Senior Full Stack Software Engineer (SaaS Platform) - Pathogen

At the Ellison Institute of Technology (EIT), we are on a mission to translate scientific discovery into real world impact. We bring together visionary scientists, technologists, policy makers, and entrepreneurs to tackle humanity's greatest challenges in four transformative areas:

• Health, Medical Science & Generative Biology
• Food Security & Sustainable Agriculture
• Climate Change & Managing CO₂
• Artificial Intelligence & Robotics

This is ambitious work – demanding curiosity, courage, and a relentless drive to make a difference. At EIT, you will join a community built on excellence, innovation, tenacity, trust, and collaboration, where bold ideas become real‑world breakthroughs.

Welcome to the Pathogen Project. The Pathogen Project exemplifies EIT’s dedication to ground‑breaking science. We seek to transform pathogen risk management, detection and response by leveraging Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS) based metagenomic and pathogen‑specific analytical tools. Our goal is to power metagenomic devices using long‑read sequencing technologies by building a comprehensive database of pathogen information to inform response and advance towards certified diagnostic tools for deployment in laboratories, hospitals, and public health organisations worldwide.

Your Role: As a Senior Full Stack Software Engineer, you will design, build, and maintain our web‑based SaaS platform that enables researchers and clinicians to engage with our scientific pipelines and data platform. Your work will shape a world‑class experience for a diverse set of users, enabling step‑changes in global genomics research and clinical practice. In addition to hands‑on engineering, you will provide technical oversight, mentor junior engineers, and drive improvements in standards, security, observability, and overall product quality. You will collaborate closely with engineers, product managers, bioinformaticians, and platform specialists to deliver secure, reliable, and high‑quality software.

Key Responsibilities:

• Design, build, and maintain full‑stack features for the GPAS Portal and new web applications.
• Contribute to technical architecture for new tools and help evolve the existing platform’s design and long‑term maintainability.
• Collaborate cross‑functionally with product, bioinformatics, and platform teams to translate scientific needs into user‑focused tools.
• Lead by example through hands‑on coding, code reviews, and mentoring junior engineers.
• Ensure scalability and reliability of the overall solution, handling large amounts of genomic and other multi‑modal data.
• Drive best practices for security, testing, CI/CD, and observability across the stack.
• Enhance performance and responsiveness of user interfaces for data‑heavy applications.
• Champion usability, ensuring interfaces meet the needs of clinicians and researchers.
• Continuously improve development workflows through automation, tooling, and documentation.

Essential Knowledge, Skills and Experience:

• Proven experience as a Full Stack Engineer in production applications.
• Strong skills in React or a similar TypeScript front‑end framework.
• Proficiency in Python, with experience in FastAPI (or similar API frameworks), and SQL databases.
• Hands‑on experience with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, or Oracle Cloud) and managed services.
• Experience with Docker, Kubernetes, CI/CD automation, and Git‑based collaborative workflows.
• Knowledge of secure, scalable architectures, e.g., microservices and serverless (e.g., Oracle Functions, AWS Lambda).
• Understanding of Agile development.
• Knowledge of security best practices and secure software development.

Desirable Knowledge, Skills and Experience:

• Experience with Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI).
• Experience with event‑based architecture, e.g., Kafka.
• Experience with Jira, Confluence, or similar project‑management tools.
• Experience mentoring junior engineers and promoting engineering excellence.
• Familiarity with UX collaboration tools (e.g., Figma) and accessibility best practices.
• Knowledge of relevant ISO standards (e.g., ISO27001) and SaMD certification.
• Knowledge of Nextflow.

Key Attributes:

• Collaboration.
• Willingness to learn and cross‑train / upskill in new technology.
• Willingness to be hands‑on to explore new technology or develop POCs.
• Strong problem‑solving and analytical skills, with the ability to think critically about security challenges.
• Excellent communication and teamwork abilities, particularly in cross‑functional teams.
• Ability to manage multiple tasks and meet deadlines in a fast‑paced, dynamic environment.
• Attention to detail and a strong commitment to security and quality assurance.
• Flexibility to adapt and contribute to a rapidly scaling organisation.

Benefits:

• Enhanced holiday pay.
• Pension.
• Life Assurance.
• Income Protection.
• Private Medical Insurance.
• Hospital Cash Plan.
• Therapy Services.
• Perk Box.
• Electrical Car Scheme.

Working Together – What It Involves: You must have the right to work permanently in the UK, with willingness to travel as necessary. In certain cases, we can consider sponsorship and this will be assessed on a case‑by‑case basis. You will live in, or within easy commuting distance of, Oxford (or be willing to relocate).