Research Software Engineers (All Levels) - Generative Biology Institute

Led by a world-class faculty of scientists, technologists, policy makers, economists and entrepreneurs, the Ellison Institute of Technology aims to develop and deploy commercially sustainable solutions to solve some of humanity’s most enduring challenges. Our work is guided by four Humane Endeavours: Health, Medical Science & Generative Biology, Food Security & Sustainable Agriculture, Climate Change & Managing Atmospheric CO2 and Artificial Intelligence & Robotics.

Set for completion in 2027, the EIT Campus in Littlemore will include more than 300,000 sq ft of research laboratories, educational and gathering spaces. Fuelled by growing ambition and the strength of Oxford’s science ecosystem, EIT is now expanding its footprint to a 2 million sq ft Campus across the western part of The Oxford Science Park. Designed by Foster + Partners led by Lord Norman Foster, this will become a transformative workplace for up to 7,000 people, with autonomous laboratories, purpose-built laboratories including a plant sciences building and dynamic spaces to spark interdisciplinary collaboration.

The Generative Biology Institute (GBI) at the Ellison Institute of Technology (EIT) aims to overcome two major challenges in making biology engineerable: 1) the ability to precisely synthesize entire genomes, and 2) understanding which DNA sequences will create biological systems that perform desired functions. Solving these challenges will unlock the potential of biology for transformative solutions in health, sustainability, agriculture, and more. GBI will house 30 groups and over 300 researchers, supported by cutting-edge facilities and sustained funding to address global challenges and advance biology engineering.

EIT fosters a culture of collaboration, innovation, and resilience, valuing diverse expertise to drive sustainable solutions to humanity’s enduring challenges.

The Research Software Engineers within GBI will support the design, development, and optimization of software systems and computational frameworks that underpin cutting-edge biological and biomedical research. Reporting to the Head of Scientific Compute, this role bridges scientific inquiry and advanced computing, creating scalable, efficient, and reproducible software solutions that enable GBI’s researchers to harness complex data analysis workflows.

The Research Software Engineer will collaborate closely with scientists, data engineers, and HPC specialists to ensure that computational workflows and applications are performant, maintainable, and aligned with the Institute’s long-term scientific and technical vision.

We will be hiring either at the regular or senior level, depending on the applicant’s experience.

At the senior level, the Senior Research Software Engineer will lead the research and development of novel HPC-capable scientific research software such as new approaches to scientific computing, or the integration of novel compute platforms (including novel ASICs and Quantum Computers) into research workflows at GBI.

 Key Responsibilities:

• Design and develop high-performance, maintainable, and reusable research software to support large-scale biological and biomedical data analysis.
• Collaborate with researchers to translate scientific requirements into robust computational solutions and production-grade tools.
• Build and optimize AI and scientific data processing pipelines, using modern workflow management systems (e.g., Nextflow, Snakemake, CWL, WDL, etc).
• Implement software engineering best practices, including version control (Git, CI/CD), testing, continuous integration, and documentation.
• Benchmark, profile, and optimize computational workloads for maximum performance, scalability, and efficient use of HPC and cloud environments.
• Work closely with the HPC team to ensure seamless deployment and scaling of applications across on-premise and hybrid infrastructures.
• Support reproducibility and transparency in research through containerization (Singularity, Docker, etc) and workflow orchestration (Nextflow, Kubernetes, OpenHPC, etc).
• Contribute to long-term software and infrastructure strategy in alignment with the Head of Scientific Compute.

Additional responsibilities at the senior level:

• Collaborate with GBI staff to research novel compute platforms (e.g. novel ASICs, or Quantum Computers).
• Lead research and development into novel scientific workflow technologies (such as cloud-aware workflow schedulers, scientific data management solutions, quantum algorithms, etc)
• Develop APIs, services, and data interfaces that enable interoperability between systems and research platforms.

Essential Knowledge, Skills and Experience:

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Computational Biology, Engineering, or a related field (PhD desirable)
• 3+ years (5+ years at the senior level) of professional experience in software engineering, preferably within a scientific or research environment.
• Ability to work closely with multidisciplinary research teams to deliver computational tools that advance scientific goals.
• Strong communication skills for explaining technical concepts to scientific audiences and non-specialists alike.
• Proven track record of mentoring, collaboration, or technical leadership in research computing projects.

Technical Expertise

At the regular level:

• Experience working with workflow management systems (Nextflow, Snakemake, CWL, or WDL).
• Experience integrating software into HPC or cloud environments (AWS, GCP, Azure, or hybrid systems).
• Understanding of scientific computing, or data science workflows.

At the senior level:

• Familiarity with parallel and distributed computing frameworks and techniques (MPI, CUDA, OpenMP, etc).
• Experience integrating software into both HPC and cloud environments (AWS, GCP, Azure, or hybrid systems).
• Extensive experience working with workflow management systems (Nextflow, Snakemake, CWL, or WDL).
• Experience with bioinformatics, computational biology, scientific computing, or data science workflows.

At all levels:

• Proficiency in one or more key programming languages (e.g., Python, Julia, C/C++, Java, or Rust).
• Proven experience developing software for scientific research, data analysis, or computational biology.
• Strong understanding of modern software engineering practices, including CI/CD, testing, and containerization.

We offer the following benefits:

• Enhanced holiday pay
• Pension
• Life Assurance
• Income Protection
• Private Medical Insurance
• Hospital Cash Plan
• Therapy Services
• Perk Box
• Electrical Car Scheme

Why work for EIT:

At the Ellison Institute, we believe a collaborative, inclusive team is key to our success. We are building a supportive environment where creative risks are encouraged, and everyone feels heard. Valuing emotional intelligence, empathy, respect, and resilience, we encourage people to be curious and to have a shared commitment to excellence. Join us and make an impact!

Terms of Appointment

• Applicants must have the right to work in the United Kingdom. Due to the highly specialized technical nature of the role, exceptional international applicants may be considered for sponsorship where appropriate.
• You must be based in, or within easy commuting distance of, Oxford.
• During peak periods, some longer hours may be required and some working across multiple time zones due to the global nature of the programme.