Software Development Project Lead

Overview

Join EMBL's European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL‑EBI) and lead the engineer team behind one of the world’s largest biomedical literature resources.

As Software Development Project Lead you will provide technical leadership for Europe PMC, a globally recognised open science platform used by millions of researchers annually.

Responsibilities

• Lead the technical development and long‑term architecture of Europe PMC and associated services.
• Define technical roadmaps to ensure the platform continues to scale in response to rapid growth in data volumes, AI capabilities and user demand.
• Lead, mentor and develop a team of software engineers, supporting both delivery and career development.
• Work across product, software engineering and data science teams to deliver new features and AI‑enabled services.
• Prioritise development work using Agile methodologies, balancing new functionality, operational stability and technical debt.
• Oversee large‑scale data ingestion and processing pipelines from multiple international content providers.
• Ensure the reliability, performance and availability of Europe PMC’s production services.
• Contribute to software engineering best practice, architecture, resource planning and delivery processes.
• Collaborate with colleagues across EMBL‑EBI and with international partners to deliver shared infrastructure and strategic initiatives.
• Required Qualifications
• Degree in Computer Science or equivalent professional experience.
• Experience managing technical delivery in Agile environments (Scrum, Kanban).
• Experience designing, building and operating large‑scale, high‑availability systems handling substantial data volumes and user traffic.
• Experience recruiting, mentoring and supporting software engineers.
• Strong stakeholder management skills and excellent communication.
• Strong technical expertise in Java and Spring, SQL and No SQL databases (including Mongo DB), Apache Solr/Lucene, RESTful and SOAP web services, Unix/Linux, shell scripting, Git/Git Lab, modern software development workflows and issue tracking (JIRA or similar).
• Application performance optimisation, debugging, production support, software testing, deployment and engineering best practices.
• Significant experience leading software engineering teams and developing people.
• Preferred Experience
• Experience with scientific data resources, bioinformatics or biological databases.
• Experience in scientific publishing, scholarly communications or research information systems.
• Experience developing systems that process terabyte‑scale datasets.
• Experience with modern Java Script frameworks such as Vue. js or React.
• Experience using high‑performance or distributed computing environments, including Slurm.
• Experience supporting machine learning workflows or production ML pipelines.
• Interest in open science, scholarly communication and developing services that accelerate scientific discovery.
• Contract & Salary

Initial 3‑year fixed‑term Staff Member contract with potential for extension based on grant‑funding.

Monthly salary starting at £4,395.66 after tax, excluding pension and insurance contributions.

Benefits

• Pension scheme and annual salary review.
• Private medical insurance for you and immediate family.
• Paid leave: 30 days annual leave plus public holidays.
• Flexible working arrangements including hybrid options.
• Relocation package including installation grant where required.
• Diversity & Inclusion

At EMBL‑EBI we welcome applicants from all genders, identities, nationalities and other diverse backgrounds.

Our employer is a signatory of DORA and actively promotes diversity and inclusion in our teams.

Closing Date

Applications close on Sunday 26July2026.

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