Genomics Bioinformatics Software Engineer

Job description

Job responsibilities

• The role is National and may involve travel to UKHSA locations in England for some meetings and site visits.
• The above is only an outline of the tasks, responsibilities and outcomes required of the role. You will carry out any other duties as may reasonably be required by your line manager.
• The job description and person specification may be reviewed on an ongoing basis in accordance with the changing needs of the division and UKHSA.
• It should be noted that the work of the division is of a confidential nature and must not be communicated to other persons except where required for authorised purposes.

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

• Identify, discuss and action own professional performance and training / development needs with your line manager through appraisal / individual development plan. Attending internal / external training events
• To participate in all mandatory training as required, i.e., fire safety, information governance and all other mandatory training.

KEY WORKING RELATIONSHIPS

The post holder will develop working relationships and communicate regularly with a wide range of individuals, clinical and non-clinical, internal and external to UKHSA. This will include.

Internal:

• Members of Pathogen Genomics Teams
• Laboratory staff across the UKHSA
• ICT & Technology teams
• Members of Laboratory Quality Manager Teams
• Staff within Laboratory Informatics Team

External:

• LIMS vendors
• NHS Trust ICT & Technology teams
• External stakeholders including customers and diverse external institutions
• National and international regulatory authorities

We pride ourselves as being an employer of choice, where Everyone Matters promoting equality opportunity to actively encourage applications from everyone, including groups currently underrepresented in our workforce.

UKHSA ethos is to be an inclusive organisation for all our staff and stakeholders. To create, nurture and sustain an inclusive culture, where differences drive innovative solutions to meet the needs of our workforce and wider communities. We do this through celebrating and protecting differences by removing barriers and promoting equity and equality of opportunity for all.

Essential Criteria:

• Higher degree (i.e., MSc or above) in Computer Science or related discipline
• Extensive experience of designing, developing and delivering large and complex software solutions
• Experience of distributed computer resources e.g., Docker, Singularity
• Demonstrable skills in developing user interfaces for complex software systems
• Proven ability to write high quality software documentation and implementation of quality standards for coding among a team.
• Expert knowledge/experience of Unix, PostgreSQL or similar RDBMS. Knowledge of Cassandra or similar NoSQL Database architectures and Proven expert skills in at least one object-oriented programming language, preferably Java or C++
• Knowledge of deploying code on distributed computational resources HPC, public / private cloud
• Proven skills in developing and modifying code used for data analysis
• An understanding of and commitment to equality of opportunity and good working relationships, both in terms of day-to-day working practices, but also in relation to management systems

Desirable Criteria

• Excellent academic background in a relevant discipline preferred
• Experience of software used for pipeline development, e.g., NextFlow, Snakemake, Ansible
• Experience using data processing and visualization packages such as pandas, matplotlib and Plotly
• Experience of achieving software accreditation
• Experience in industry or academia of delivering multi-disciplinary projects within deadlines
• Experience of bioinformatics and an understanding of Next Generation Sequencing analytical techniques and advancements of medical microbiology and genomics.
• Experience in writing parallel code using libraries such as MPI
• Skills in project management of software delivery, in a collaborative environment using best practices concerning testing, documentation and version control using Git
• An understanding of the main concepts of public health microbiology.

Selection Process

You will be required to complete an application form. This will be assessed and sifted in line with the essential criteria.

This vacancy is using Success Profiles, and will assess your Behaviours and Experience

Stage 1: Application & Sift

As part of the application process, you will be asked to provide a Statement of Suitability in no more than 1250 words providing examples of how you meet the essential criteria. It should also detail what you and your experience can bring to the role. We suggest using the STAR (situation, task, action, result) method to demonstrate real-life examples for the specified essential criteria. Please note, only information provided within the stated word count will be considered.

If you are successful at this stage, you will progress to interview

Stage 2: Panel Interview

All applicants that progress to interview will be assessed on behaviours/ strengths/ experience / technical / ability through Success Profiles. The interview will be hosted remotely over teams and you will be required to do a 10 minute presentation

The Behaviours tested during the interview stage will be:

• Seeing the Bigger Picture
• Managing a Quality Service
• Delivering at Pace

Reserve List:

Candidates who pass the interview criteria but are not offered a post will be kept on a reserve list for 12 months and may be contacted if similar roles become available.

If you are interviewed for the post and do not meet the required threshold for the specified grade, your application may be assessed against a similar, lower grade role and you may be offered the post should one be available.

DBS - People working with government systems must complete Basic Personnel Security Standard (BPSS) checks which includes a disclosure and barring security check. Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed for this role is BPSS however there may be a requirement for this role to be SC cleared and you should familiarise yourself with the criteria of security clearance.

This role is Open to all external applicants (anyone) from outside the Civil Service (including by definition internal applicants. Appointments to roles within UKHSA will be made in accordance with the Civil Service nationality rules. These can be found athttps://www.gov.uk/government/publications/nationality-rulesThis job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• Nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• Nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• Nationals from the EU, EEA or Switzerland with settled or pre-settled status or who apply for either status by the deadline of theEuropean Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• Relevant EU, EEA, Swiss or Turkish nationals working in the Civil Service
• Relevant EU, EEA, Swiss or Turkish nationals who have built up the right to work in the Civil Service
• Certain family members of the relevant EU, EEA, Swiss or Turkish nationals

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's Recruitment Principles.

The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.

The Civil Service welcomes applications from people who have recently left prison or have an unspent conviction. Read more about prison leaver recruitment.

Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Government baseline personnel security standard

Its important to note that there are currently exceptions to applications being considered if your conviction relates to any of the following:

• life sentences
• arson
• sexual offences
• hate and terror offences

Some departments will also consider the specific offence against the nature of the business, i.e., a conviction for fraud may rule you out for a finance role

Contact Details Sophie.Rigney@reed.com

Person Specification

Education & Qualifications

Essential

• oHigher degree (i.e., MSc or above) in Computer Science or related discipline

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

Certificate of Sponsorship

Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).

From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).

Employer details

Employer name

UK Health Security Agency

Address

Colindale

London

NW9 5EQ

Employer's website

https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/uk-health-security-agency (Opens in a new tab)