Senior Software Engineer, SCRIBE

About Us

We are a world-class visitor attraction and leading science research centre. We use the Museum's unique collections and our unrivalled expertise to tackle the biggest challenges facing the world today. We care for more than 80 million objects spanning billions of years and welcome more than five million visitors annually and 16 million visits to our website. Diversity and inclusion matter to us. Our vision is of a future where both people and the planet thrive. Diversity is one of our core values and we strive to build a workplace where everyone feels a sense of belonging. All new staff who join us learn about the importance of diversity and inclusion to the Museum and how to contribute to creating an inclusive environment. We know we have more to do, but we are committed to ensuring that everyone who works at the Museum feels they can thrive and feel valued and respected.

About the role

We are seeking a full-time Senior Software Engineer to lead the architecture, development, and operational delivery of the platform that powers SCRIBE (Structured Collection Records Interpretation and Bio-entity Extraction). This role sits within the AI & Informatics team in the Digital, Data & Informatics (DDI) division at the Natural History Museum. You’ll work closely with machine-learning researchers and domain experts across UK institutions, but your primary focus will be providing technical leadership for the design, development, deployment, and long-term sustainability of the SCRIBE platform. SCRIBE aims to scale AI-assisted digitisation across museums and heritage collections by providing a web-based system for transcribing structured document images and exporting validated, structured data. Part-funded by the Department for Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) and developed with DiSSCo UK partners, SCRIBE builds on a 2024–25 DCMS x NHM pilot, turning a proof-of-concept into a robust online service for UK collections-holding institutions.

In this role, you will provide technical leadership for platform engineering, architecture, deployment strategy, and engineering standards, working closely with the project’s dedicated AI data scientist to help define and integrate AI-based data transcription processes into a simple, easy-to-use interface. The postholder will make key technical decisions on system architecture, scalability, interoperability, security, deployment workflows, and the integration of AI services into production infrastructure. You’ll work across both the front end and back end of the system, designing and developing clean, intuitive web interfaces in JavaScript while architecting and implementing robust, scalable services in Python that power them. The ideal candidate will be an adaptable all-rounder, comfortable switching between user-facing features and the underlying infrastructure that makes them reliable, secure, maintainable, and performant. Domain knowledge in the biological and Earth sciences is not required; the wider team will provide expertise.

About you

We are looking for an experienced full-stack engineer with substantial experience developing Python web applications and backend services using frameworks such as FastAPI or Flask, alongside modern JavaScript or TypeScript frameworks such as React or Vue. You will be confident designing RESTful APIs and secure, scalable cloud infrastructure, ideally on AWS, and integrating AI and data-processing services into production systems. You will bring a strong understanding of accessibility and user-centred design, translating complex workflows into intuitive experiences for non-technical users. As a proactive technical leader and collaborative team member, you will be comfortable shaping architecture, leading delivery, working independently and communicating effectively with technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Thriving at the Museum: the way we work

We are proud to work at the Museum and have identified the qualities we all need to embody to reach our shared ambition. This sits alongside the Museum’s values and forms the framework for the way we work.

What we offer

• 27.5 days holiday plus 8 bank holidays (full time equivalent)
• Generous defined contribution Natural History Museum Pension Scheme (employer contribution 4 - 10%)
• Season ticket, bicycle and rental loan
• Life insurance
• Free admission to our exhibitions and many other paid exhibitions at museums, galleries and institutions across London and the UK.
• Staff discount at our Museum shops and cafes
• We offer a wide variety of training initiatives and opportunities to build skills. Investing in staff development is important to us, and we are ambitious about helping staff to grow and fulfil their potential.
• Affordable membership to the Civil Service Sports Council which offers a range of benefits including an extensive list of special offers and reduced entry fees at a selection of cinema chains, theme parks, theatres, retailers and supermarkets. It also provides entry to up to 300 English Heritage sites and other national treasures.
• 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.

Hybrid working

We are working towards a vision where both people and planet thrive, and nothing gives a greater connection with this, than seeing first-hand, the visitors, scientific research and collections that all of our work is inspired by and working side by side with the teams delivering the visitor experience and events. We also recognise the benefits and flexibility that hybrid working brings. We operate a hybrid working model that requires regular, weekly attendance for this role, with the precise pattern of days on site and worked from home to be agreed with your manager.

Closing date: 19 August 2026 at 23:59

First stage interviews expected: w/c 14 September 2026

Please note that this role does not qualify for Museum sponsorship so the successful postholder will need to have a valid right to work in the UK at the point of offer.