Senior Research Software Engineer

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About us

King's Digital Lab (KDL) is a Research Software Engineering (RSE) team within King's College London Faculty of Arts and Humanities. Our focus is on designing and implementing systems, infrastructure, tools, and processes to produce high-quality digital scholarly outputs. At KDL, we embrace a collaborative and open culture, fostering co-research as new tools and methods emerge.

KDL supports an inclusive culture and celebrates the diversity of our team. We are a small team that emphasises inclusivity and trust in our staff. We embrace flexible working, including flexible hours and extensive hybrid working - 80% remote and 20% on campus is typical. When in-person, we are in a small open-plan office within King's busy Strand campus. Whether remote or in-person, we support our staff to ensure they have the right equipment to work safely and effectively.

This flexibility requires mutual trust. Our team members do much of their work independently and we rely on each other to work collaboratively at a distance, checking in and coordinating according to project and team needs.

We encourage applicants to read our blogs to understand more about the culture and working environment.

About the role

Your main responsibility is to develop high-quality code to support product specifications and requirements in collaboration with research leads and the RSE team. You will have expertise in at least one programming language and proficiency in others, along with a keen interest in software development. Your role involves producing research solutions, from algorithms to web applications; you may have specialised skills in areas such as machine learning, devops, or web development.

You'll have the ability to work independently or as part of large research projects or software engineering teams. A crucial aspect of the role is contributing to e-Research capability within your department, research group, or lab, as well as across the university. Awareness of best practices in software development, digital research methods, and data management is essential. You will have advanced expertise and take a leading role in planning and decision-making related to the research solutions KDL produces.

Within this role, you will have opportunities to expand your skills working with new and emerging technologies across multiple disciplines and sectors. In addition to your core design and development responsibilities, you will be encouraged to develop a personal research agenda and explore opportunities for external funding and collaboration with academic colleagues.Our projects typically span several years, with periods of high and low activity. This means you will be engaged with multiple projects at any given time, across a range of disciplines, supporting academic partners to explore their research questions. Combined with an Agile approach to project management, this offers variety - both in the projects themselves and in the approaches and tools you use.

Success metrics are related to the research question the project is seeking to answer. Most of our work is funded by public research councils; while this means complying with regulatory reporting requirements (e.g. tracking time for charging purposes), it also means you will have opportunities for significant intellectual engagement. You will work with partners to determine the best approaches to meet their requirements, adapting as the project develops.

That collaborative engagement means the diversity of our team is important. We welcome applicants of all cultures and backgrounds and value the contributions that a variety of perspectives can bring. We encourage candidates with questions about flexible working or reasonable accommodations to contact us to discuss.

Additional references:

https://github.com/kingsdigitallab/sdlc-for-rse/wiki/RS-engineer

This is a full-time post (35 Hours per week), and you will be offered an indefinite contract.

About you

To be successful in this role, we are looking for candidates to have the following skills and experience:

Essential criteria

1. Expertise with modern web development stacks (Python/Django, Node.js, containerisation, cloud platforms) and ability to write performant, maintainable, well-tested code following best practices.
2. Deep understanding of agile software methodologies and experience leading/participating in sprints and leading technical decision making.
3. Strong analytical and problem-solving skills to handle complex, novel research challenges, with flexibility to thrive in a fast-paced research environment with changing requirements.
4. Excellent communication skills to collaborate with researchers and team members, including ability to guide/mentor others.
5. Skills in data modelling for database design for research applications, ensuring flexible, extensible data schemas.
6. Motivation for learning and adopting new technologies when appropriate.
7. Understanding of accessibility, security, privacy, and other critical concerns for research apps.
8. Advanced proficiency, leadership, strategic perspective and ability to advocate for quality in architecture/code.

Desirable criteria

1. Knowledge of Linux systems administration and DevOps practices such as: Docker/Containerisation, CI/CD, infrastructure as code, monitoring, cyber security.
2. Experience with accessible and performant front-end development.
3. Ability to mentor and guide other engineers in specialty areas.
4. Knowledge of machine learning methods and how to responsibly apply in applications.
5. Understanding of open-source development processes and contributing to communities.

Downloading a copy of our Job Description

Full details of the role and the skills, knowledge and experience required can be found in the Job Description document, provided at the bottom of the next page after you click "Apply Now". This document will provide information of what criteria will be assessed at each stage of the recruitment process.

Further Information

We pride ourselves on being inclusive and welcoming. We embrace diversity and want everyone to feel that they belong and are connected to others in our community.

We are committed to working with our staff and unions on these and other issues, to continue to support our people and to develop a diverse and inclusive culture at King's. We ask all candidates to submit a copy of their CV, and a supporting statement, detailing how they meet the essential criteria listed in the advert. If we receive a strong field of candidates, we may use the desirable criteria to choose our final shortlist, so please include your evidence against these where possible.

To find out how our managers will review your application, please take a look at our ' How we Recruit ' pages.

We are able to offer sponsorship for candidates who do not currently possess the right to work in the UK.