free campus bus service. Our thriving Sports and Social Club provides many opportunities to meet with people working across the campus.

Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute welcomes applications from all candidates irrespective of age, disability, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, race, religion or belief, or marital or civil partnership status.

Please include a covering letter and CV with your application.

Closing date for applications: 5th February 2017; however applications will be considered and reviewed on an on-going basis and therefore the post may be filled before the deadline.