Senior Research Software Engineer (Omics)

About us

The Sainsbury Wellcome Centre (SWC) brings together world-leading scientists to investigate how brain circuits process information to generate perception, form memories and guide behaviour. Developed through the vision and partnership of the Gatsby Charitable Foundation and Wellcome, and with substantial investment from these partners, the mission of the SWC is to generate experimentally testable theories of brain function. The Centre comprises 13 highly interdisciplinary experimental research groups accommodated in a new, purpose-designed building, offering an outstanding and unparalleled research environment. SWC scientists use a broad spectrum of the latest advances in molecular and cellular biology, imaging, electrophysiology and behavioural techniques and enjoy state-of-the-art research laboratories, cutting-edge scientific equipment, technologically-advanced prototyping and fabrication laboratories and custom in-house high-performance computing facilities.

About the role

We are inviting applications for a Senior Research Software Engineer to be based in the Advanced Microscopy Facility, working with the laboratories of Tom Mrsic-Flogel, Marcus Stephenson-Jones, Sonja Hofer and Tim Behrens in collaboration with the Neuroinformatics Unit. In-vivo functional calcium imaging is used extensively to study neural activity in behaving animals. The imaged neurons fall into a variety of cell types with different connectivity patterns and different roles in neural circuitry. However, although of cellular resolution, functional imaging data carry little information about cell type and therefore lack significant contextual information. We can anatomically extract the imaged region post-hoc and conduct ex-vivo labelling using fluorescent markers that bind to RNA and convey information about cell type. However, we lack a robust and easy to use software toolset for merging the in-vivo functional data with the ex-vivo transcriptomics cell-type data. You will be responsible for developing the missing software toolkit in collaboration with software engineers within and beyond the Centre. You will develop optimised algorithms for interactive image registration, annotation, and data curation. These algorithms will be brought together into a unified graphical interface, allowing users to perform interactive registration and quality controls checks. This post is funded until September 2028 in the first instance with the possibility of extension subject to grant funding.

About you

You will have strong programming skills in Python along with extensive experience working with numerical data such as images and timeseries. The ideal candidate will have experience in general bioimage analysis, in particular image registration and feature extraction. You should have a strong interest in building easy-to-use software to help advance neuroscience and be comfortable working in teams of researchers and software engineers. The ideal candidate will have experience of good software engineering best practices and working on, and with open-source software.

What we offer

The post is based in London, suitable for hybrid working with a minimum of 40% of time onsite. As well as the exciting opportunities this role presents SWC offers staff an award winning work environment with state of the art facilities an on site brassiere and access to pleasant outdoor spaces. SWC staff receive the full range of UCL benefits.

Our commitment to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion

As London’s Global University, we know diversity fosters creativity and innovation, and we want our community to represent the diversity of the world’s talent. We are committed to equality of opportunity, to being fair and inclusive, and to being a place where we all belong. We therefore particularly encourage applications from candidates who are likely to be underrepresented in UCL’s workforce. These include people from Black, Asian and ethnic minority backgrounds; disabled people; LGBTQI+ people; and for our Grade 9 and 10 roles, women.