Genomics England partners with the NHS to provide whole genome sequencing diagnostics. We also equip researchers to find the causes of disease and develop new treatments – with patients and participants at the heart of it all.
Our mission is to continue refining, scaling, and evolving our ability to enable others to deliver genomic healthcare and conduct genomic research.
We are accelerating our impact and working with patients, doctors, scientists, government and industry to improve genomic testing, and help researchers access the health data and technology they need to make new medical discoveries and create more effective, targeted medicines for everybody.
Are you passionate about nurturing innovation and empowering teams to solve difficult technical problems? At Genomics England we are looking for a Principal Engineer to play a pivotal role in driving the technical excellence of our Interpretation Platform, where clinicians use rich user-interfaces to analyse genomic observations and make life-changing clinical judgments.
About the Role
As a Principal Engineer you will be a hands-on contributor with exemplary engineering skills, who also has an ability to think strategically to define architectural directions. You may have previously worked under a variety of different job titles within engineering and/or architecture, and you may have worked in a variety of organisational contexts. Whatever your past experience, it will have given you both technical breadth and depth.
You will be a problem-solver who identifies risks, issues, gaps, and dependencies and brings people together to find solutions. You will do this through your supportive, empathetic and collaborative behaviours - acting as coach, mentor, guide or constructive questioner as the situation demands. You are pragmatic but also mindful of the big picture - consciously balancing the immediate goals of teams against the long-term direction for their products.
About the Tech Stack
Our Interpretation Platform has a number of dynamic and responsive user interfaces written in Typescript and based on React.js / Next.js, with backend APIs mostly written in Python (with some legacy Java). Clinical data is stored in Postgres (Aurora) databases with large, hierarchical genomic data indexed in OpenSearch. Asynchronous data ingestion is performed using Step Functions and Lambda, and the whole platform runs in AWS. We have a standard tool chain which includes Terraform for infrastructure-as-code, GitLab for source code and CI/CD, Artifactory for software artefacts and DataDog for observability. We are working to become interoperable with the wider NHS via open standards like FHIR and GA4GH APIs and the impact of this on the Interpretation Platform is one of several exciting challenges on the horizon.
Job Description
- Work alongside product managers, squad engineers, bioinformaticians and other subject matter experts to continuously evolve a roadmap for change.
- Be the voice of technical excellence in any conversation, ensuring that the functional, safety and operational characteristics of our products are continuously improving.
- Stay abreast of emerging technologies and industry trends, and incorporate them into our software development practices.
- Contribute to the wider conversation at Genomics England and help mature our technical practices.
Qualifications
While we recognise the value of relevant qualifications or certifications, we are primarily interested in your real-world experience.
Essential Skills and Experience
- Excellent software engineering skills and awareness of software design patterns (Python and Typescript/React preferred, polyglot ideal)
- Experience shaping and guiding architectural choices, both tactical and long-term strategic direction
- Experience of both database and API schema-design and evolution
- DevOps experience (CI/CD, Infrastructure as Code, operational monitoring and alerting)
- Experience in at least one major public cloud (AWS preferred but not essential)
- Strong interpersonal skills with a temperament that builds trust and connection within and across squads through open, honest communication
- Comfortable engaging responsively with teams both remotely and in person when required
- Ability to navigate rapidly to effective solutions through engaged and inclusive listening, clarity of thought, clear documentation, and succinct presentation
These skills are not essential but if you have any of them they may be an indicator that you would be well prepared to hit the ground running:
- Background in healthcare or bioinformatics
- Experience in regulated environments
- Experience building rich user interfaces that present complex information using modern tools and visualisation libraries
- Experience ingesting, transforming and indexing large, complex data sets
If you’re an experienced technologist who thrives on fostering collaboration to deliver positive outcomes, we’d love to hear from you. Join us at Genomics England and make a meaningful impact in the world of genomics.
Additional Information
Salary from:£103,500
Being an integral part of such a meaningful mission is extremely rewarding in itself, but in order to support our people, we’re continually improving our benefits package. We pride ourselves on investing in our people and supporting them to achieve their career goals, as well as offering a benefits package including:
- Generous Leave:30 days’ holiday plus bank holidays, additional leave for long service, and the option to apply for up to 30 days of remote working abroad annually (approval required).
- Family-Friendly:Blended working arrangements, flexible working, enhanced maternity, paternity and shared parental leave benefits.
- Pension & Financial:Defined contribution pension (Genomics England double-matches up to 10%, however you can contribute more if you wish), Life Assurance (3x salary), and a Give As You Earn scheme.
- Learning & Development:Individual learning budgets, support for training and certifications, and reimbursement for one annual professional subscription (approval required).
- Recognition & Rewards:Employee recognition programme and referral scheme.
- Health & Wellbeing:Subsidised gym membership, a free Headspace account, and access to an Employee Assistance Programme, eye tests, flu jabs.
Equal opportunities and our commitment to a diverse and inclusive workplace
Genomics England is actively committed to providing and supporting an inclusive environment that promotes equity, diversity and inclusion best practice both within our community and in any other area where we have influence. We are proud of our diverse community where everyone can come to work and feel welcomed and treated with respect regardless of any disability, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, religion, sexual orientation, or social background.
Genomics England’s policies of non-discrimination and equity and will be applied fairly to all people, regardless of age, disability, gender identity or reassignment, marital or civil partnership status, being pregnant or recently becoming a parent, race, religion or beliefs, sex or sexual orientation, length of service, whether full or part-time or employed under a permanent or a fixed-term contract or any other relevant factor.
Genomics England does not tolerate any form of discrimination, harassment, victimisation or bullying at work. Such behaviour is contrary to our virtues, undermines our mission and core values and diminishes the dignity, respect and integrity of all parties. Our People policies outline our commitment to inclusivity.
We aim to remove barriers in our recruitment processes and to be flexible with our interview processes. Should you require any adjustments that may help you to fully participate in the recruitment process, we encourage you to discuss this with us.
Blended working model
Genomics England operates a blended working model as we know our people appreciate the flexibility that hybrid working can bring. We expect most people to come into the office a minimum of 2 times each month. However, this will vary according to role and will be agreed with your team leader. There is no expectation that people will return to the office full time unless they want to, however, some of our roles require full time on site attendance e.g., lab teams, reception team.
Our teams and squads have, and will continue to reflect on what works best for them to work together successfully and have the freedom to design working patterns to suit, beyond the minimum. Our office locations are: Canary Wharf, Cambridge and Leeds.
Onboarding background checks
As part of our recruitment process, all successful candidates are subject to a Standard Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check. We therefore require applicants to disclose any previous offences at point of application, as some unspent convictions may mean we are unable to proceed with your application due to the nature of our work in healthcare.
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As part of our recruitment process, all successful candidates are subject to a Standard Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check. We therefore require applicants to disclose any previous offences at point of application, as some unspent convictions may mean we are unable to proceed with your application due to the nature of our work in healthcare. If you do not disclose a conviction that is identified on a DBS check, this may result in an offer of employment being withdrawn. This information may be shared with those internally who have a legitimate interest in the hiring process. Under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974, do you have an unspent criminal conviction and/or unspent conditional caution to declare?
Diversity and Inclusion is important to Genomics England. We want an organisation where you can bring your whole self and feel welcome and included in our mission and workplace. We use the answers to these questions completely anonymously to track and report on our progress in attracting and hiring a diverse workforce. Your answers to these questions are not visible to recruiters or hiring managers and are not used in the selection process.
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