Research Software Engineer

Job Description

About Us

The Natural History Museum is both a world-leading science research centre and the most visited natural history museum in Europe. With a vision of a future in which both people and the planet thrive, it is uniquely positioned to be a powerful champion for balancing humanity’s needs with those of the natural world.

It is custodian of one of the world’s most important scientific collections comprising over 80 million objects. The scale of this collection enables researchers from all over the world to document how species have and continue to respond to environmental changes - which is vital in helping predict what might happen in the future and informing future policies and plans to help the planet.

We are at a pivotal moment in our history as we launch a new strategy setting out our role as the natural world faces increasing threats. Building on our world-leading collection, global reputation for science and as one of the world’s leading visitor attractions, the NHM has ambitious plans leading up to the 150 anniversary of the opening of the Waterhouse Building in 2031, making this a truly exciting time to be part of the NHM team.

The Museum Informatics Group is responsible for delivering the museum’s digital science innovation and leads several international initiatives to digitise natural history collections and exploit the associated data. The small team of informaticians build and sustain critical science and open data systems, including the Scratchpads (http://scratchpads.eu) and the NHM Data Portal (https://data.nhm.ac.uk/), and work on significant international collaborative initiatives like SYNTHESYS (https://www.synthesys.info/) and DiSSCo (https://www.dissco.eu/).

About the role

We are seeking a full-time Research Software Engineer to work within the Museum Informatics Group, building systems to support the research data outputs of Museum scientists and the global biodiversity community, with a focus on the Scratchpads Virtual Research Environment (http://scratchpads.eu).

You will help lead delivery of one of the Informatics Group’s key aims of delivering semantically rich interfaces to our research datasets. This will involve collaboration with Museum scientists on existing Informatics projects, as well as conceiving and prototyping your own solutions. Some of the problems we’re trying to solve are: how to integrate our systems and data points into the biodiversity data knowledge graph; given a name on a specimen label, how do we connect the text to the real person, and their contributions to the scientific domain? The role will sit under an Informatics Technical Lead, but would best suit someone experienced in delivering self-led projects.

The position will be based at the museum in South Kensington, London, but UK-based remote working is supported.

About you

Strong knowledge in programming in PHP and Drupal and knowledge of additional languages (particularly R and Python) an advantage.

RDBMS development, ideally PostgreSQL or MySQL

You should feel comfortable working with version control (preferably Git/GitHub)and Linux administration and Apache configuration

Configuring and managing multi-server applications, featuring load balancing, proxy caching and multiple databases, you should have good knowledge of semantic data and AI technologies, or an interest in learning.

You will also be working with a wide variety of stakeholders, to effectively translate user needs into technical solutions

An interest in natural science and biodiversity is an advantage

What we offer

• 27.5 days holiday plus 8 bank holidays (full time equivalent)
• Generous defined contribution Natural History Museum Pension Scheme (employer contribution up to 10%)
• Free admission to our exhibitions and many other paid exhibitions at museums, galleries and institutions across the country, such as the British Museum, V&A, National Gallery, Royal Academy and Tate
• Affordable membership to the Civil Service Sports Council which offers a range of benefits including a free digital Tastecard, discounted cinema tickets and corporate membership of English Heritage sites (including Dover Castle and Stonehenge). For more details, visit https://www.cssc.co.uk
• Membership to our Sports and Social Association (for a small fee), which includes access to our in-house gym and clubs such as football, softball, table tennis and tennis and classes in Middle Eastern dance, yoga and Tai Chi
• Staff discounts at a range of local businesses and services
• Staff discount at our Museum shops and cafes
• Season ticket, bicycle and rental loans
• Eye care vouchers
• Professional development opportunities - We are committed to the professional development of our staff and offer a range of courses to ensure they reach their potential. We also sponsor professional qualifications and job-related professional membership fees.