Job Title DevOps Engineer (BioFAIR Methods Commons) Post Number 1006168 Closing Date 22 Sep 2026 Grade SC5 Starting Salary Salary: £47,450-£52,560
Hours per week 37 Project Title BioFAIR Methods Commons Months Duration 24
Job Description
Main Purpose of the Job
The post holder will be responsible for the deployment, maintenance, and technical integration of Galaxy as a core component of the BioFAIR Methods Commons (MC).
BioFAIR is a UK federated digital research infrastructure designed to connect existing services, communities, and expertise to build a cohesive national ecosystem for Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reproducible (FAIR) data. As one of the BioFAIR Spokes, the MC will provide access to trusted and robust analysis platforms, workflows, and tools to UK life scientists. Within this ecosystem, Galaxy serves as an open-source, web-based platform that makes complex computational research accessible, reproducible, and transparent.
Based within the Data Science group at the Earlham Institute (EI), this role operates as part of the Service Delivery and DevOps team within the larger BioFAIR MC team across EI, the University of Manchester, and Seqera. The post holder will focus on Galaxy application service delivery, custom software and API development, and the seamless integration of Galaxy with other MC subsystems to build, run, and support a cohesive, world-class national service deployed on the AWS public cloud.
Key Relationships
Internal: BioFAIR MC team; Data Science group; NBI Research computing; and other researchers at the Earlham Institute.
External: BioFAIR Hub and Spoke partners (including the University of Manchester and Seqera); academic research organisations; and the global Galaxy community.
Main Activities & Responsibilities
Percentage Configure, deploy, document, and maintain the production-grade national UK Galaxy service instance on the AWS cloud platform. 40 Design, write, document, and maintain software code and APIs to enhance Galaxy capabilities and integrate with the other BioFAIR Methods Commons services and BioFAIR Spokes. 35 Establish and manage automated testing, continuous integration, and continuous deployment (CI/CD) pipelines for Galaxy releases, configuration changes, and integration code. Set up application-level monitoring, logging, and alerting systems to ensure high availability and generate usage statistics. 15 Engage actively with the global Galaxy community to share best practices, upstream bug fixes, and contribute to collaborative open-source developments. 10 As agreed with the line manager, any other duties commensurate with the role.
Education & Qualifications
Requirement Importance A degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Bioinformatics, or a related quantitative field, or equivalent professional experience. Essential Professional certifications in DevOps or system administration. Desirable
Specialist Knowledge & Skills
Requirement Importance Strong proficiency in Linux systems administration and shell scripting (e.g. Bash). Essential Command of modern programming languages and frameworks, with a focus on Python and Vue.js. Essential Proficiency in Git-based version control and collaboration workflows. Essential Understanding of RESTful API design and standards-compliant interfaces. Desirable Experience using configuration management and Infrastructure-as-Code tools (e.g. Ansible). Desirable Familiarity with the Galaxy platform, in particular development and/or administration. Desirable
Requirement Importance Proven experience deploying, configuring, and administering web applications or complex multi-user platforms in production environments. Essential Experience building and maintaining automated CI/CD pipelines. Essential Experience working in a cloud-hosted environment (particularly AWS). Desirable Experience contributing to open-source software projects or collaborative codebases. Desirable
Interpersonal & Communication Skills
Requirement Importance Good interpersonal skills, with the ability to work well as part of a distributed team. Essential Good written and verbal communication skills. Essential Experience communicating technical architectures and API specifications to diverse technical stakeholders. Desirable Presentation and documentation skills. Desirable
Additional Requirements
Requirement Importance Attention to detail Essential Promotes equality and values diversity Essential Ability to maintain confidentiality and security of information where appropriate. Essential Able to present a positive image of self and the Institute, promoting both the international reputation and public engagement aims of the Institute. Essential Willingness to work outside standard hours as required Essential Ability to undertake occasional travel (national and international) related to collaborations and/or seminars. Desirable A keen interest in science and technology. Desirable
Who We Are
About the Earlham Institute
The Earlham Institute harnesses the power of data-driven biology to accelerate solutions for health, biodiversity, and food security. Based at Norwich Research Park, the Earlham Institute is one of eight institutes strategically funded by BBSRC.
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