Job Description

About the Team

Would you like to build the foundations of great services used by researchers from around the world to interrogate and explore genomic data? Are you interested in a technical role that shapes and improves the infrastructure behind some of the World’s most widely used scientific data resources? Do you want to grow your skills while solving unique, large-scale engineering challenges that make a real difference to science?

The Ensembl project and EMBL-EBI are looking for a Senior Platform Developer to help develop, maintain and evolve the infrastructure underpinning our next generation resources (beta.ensembl.org). Ensembl provides open-access, high-quality genome data spanning the tree of life from human to crops, disease vectors, pathogens and bacteria. We provide access to genes, variants, epigenomes and comparative genomics.

By joining us, you’ll play a vital role in enabling researchers to contextualise and understand biological systems, accelerating discoveries that transform science worldwide.

Duties & Responsibilities 

In this role, you will help shape the Ensembl platform’s technical direction, applying your expertise to build reliable, scalable systems and guide best practices across teams.
You will work with modern technologies such as Terraform, Kubernetes, GitLab CI/CD, and multiple data services, ensuring the platform continues to deliver genomic data efficiently and reliably at scale.

Your responsibilities will include:

• CI/CD automation to improve reliability and deployment speed.
• Developing and maintaining robust APIs (REST, gRPC, GraphQL) that balance performance, scalability, and operational simplicity.
• Integrating and managing containerised environments on Kubernetes and cloud platforms to support evolving project needs.
• Overseeing access and performance for high-availability MySQL, MongoDB, and Redis clusters, ensuring stability under heavy workloads.
• Architecting resilient backend systems, identifying root causes of complex performance issues, and implementing lasting solutions.
• Enhancing observability and monitoring to deliver proactive insights into system performance and availability.
• Providing technical guidance and mentorship, supporting team members through design discussions, code reviews, and knowledge sharing.
• Evaluating and advocating for appropriate tools, frameworks, and technologies, selecting the right solution for each problem space.
• Collaborating with Ensembl teams to plan, coordinate, and deliver integrated platform releases and improvements.
• Driving continuous improvement by streamlining workflows, reducing technical debt, and promoting sustainable engineering practices.

You have (Requirements) 

To be successful in this role, you will bring a strong technical foundation, curiosity across technologies, and a pragmatic approach to problem-solving.

• A degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent professional experience.
• Proven software development experience in one or more programming languages — ideally Python — with a track record of writing clean, maintainable, and efficient code.
• Demonstrable experience with database management systems, including relational (e.g. MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite, DuckDB) and NoSQL (e.g. MongoDB or similar) technologies.
• Relevant background on software and data engineering practices, including version control, release management, and deployment workflows.
• Ability to investigate, troubleshoot, and optimise system performance — from application-level debugging to infrastructure-level diagnostics.
• A continuous improvement mindset, proactively enhancing processes, tools, and team practices.
• Familiarity with collaborative development and project-tracking tools (e.g. GitHub, GitLab, Jira, Confluence).
• Experience working with large-scale or distributed computing environments, such as HPC clusters or cloud-based systems, and with containerisation technologies.
• Demonstrable ability to collaborate effectively across technical and scientific teams.
• Adaptability to work across a varied technology stack and willingness to learn new tools and frameworks as needed.

Behaviours

• You are curious about how systems work and have a desire to make them better.
• You are comfortable with some ambiguity and enjoy proposing and testing the best path forward.
• You want to make a positive impact on genomic research and open science.
• You believe in continual improvement — of infrastructure, tools, and yourself.
• You enjoy tackling challenging technical problems and finding elegant solutions.
• You thrive in collaborative environments and value learning from others.
• You are interested in applying your software skills to bioinformatics or related fields.

You might also have (Desirable)

While you might not have all of the following skills, having any of them would be an advantage:

• Familiarity with Perl, particularly for understanding or integrating existing components within the Ensembl ecosystem.
• Hands-on experience with Python frameworks such as FastAPI, Django, Ariadne, or SQLAlchemy.
• Proficiency with SQL and scripting in shell or similar environments.
• Experience with other programming languages such as Rust, Go, or TypeScript.
• Experience building and maintaining scalable, reliable, and robust backend systems and services.
• Proficiency with designing and implementing solutions for high availability, fault tolerance, and scalability.
• Understanding of distributed systems, microservices architecture, or cloud-native applications.
• Experience maintaining technical documentation, standard operating procedures (SOPs), and internal knowledge bases.
• Interest in using AI-assisted development tools to improve productivity, code and documentation quality.
• Practical experience with monitoring and observability tools (e.g. Prometheus, Grafana) or control-plane management systems.
• Experience working with large datasets and data-intensive pipelines.
• Experience in genomics or related scientific domains.
• Ability to communicate effectively with non-technical or cross-disciplinary stakeholders.
• A curiosity about genomics and biology, and the willingness to learn from domain experts.

To help build a picture of you in this role!

Your First Six Months…Typically within six months, Senior Platform developers in the Ensembl project will:

• Month 1: Contribute code through pull requests and participate in code reviews, becoming familiar with Ensembl’s development workflows and architecture.
• Month 3: Understand key platform components and data-release processes, collaborate across teams, and identify areas for technical or process improvement.
• Month 6: Present technical insights to the wider team, propose and begin implementing an improvement initiative, and lead code reviews and best-practice discussions.

Apply now! Benefits and Contract Information

• Financial incentives: depending on circumstances, monthly family/marriage allowance of £278 monthly child allowance of £336 per child. Non resident allowance up to £569 per month. Annual salary review, pension scheme, death benefit, long-term care, accident-at-work and unemployment insurances
• Hybrid working arrangements
• 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 to eight bank holidays
• Relocation package including installation grant (as applicable)
• 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, child sick leave, generous parental leave, holiday clubs on campus and monthly family and child allowances
• Contract duration: This position is a 3 year grant based contract
• Salary: Monthly salary starting at £3,695 after tax but excl. pension & insurances) + benefits (Total package will be dependent on family circumstances) 
• International applicants: We recruit internationally and successful candidates are offered visa exemptions. Read more on our page for international applicants.
• Diversity and inclusion: At EMBL-EBI, we strongly believe that inclusive and diverse teams benefit from higher levels of innovation and creative thought. We encourage applications from women, LGBTQ+ and individuals from all nationalities.
• Job location: This role is based in Hinxton, near Cambridge, UK. You will be required to relocate if you are based overseas and you will receive a generous relocation package to support you.

How to Apply

Job Categories: Equal Opportunities. Job Types: Full-Time. Salaries: 60,000 - 80,000.

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