11609 - Senior Research Software Engineer / Research Software Engineers

We are looking for a Senior Research Software Engineer and two Research Software Engineers with experience developing, deploying and maintaining cloud-based data analysis services to join our team operating science platforms for multi-PB sky survey datasets used by the global astronomy community.

The Institute for Astronomy's Wide-Field Astronomy Unit (WFAU) is involved in the production and curation of a number of large sky survey datasets and supports astronomers analysing them. Increasingly, this involves the use of science platforms, which couple notebook-style programming interfaces and virtualised compute resources. These positions relate to the science platforms for the European Space Agency's Gaia mission and the Vera C. Rubin Observatory's Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST), both of which use OpenStack and Kubernetes technologies.

The two Research Software Engineer (RSE) posts - one for Gaia and one for Rubin LSST - will focus on the development and maintenance of existing science platforms for the two surveys, while the Senior RSE position has a service delivery responsibility, ensuring smooth operation of the UK's LSST Independent Data Access Centre.

All three posts are full-time (35 hours per week); however, we are open to considering part-time or flexible working patterns. The posts available from now to 31 December 2026, with the possibility of extension dependent on continuing funding streams. We are open to considering requests for hybrid working (on a non-contractual basis) that combines a mix of remote and regular on-campus working.

A degree in a relevant discipline.
Experience of data-intensive research projects.
Experience of cloud computing, virtualisation and distributed computing.
Experience of good software engineering practice.
Programming experience in Python.

Grade range UE07/UE08: £40,247 to £60,321 per annum, pro rata if part time.
School of Physics and Astronomy / College of Science and Engineering
Full time: 35 hours per week
Fixed Term: for 2 years
3 vacancies: Senior Research Software Engineer / Research Software Engineer (Rubin) / Research Software Engineer (Gaia)

The Opportunity