At a Glance
- Tasks: Lead the design and integration of cutting-edge health data systems for early disease detection.
- Company: Join a pioneering health research programme transforming lives through technology and data.
- Benefits: Competitive salary, generous holiday, flexible working, and wellbeing support.
- Other info: Collaborative culture with opportunities for mentorship and career growth.
- Why this job: Make a real impact in health research while working with innovative technologies.
- Qualifications: Experience in software architecture, cloud services, and secure data environments.
The predicted salary is between 120000 - 120000 € per year.
Our Future Health is an ambitious collaboration between the public, charity and private sectors, designed to help people live healthier lives for longer through better prevention, earlier detection and improved treatment of diseases. We will speed up the discovery of new methods of early disease detection, and the evaluation of new diagnostic tools, to help identify and treat diseases early, when outcomes are usually better. With over 2.5M volunteers across the UK, we’re now the world’s biggest health research programme of its kind, and our volunteer group is also more diverse than other, similar health research programmes.
Technology and data are central to our mission. Our systems power websites, clinics across the UK, secure analytics and research systems, pipelines that process highly sensitive health and genetic data, and we are continuing to grow our engineering capability to support this ambition.
We are looking for a Principal Engineer to join our Technology team to help lead the technical design, procurement, build and integration of the next iteration of the Our Future Health “trusted research environment” (TRE). Our current TRE has been successful but we are now thinking about our future challenges around scale and usability. The TRE is also key to unlocking the commercial revenue growth Our Future Health will be seeking over the next few years to ultimately become self-sustaining for the decades to come.
This role will involve representing Our Future Health in and collaborating with a wider community, working with our founding industry members, our users, other research organisations and biobanks. You will also be joining the wider Technology team at Our Future Heath at a very senior level and expected to take on typical engineering and architecture leadership activities.
Responsibilities include:- Work with technology and organisational leadership on long-term strategic initiatives, helping shape the future evolution of Our Future Health’s Trusted Research Environment (TRE) and wider research platform capabilities.
- Provide technical leadership across complex areas including trusted research environments, secure data platforms, health data, governance, privacy and regulated research environments.
- Contribute to organisation-wide technical roadmaps and cross-team initiatives, helping teams deliver scalable, secure and researcher-focused platform capabilities.
- Lead and contribute to technical decisions with significant architectural impact across the TRE, data platform and wider technology ecosystem.
- Represent Our Future Health externally with partners, suppliers and the wider health research and technology community.
- Identify and deliver high-impact technical and architectural work where hands-on leadership is needed, particularly around platform design, integration and data architecture challenges at scale.
- Work closely with vendors and partners to integrate external systems, services and research tooling into the Our Future Health platform and TRE ecosystem.
- Support and mentor engineers through collaboration, technical guidance, peer review and architectural coaching, helping maintain high engineering standards across the organisation.
- Contribute to the reliability, resilience and ongoing evolution of critical research platform services and live systems where required.
- Ideally familiar with how trusted research environments / secure data environments work.
- Deep experience using a broad range of cloud storage services and technologies.
- Familiarity with how Platform-as-a-Service systems work, including running third-party code and tools on shared compute and storage infrastructure.
- Strong understanding of data access security and governance practices.
- Understanding of health data research tools and technologies such as data browsers, Jupyter notebooks and R.
- Desirable: understanding of tools and technologies related to working with genetic data.
- Understanding of LLMs and how they may be deployed or used within user-facing environments.
- Experience leading or contributing to the architectural design of complex software systems.
- Strong technical expertise across relevant technologies and domains.
- Comfortable working with Infrastructure as Code.
- Experience working in a technical leadership role within modern agile development teams, using practices such as code review, TDD, CI/CD and pairing using tools like Git and GitHub.
- Experience operating and managing live software systems, including observability, logging, metrics, error reporting, debugging and incident management.
- Comfortable working with partner organisations and stakeholders across technical and non-technical teams.
- Experience with vendor selection processes, including writing RFPs, working with potential vendors and vendor evaluation.
- Experience working across cross-functional teams consisting of engineering, product, UX and operational stakeholders.
- Experience leading or coordinating work across multiple teams to deliver shared objectives.
- Comfortable facilitating complex technical discussions with organisation-wide impact, encouraging collaboration and providing direction where needed.
- Strong communication skills, including the ability to engage effectively with stakeholders and audiences at different levels, including executive leadership.
- Knowledge and experience of applying operational, security and legal considerations when designing solutions, particularly within regulated or sensitive data environments, with the ability to articulate trade-offs and make informed technical decisions.
- Experience working in small, growing organisations with ambiguity, where flexibility is valued.
- Strong understanding of software quality and experience driving quality improvement initiatives across multiple teams.
- Experience mentoring engineers at different stages of their careers.
