At a Glance
- Tasks: Lead the design and integration of cutting-edge health data systems for impactful research.
- Company: Join a pioneering health research programme transforming disease prevention and treatment.
- Benefits: Competitive salary, generous pension, 30 days holiday, and flexible working options.
- Other info: Collaborative culture with opportunities for mentorship and career growth.
- Why this job: Make a real difference in global health while working with innovative technology.
- Qualifications: Experience in software architecture and secure data environments is preferred.
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 and ultimately becomes self-sustaining for the decades to come. This year we will be doing a procurement to find a partner (or partners) to work with us to solve these challenges. The role will have an incredibly high impact – to enable research at this scale has never been done before, we will be creating a beyond-cutting edge system, but it is a necessary step in order for Our Future Health to have the national and global impact we are aiming for.
This role will involve representing Our Future Health in and collaborating with this 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 Health at a very senior level and expected to take on typical engineering and architecture leadership activities.
Responsibilities- 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 (CTO, CPO and similar).
- 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. If you require any reasonable adjustments, please email us at talent@ourfuturehealth.org.uk.
Principal Engineer (Architect) - TRE/Data Architecture employer: Our Future Health
At Our Future Health, we pride ourselves on being an exceptional employer dedicated to fostering a collaborative and inclusive work culture. With a focus on employee growth, we offer extensive professional development opportunities alongside a competitive benefits package, including a generous pension scheme and enhanced parental leave. Located in the heart of Central London, our flexible working arrangements and commitment to wellbeing ensure that our team can thrive both personally and professionally while contributing to groundbreaking health research.
StudySmarter Expert Advice🤫
We think this is how you could land Principal Engineer (Architect) - TRE/Data Architecture
✨Tip Number 1
Network like a pro! Reach out to people in your field, especially those connected to Our Future Health. Attend industry events or webinars, and don’t be shy about sliding into DMs on LinkedIn. You never know who might have the inside scoop on job openings!
✨Tip Number 2
Show off your skills! Prepare a portfolio or a presentation that highlights your past projects, especially those related to data architecture and secure environments. When you get the chance to chat with hiring managers, let your work speak for itself.
✨Tip Number 3
Be ready for technical discussions! Brush up on your knowledge of trusted research environments and data governance. During interviews, be prepared to discuss how you would tackle challenges at scale, as this will show you’re the right fit for the role.
✨Tip Number 4
Apply through our website! It’s the best way to ensure your application gets seen. Plus, it shows you’re genuinely interested in being part of Our Future Health. Don’t wait too long; we sometimes close postings early due to high volumes of applications!
We think you need these skills to ace Principal Engineer (Architect) - TRE/Data Architecture
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 at Our Future Health, 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 trusted research environments, cloud technologies, and data governance. We’re looking for someone who can lead complex architectural decisions, so let us know how you’ve done this in the past!
Be Clear and Concise:When writing your application, clarity is key! Use straightforward language and avoid jargon where possible. We appreciate a well-structured application that makes it easy for us to see your qualifications and fit for the role.
Apply Through Our Website:We encourage you to submit your application through our website for the best chance of being considered. It’s the easiest way for us to keep track of applications and ensure you’re in the running for this exciting opportunity!
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 can contribute to their goals, particularly in terms of scalability and usability of the TRE. Showing that you understand their vision will set you apart from other candidates.
✨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 those related to data architecture and integration. Be prepared to articulate your thought process and the decisions you made to overcome those challenges.
