Funding End Date 31 Aug 2028 Hours per week 37 Project Title Senior Project Software Developer (COPO) Months Duration 24 Flexible Options Although full-time hours are available, applications from those interested in working part-time hours are also welcomed.
Job Description Main Purpose of the Job The Earlham Institute is seeking a versatile full-stack Research Software Engineer (RSE) to join the team behind COPO (Collaborative OPen Omics).
COPO is a production-deployed metadata and data-brokering platform that has been developed and operated at the Institute since 2015. COPO underpins some of the largest biodiversity genomics programmes attempted to date, having brokered more than 80,000 samples from over 4,800 species to public repositories such as the European Nucleotide Archive, with automated validation, expert curation and full audit trails.
The successful candidate will join the small engineering team that builds and operates COPO, contributing across the full stack -frontend interfaces, APIs, and the services that connect them to the platform's validation, curation and submission pipelines. Data visualisation, dashboards and API design will be at the centre of the role, but the post is deliberately broad: COPO supports a range of research communities and projects, and the work varies with the needs of those the platform serves.
This is a broadly scoped full-stack role with metadata validation, translation, visualisation and API design as its primary focus. It suits an engineer who enjoys turning complex scientific data into clear, reliable, well-documented interfaces that researchers and the wider community can depend on. Being a senior, hands-on role, you will own significant components of the project end to end, make day-to-day architectural decisions, and drive delivery to time.
Key Relationships Internal: COPO Team Lead / Group Leader (direction, prioritisation, line management); the COPO development team of fellow engineers and frontend developers (collaboration, code review, and mentoring); EI bioinformaticians and research scientists (scientific and metadata requirements); Scientific Computing / IT infrastructure teams (compute, storage and platform services); and project managers / programme coordinators (planning, reporting and effort estimates).
External: genomics and biodiversity programmes and projects that COPO supports; EMBL-EBI / ELIXIR services such as ENA and BioSamples; other public repositories and registries such as Zenodo and DataCite; metadata-standards communities including RO-Crate, ISA, MIxS, Darwin Core and Bioschemas; and the wider open-source community and downstream COPO users.
Main Activities & Responsibilities Dashboards, data visualisation and data portals
- Design, build and maintain interactive dashboards and public data portals, from data model through to production deployment.
- Translate complex, multi-source scientific metadata into clear, accurate and accessible visualisations.
- Build reporting and summary views that are reproducible and auditable, including snapshots for governance and reporting.
- Apply good practice in accessibility, responsive design and information design so that outputs are usable by researchers and the public alike.
APIs and backend services
- Develop, document and maintain RESTful APIs that expose metadata in multiple formats for internal tools and external consumers.
- Integrate frontend and portal services with COPO's validation, curation and submission pipelines.
- Ensure APIs are performant, versioned, secure and well documented so third parties can build against them with minimal support.
Full-stack engineering and platform contribution
- Contribute across the COPO codebase: frontend, backend and supporting services as a flexible member of a small engineering team.
- Write clean, tested, maintainable code with appropriate use of version control, code review, CI/CD and containerisation (Git, Docker).
- Help deploy and operate COPO instances, working with colleagues on deployment, monitoring, backup and reliability.
Collaboration, standards and support
- Work closely with the technical lead and engineering colleagues to extend the platform and its metadata standards.
- Help add support for new data types and metadata schemas, and reflect these in the interfaces and APIs you build.
- Support research users onboarding onto the platform, including documentation, tutorials and responsive help.
- Produce clear technical documentation and contribute to open-source releases under permissive licences.
- As agreed with line manager, any other duties commensurate with the nature of the role.
Person Profile Education & Qualifications Requirement Importance Degree (or equivalent professional/practical experience) in computer science, software engineering, bioinformatics or a related discipline Essential
Specialist Knowledge & Skills Requirement Importance Proficiency with version control (Git) and collaborative development workflows, including code review Essential Understanding of FAIR data principles, ontologies or controlled vocabularies Essential An understanding of, and willingness to apply, good engineering practice: automated testing, clear documentation and basic security awareness Essential Able to translate complex requirements into clear, usable interfaces, with strong attention to accuracy and detail Essential Familiarity with cloud or research-computing infrastructure Desirable Exposure to genomics, biodiversity, ecology or a related life-science domain Desirable
Requirement Importance Demonstrable experience building and maintaining full-stack web applications in JavaScript and a backend language (Python preferred) Essential Experience designing, building and documenting RESTful APIs Essential Experience with containerisation and deployment (Docker; CI/CD pipelines) Essential Experience designing and building data visualisations or dashboards, using libraries such as Plotly, D3, or equivalent Desirable Experience working with structured or scientific data, metadata standards, or data-intensive systems Desirable
Management and Leadership Requirement Importance Experience mentoring, coaching or line-managing other developers Essential
Interpersonal & Communication Skills Requirement Importance Committed to open, reproducible and well-tested software Essential Able to work both independently and as a flexible, collaborative member of a small team Essential Good written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to produce clear technical documentation and explain technical matters to non-specialists Essential Comfortable working with, and responsive to, a distributed community of research users Essential Able to work independently, use initiative and apply problem solving skills Essential
Additional Requirements Requirement Importance Promotes equality and values diversity Essential Attention to detail Essential Willingness to embrace the expected values and behaviours of all staff at the Institute, ensuring it is a great place to work Essential Able to present a positive image of self and the Institute, promoting both the international reputation and public engagement aims of the Institute Essential Willingness to work outside standard working hours when required Essential Ability to maintain confidentiality and security of information where appropriate Essential
Who We Are About the Earlham Institute
The Earlham Institute harnesses the power of data-driven biology to accelerate solutions for health, biodiversity, and food security. Based at Norwich Research Park, the Earlham Institute is one of eight institutes strategically funded by BBSRC.
Our science combines world-class technology, interdisciplinary expertise, and training and development across genomics, engineering biology and data science, to decode the scale and complexity of living systems.
We believe we can achieve more if we work together. That's why we collaborate with the global science community and industry partners, while also inspiring the next generation of scientists and technical specialists.
Our Science
Earlham Institute scientists specialise in developing and testing the latest tools and approaches needed to decode living systems and make biological predictions.
We are home to state-of-the-art facilities and technology, creating a unique combination of expertise and infrastructure.
We have dedicated laboratories for genome sequencing, single-cell analysis, engineering biology, and large-scale automation; as well as one of the largest supercomputing facilities for life science research in Europe.
Our Advanced Training team also provides access to specialised scientific training to upskill the next generation of research and technical staff.
Our Culture
Our collegiate and innovative research environment comes with significant support, including a commitment to your professional development, research and administrative assistance, and opportunities to build collaborations with scientists and industry on the Norwich Research Park, across the UK, and internationally.
The Institute is also home to talented technical and operational staff, whose invaluable contributions enable our science to have the maximum impact. We aim to recognise, reward, and develop all staff and students so that every individual feels able to achieve their best with us.
We work hard to nurture an engaged and positive workplace, centred on core values that include openness, technical excellence, and collaboration . click apply for full job details