Senior Platform Developer

In this role, you will help shape the Ensembl platform's technical direction, applying your expertise to build reliable, scalable systems and guide best practices across teams. You will work with modern technologies such as Terraform, Kubernetes, Git Lab CI/CD, and multiple data services, ensuring the platform continues to deliver genomic data efficiently and reliably at scale.

The Ensembl project and EMBL-EBI are looking for a Senior Platform Developer to help develop, maintain and evolve the infrastructure underpinning our next generation resources (beta.ensembl.org). Ensembl provides open-access, high-quality genome data spanning the tree of life from human to crops, disease vectors, pathogens and bacteria. We provide access to genes, variants, epigenomes and comparative genomics. By joining us, you'll play a vital role in enabling researchers to contextualise and understand biological systems, accelerating discoveries that transform science worldwide.

• CI/CD automation to improve reliability and deployment speed.
• Developing and maintaining robust APIs (REST, gRPC, Graph
  
  QL) that balance performance, scalability, and operational simplicity.
• Integrating and managing containerised environments on Kubernetes and cloud platforms to support evolving project needs.
• Overseeing access and performance for high-availability MySQL, Mongo
  
  DB, and Redis clusters, ensuring stability under heavy workloads.
• Architecting resilient backend systems, identifying root causes of complex performance issues, and implementing lasting solutions.
• Enhancing observability and monitoring to deliver proactive insights into system performance and availability.
• Providing technical guidance and mentorship, supporting team members through design discussions, code reviews, and knowledge sharing.
• Evaluating and advocating for appropriate tools, frameworks, and technologies, selecting the right solution for each problem space.
• Collaborating with Ensembl teams to plan, coordinate, and deliver integrated platform releases and improvements.
• Driving continuous improvement by streamlining workflows, reducing technical debt, and promoting sustainable engineering practices.

• A strong technical foundation, curiosity across technologies, and a pragmatic approach to problem-solving.
• A degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent professional experience.
• Proven software development experience in one or more programming languages – ideally Python – with a track record of writing clean, maintainable, and efficient code.
• Demonstrable experience with database management systems, including relational (e.g. MySQL, Postgre
  
  SQL, SQLite, DuckDB) and No
  
  SQL (e.g. Mongo
  
  DB or similar) technologies.
• Relevant background on software and data engineering practices, including version control, release management, and deployment workflows.
• Ability to investigate, troubleshoot, and optimise system performance – from application-level debugging to infrastructure-level diagnostics.
• A continuous improvement mindset, proactively enhancing processes, tools, and team practices.
• Familiarity with collaborative development and project-tracking tools (e.g. Git Hub, Git Lab, Jira, Confluence).
• Experience working with large-scale or distributed computing environments, such as HPC clusters or cloud-based systems, and with containerisation technologies.
• Demonstrable ability to collaborate effectively across technical and scientific teams.
• Adaptability to work across a varied technology stack and willingness to learn new tools and frameworks as needed.

• You are curious about how systems work and have a desire to make them better.
• You are comfortable with some ambiguity and enjoy proposing and testing the best path forward.
• You want to make a positive impact on genomic research and open science.
• You believe in continual improvement – of infrastructure, tools, and yourself.
• You enjoy tackling challenging technical problems and finding elegant solutions.
• You thrive in collaborative environments and value learning from others.
• You are interested in applying your software skills to bioinformatics or related fields.

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