Senior Scientific Developer CR1289 & ID3886
| Posting date: | 04 August 2025 |
|---|---|
| Salary: | £41,220 to £49,020 per year |
| Additional salary information: | National - £41,220 - £45,400 London (Weybridge) - £44,500 - £49,020 Salary pro-rata for part time This post is eligible for a technical specialist pay allowance of up to £6k, subject to a skills assessment after 3 months in post. |
| Hours: | Full time |
| Closing date: | 23 August 2025 |
| Location: | Weybridge |
| Company: | Government Recruitment Service |
| Job type: | Permanent |
| Job reference: | 406346/1 |
Summary
The Software Development Team, in the Department of Epidemiological Sciences, builds and maintains bespoke infrastructure and software applications spanning multiple high impact areas including disease management databases, simulation models to inform disease control policy, and specialist scientific computing infrastructure for scientists across Defra group.
This senior post manages delivery on a range of technical science projects by negotiating scope; planning and monitoring delivery; quality assuring outputs, ensuring appropriate maintenance; and supporting effective resource allocation. The role specialises in the development of business applications for the collection and management of corporate data assets but also supports software development and IT engineering activities of the wider software development team.
This is a specialised senior role requiring both team and project management skills, software development experience, and understanding of IT systems within the scientific domain. The outputs from this work will support important capabilities concerning animal disease control in the UK.
You will work as part of a small team within the Data Systems Group (DSG) responsible for IT systems hosted on the corporate (Windows) environment.
- Technical focus will be on the design, development, delivery and on-going maintenance of data capture solutions both new and existing. You will have a track record of deploying web-form based solutions written in C# or VB.net and SQL database skills.
- As the senior developer you will provide an Intelligent Customer Function while liaising with Stakeholders (both internal e.g. Defra and external e.g. University research depts.) Drawing on experience you will advise stakeholder and take a prominent role in leading on aspects relating to product design, typically this will include the capture of data from disparate sets and the automation of current paper-based systems.
- An important element of this role will be to provide consultancy on the data capture and processing; ensuring reliability, consistency and quality are maintained to ISO9001 standards.
- A key element of the design process will be the creation and maintenance of all documentation for systems they are responsible for, including meta-data.
- Meeting customer goals will include the timely delivery of all data outputs either through the automation of existing reporting processes or on an ad-hoc basis to meet specific customer needs. This may require the use of data interrogation tools such as PowerBI, SSRS or SQL queries.
- There will be an expectation of active involvement in the wider initiatives that are of relevance or may impact your work e.g. contributing to the APHA response to the Livestock Information Project (LIP).
- Line management responsibilities of staff.
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