- Competitive base salary from £120,000
- Generous Pension Scheme – We invest in your future with employer contributions of up to 12%
- 30 Days Holiday pro rata + Bank Holidays – Enjoy a generous holiday allowance with the flexibility to take bank holidays when it suits you
- Enhanced Parental Leave – Supporting you during life’s biggest moments
- Cycle to Work Scheme – Save 25-39% on a new bike and accessories through salary sacrifice
- Home & Tech Savings – Get up to 8% off on IKEA and Currys products, spreading the cost over 12 months through salary sacrifice
- EV Scheme – Save up to 40% on a brand new electric vehicle all-inclusive package through salary sacrifice
- £1,000 Employee Referral Bonus – Know someone amazing? Get rewarded for bringing them on board!
- Wellbeing Support – Access to Mental Health First Aiders, plus 24/7 online GP services and an Employee Assistance Programme for you and your family
- A Great Place to Work – We have a lovely Central London office in Holborn, and offer flexible and remote working arrangements
Join us - let’s prevent disease together. We recommend you apply as soon as possible as occasionally due to high volumes of applications, we need to close our postings early. At Our Future Health, we recognise the importance of having a diverse workforce and ensuring that all candidates, regardless of their background, have equitable access to our application process. We proactively encourage applicants who identify as having a disability, neurodiversity, or long-term health conditions to let us know if they require any reasonable adjustments as part of their application process.
Principal Engineer (Architect) - TRE/Data Architecture in London employer: Our Future Health
At Our Future Health, we pride ourselves on being an exceptional employer, offering a collaborative and innovative work culture that empowers our employees to make a significant impact in health research. With competitive salaries, generous benefits including a robust pension scheme, and a commitment to employee well-being, we provide ample opportunities for professional growth and development in a dynamic environment located in the heart of Central London. Join us in our mission to revolutionise disease prevention and treatment while enjoying the flexibility of remote working arrangements and a supportive team atmosphere.
StudySmarter Expert Advice🤫
We think this is how you could land Principal Engineer (Architect) - TRE/Data Architecture in London
✨Tip Number 1
Network like a pro! Get out there and connect with people in the health tech space. Attend meetups, webinars, or conferences related to data architecture and engineering. You never know who might be looking for someone just like you!
✨Tip Number 2
Show off your skills! Create a portfolio that highlights your past projects, especially those involving trusted research environments or complex data systems. This will give potential employers a taste of what you can bring to the table.
✨Tip Number 3
Don’t shy away from reaching out directly! If you see a role at Our Future Health that excites you, drop us a message. Express your interest and share how your experience aligns with our mission. A personal touch can make all the difference!
✨Tip Number 4
Prepare for interviews by brushing up on your technical knowledge and soft skills. Be ready to discuss how you can contribute to the evolution of our Trusted Research Environment. We love candidates who can think critically and communicate effectively!
We think you need these skills to ace Principal Engineer (Architect) - TRE/Data Architecture in London
Some tips for your application 🫡
Tailor Your Application:Make sure to customise your CV and cover letter to highlight how your skills and experiences align with the role of Principal Engineer. We want to see how you can contribute to our mission, so don’t hold back on showcasing your relevant achievements!
Showcase Your Technical Skills:This role is all about technical leadership, so be sure to emphasise your experience with cloud storage services, data governance, and any relevant tools you've used. We’re looking for someone who can hit the ground running, so let us know what you bring to the table!
Be Clear and Concise:When writing your application, keep it straightforward and to the point. We appreciate clarity, so avoid jargon and make sure your key points stand out. Remember, we want to understand your journey and how it fits with our goals!
Apply Through Our Website:We encourage you to submit your application directly through our website. It’s the best way to ensure your application gets into the right hands. Plus, it shows us you’re keen to be part of our team at Our Future Health!
How to prepare for a job interview at Our Future Health
✨Know Your Tech Inside Out
Make sure you’re well-versed in the technologies mentioned in the job description, especially around trusted research environments and cloud storage services. Brush up on your knowledge of data access security and governance practices, as these will likely come up during technical discussions.
✨Showcase Your Leadership Skills
As a Principal Engineer, you'll need to demonstrate your ability to lead and mentor others. Prepare examples of how you've successfully guided teams through complex projects or architectural decisions. Highlight your experience with cross-functional collaboration and how you’ve facilitated technical discussions.
✨Understand the Bigger Picture
Familiarise yourself with Our Future Health’s mission and the impact of their work. Be ready to discuss how your role as a Principal Engineer can contribute to their goals, particularly in scaling their Trusted Research Environment and integrating new technologies like AI tools.
✨Prepare for Scenario-Based Questions
Expect questions that assess your problem-solving skills in real-world scenarios. Think about challenges you’ve faced in previous roles, particularly around platform design and integration. Be prepared to articulate your thought process and the trade-offs you considered in your decision-making.
