Software Development Project Lead

Join EMBL's European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) and lead the engineering team behind one of the world's largest and most widely used biomedical literature resources. As Software Development Project Lead, you will provide technical leadership for Europe PMC, a globally recognised open science platform used by millions of researchers every year. You will lead a team of backend and database developers and work closely with the product team, machine learning engineers and data scientists to shape the next generation of literature discovery and AI-powered research services.

Working alongside the Literature Services Team Lead, Product Lead and Data Science Lead, you will help define the technical strategy for Europe PMC, ensuring the platform continues to scale while delivering innovative capabilities that support modern scientific research.

Europe PMC contains more than 11 million full-text articles and preprints, together with 45 million abstracts, enriched with citations, links to biological databases, persistent identifiers for people, organisations and grants, and state-of-the-art machine learning annotations. The service is supported by 35 international biomedical research funders, serves 46 million unique users annually, and processes approximately 1.5 billion API requests every year.

Built primarily using Java and Spring, with SQL and NoSQL databases, large-scale Solr search infrastructure and high-throughput data pipelines, Europe PMC presents complex engineering challenges at global scale.

In this role you will

• Lead the technical development and long-term architecture of Europe PMC and associated services
• Define technical roadmaps to ensure the platform continues to scale in response to rapid growth in data volumes, AI capabilities and user demand
• Lead, mentor and develop a team of software engineers, supporting both delivery and career development
• Work across product, software engineering and data science teams to deliver new features and AI-enabled services
• Prioritise development work using Agile methodologies, balancing new functionality, operational stability and technical debt
• Oversee large-scale data ingestion and processing pipelines from multiple international content providers
• Ensure the reliability, performance and availability of Europe PMC's production services
• Contribute to software engineering best practice, architecture, resource planning and delivery processes
• Collaborate with colleagues across EMBL-EBI and with international partners to deliver shared infrastructure and strategic initiatives

This is an opportunity to combine technical leadership, software engineering and people management while helping to build one of the world's most important resources for life science research.

You will have 

• A degree in Computer Science or equivalent professional experience
• Experience managing technical delivery in Agile environments, including Scrum and Kanban
• Experience designing, building and operating large-scale, high-availability systems handling substantial data volumes and user traffic
• Experience managing software engineering projects from planning through delivery
• Experience recruiting, mentoring and supporting software engineers
• Strong stakeholder management skills, working effectively with both technical and non-technical collaborators
• Excellent communication skills and a collaborative leadership style

You will also have strong technical expertise in several of the following:

• Java and Spring
• SQL and NoSQL databases (including MongoDB)
• Apache Solr/Lucene and large-scale search systems
• RESTful and SOAP web services
• Unix/Linux environments and shell scripting
• Git/GitLab and modern software development workflows
• JIRA or similar issue tracking systems
• Application performance optimisation, debugging and production support
• Software testing, deployment and engineering best practices
• Significant experience leading software engineering teams and developing people

You may also have

• Experience working with scientific data resources, bioinformatics or biological databases
• Experience in scientific publishing, scholarly communications or research information systems
• Experience developing systems that process terabyte-scale datasets
• Experience with modern JavaScript frameworks such as Vue.js or React
• Experience using high-performance or distributed computing environments, including Slurm
• Experience supporting machine learning workflows or production ML pipelines
• An interest in open science, scholarly communication and developing services that accelerate scientific discovery

At EMBL-EBI you will work in a highly collaborative international environment alongside software engineers, data scientists and researchers from around the world. Based on the Wellcome Genome Campus near Cambridge, you will help shape technologies that enable scientists worldwide to discover, access and reuse the biomedical literature at unprecedented scale.

Contract length

Initial 3-year fixed-term, Staff Member contract with the potential for extension based upon availability of continued grant-funding.

Salary

Grade 7 - Monthly salary starting at £4,395.66 per month after tax but excluding pension and insurance contributions. Plus, generous benefits.

Next steps

This vacancy has a scheduled closing date of Wednesday 28th October, and we welcome your application as soon as possible. Please submit an up- to-date CV and supporting cover letter outlining your transferable skills and experience and motivation for applying for this role.

We will review applications on a rolling basis and so encourage candidates to apply as soon as possible. 

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 security, and biodiversity.
 

Join a culture of innovation
We are located on the Wellcome Genome Campus, alongside other prominent research and biotech organisations, and surrounded by beautiful Cambridgeshire countryside. This is a highly collaborative and inclusive community where our employees enjoy a relaxed atmosphere. We are committed to ensuring our employees feel valued, supported and empowered to reach their professional potential.  Watch this video to see how EMBL-EBI makes an impact.

Enjoy lots of benefits

• Financial incentives: Monthly family, child and non-resident allowances, annual salary review, pension scheme, death benefit, long-term care, accident-at-work and unemployment insurances

• Flexible working arrangements - including hybrid working patterns 

• Private medical insurance for you and your immediate family (including all prescriptions and generous dental & optical cover)

• Generous time off: 30 days annual leave per year, in addition public holidays

• Relocation package including installation grant (if required)

• Campus life: Free shuttle bus to and from work, on-site library, subsidised on-site gym and cafeteria, casual dress code, extensive sports and social club activities (on campus and remotely)

• Family benefits: On-site nursery, 10 days of child sick leave, generous parental leave, holiday clubs on campus and monthly family and child allowances

• Benefits for non-UK residents: Visa exemption, education grant for private schooling, financial support to travel back to your home country every second year and a monthly non-resident allowance.

For detailed information please visit our employee benefits page here. 

What else you need to know

• International applicants: We recruit internationally and successful candidates are offered visa exemptions. Please take a look at our International Applicants page for further information.  

• EMBL is a signatory of DORA. Find out how we apply DORA principles to our recruitment and performance assessment processes here.

• Diversity and inclusion: At EMBL, we believe that diverse teams drive innovation and scientific excellence. We encourage applications from candidates of all genders, identities, nationalities and/or any other diverse backgrounds.

• How to apply: To apply please submit a cover letter and a CV through our online system. Applications will close at 23:59 CET on the date shown below. We aim to provide a response within two weeks after the closing date.