Principal Engineer - FTC; office locations

Position: Principal Engineer - 1 Year FTC  (we have office locations  and )
Company Description

Genomics England is a global leader in enabling genomic medicine and research, focused on creating a world where everyone benefits from genomic healthcare. Building on the 100,000 Genomes Project, we support the NHS’s world-first national whole genome sequencing service and run the growing National Genomic Research Library, alongside delivering numerous major genomics initiatives. By connecting research and clinical care at national scale, we enable immediate healthcare benefits and advances for the future.

Our mission is to provide the evidence and digital systems so that by 2035 genomics could play a role in up to half of all healthcare interactions, whilst securing the UK’s position as the best place to discover, prove and benefit from genomic innovations.

We are accelerating our impact and working with patients, doctors, scientists, government and industry to improve genomic testing, and help researchers access the health data and technology they need to make new medical discoveries and create more effective, targeted medicines for everybody.

Behind the Healthcare and Research outcomes, Genomics England delivers through designing, developing and operating complex healthcare software systems.

We're on the cusp of big changes with the real prospect of genomics becoming the fabric of everyday healthcare through the lifetime - from birth to old age.

Job Description

About the Role

As a Principal Engineer at Genomics England, you will be a hands-on contributor with exemplary engineering skills, who also has an ability to think strategically to define architectural directions. You may have previously worked under a variety of different job titles within engineering and/or architecture, and you may have worked in a variety of organisational contexts. Whatever your past experience, it will have given you both technical breadth and depth.

You will be a problem-solver who identifies risks, issues, gaps, and dependencies and brings people together to find solutions. You will do this through your supportive, empathetic and collaborative behaviours - acting as coach, mentor, guide or constructive questioner as the situation demands. You are pragmatic but also mindful of the big picture - consciously balancing the immediate goals of teams against the long-term direction for their products.

About the Tech Stack

Our bio-pipelines platform works across both on-premise High-Performance Compute clusters to AWS, and our workflows are orchestrated in Python / Next Flow. We leverage best-in-class tools like Dragen to do some of the heavy-lifting. We use things like Python, Mongo

DB and Dynamo

DB to deliver RESTful services that provide authoritative data for use during processing. We are working to become interoperable with the wider NHS via open standards like FHIR and GA4GH APIs. We have a standard tool chain which includes Terraform for infrastructure-as-code, Git Lab for source code and CI/CD, Artifactory for software artefacts and Data Dog for observability.

Key Responsibilities

Work alongside product managers, squad engineers, bioinformaticians and other subject matter experts to continuously evolve a roadmap for change.
Be the voice of technical excellence in any conversation, ensuring that the functional, safety and operational characteristics of our products are continuously improving.
Stay abreast of emerging technologies and industry trends, and incorporate them into our software development practices.
Contribute to the wider conversation at Genomics England and help mature our technical practices.

Essential Skills and Experience

Strong software engineering skills and awareness of software design patterns (Python preferred, Typescript/React desirable, polyglot ideal)
Knowledge of different database types and their applicability in a given context (Postgres/Aurora, Mongo

DB and Elastic/Open Search are in use at Genomics England)
Experience shaping and guiding architectural choices, both tactical as well as long-term architectural strategy and direction

Experience of API schema design and evolution
Dev Ops experience (CI/CD, Infrastructure as Code, operational monitoring and alerting)
Experience in at least one major public cloud (AWS preferred but not essential)
Strong interpersonal skills with a temperament that builds trust and connection within and across squads through open, honest communication
Comfortable engaging responsively with teams both remotely and in person when required
Ability to navigate rapidly to effective solutions through engaged and inclusive listening, clarity of thought, clear documentation, and succinct presentation

Desirable Experience

These skills are not essential but if you have any of them, they may be a good indicator that you would be well prepared to hit the ground running:

Background in healthcare or bioinformatics
Experience in regulated environments
Familiarity with workflow technologies like Apache Airflow or Next Flow
Proficiency in handling large, complex datasets using tools like…