Software Developer Industrial Placement - Advanced Research Computing in Harwell

The Rosalind Franklin Institute (the Franklin) is a technology institute established by the UK Government as a unique centre committed to advancing tools that are needed to transform healthcare in the future. The Institute brings together researchers in life and physical sciences, and engineering, to develop a spectrum of tools which we will use to image, interpret and intervene in biological systems. These insights will speed up the discovery of new medicines, help find new diagnostics and contribute to a deeper understanding of human health and disease. Our Science Strategy seeks to focus the Franklin's research and unite our researchers around our Technology Innovation Challenges and Life Science Challenges.

We are offering a Year in Industry placement for a student interested in digital research infrastructure, data systems, and research-enabling technologies. This role will provide the successful candidate with the opportunity to work on real-world projects that support researchers, improve data quality, and enhance infrastructure usability.

Examples of potential project areas:

• Tools to assess and improve metadata quality in line with FAIR principles.
• User-facing dashboards to visualise infrastructure usage and system status.
• Pipelines to extract structured metadata from semi-structured data sources using LLMs.

Projects are flexible and will be shaped to match the successful candidate's skills and learning objectives.

Key Responsibilities:

• Designing and developing software tools to support research workflows.
• Working with data, metadata, and research infrastructure systems.
• Contributing to both user-facing and backend systems.
• Translating technical outputs into clear, user-focused documentation.
• Collaborating with engineers, researchers, and operations teams.

During the placement you will also be expected to:

• Produce clear technical and user-facing documentation for your work.
• Deliver a presentation or demonstration of your project outcomes.
• Contribute maintainable code or outputs that can be used beyond the placement.

This placement will give you access to:

• Hands-on experience working with real research infrastructure systems.
• Data-intensive and research-driven environments.
• Experience designing software for non-technical users.
• Insight into how infrastructure supports scientific research.
• Mentoring and support from experienced engineers.

Eligibility Criteria:

• You must currently be an undergraduate student at a university in the United Kingdom, pursuing a computer science or related course.
• You must be enrolled into a degree which allows you to work for a Year in Industry as a placement year.
• You must have the requisite grades to meet your university Year in Industry requirement.
• You must have the legal right to work in the UK.
• International students studying full-time in the UK at UK universities may apply, provided they can demonstrate that undertaking a 'year in industry' placement is a formal part of their undergraduate programme and that their student visa or pre-settled/settled status allows them to undertake full-time paid work for one year.

This job description sets out the skills and experience we believe are needed to be able to do this job but, research also tells us women are much more likely than men to take this list of requirements as absolute and self-select out of the process. If you think you can deliver this role then we want to hear from you, regardless of the boxes you did not tick.

In return we offer:

• 25 days holidays plus bank holidays and Christmas holiday shutdown.
• Generous pension scheme (employer's contribution currently up to 18%).
• Group Life Assurance (also known as Group Life Insurance or Death in Service).
• Buying and Selling Annual Leave.
• Workplace Nursery.
• Salary Sacrifice Scheme.
• Hub building with state-of-the-art laboratories.
• Hybrid and flexible working.
• Training and development opportunities for staff at all levels.
• Bus pass discount scheme and good transport links to Oxford and surrounding areas.
• Cycle to Work Scheme.
• Access to employee discount platform (Perkbox).
• Occupational Health and wellbeing support including Employee Assistance (24/7 support and counselling).
• Health Cash Plan.
• Subsidised canteen and food outlets on campus.
• Free on-site parking.
• Campus location in beautiful countryside with social and sports clubs open to staff.

The Franklin's underlying aim is to produce the best science for research today, and this means resolutely embracing a diverse team, who have a wide range of experiences, skills and knowledge to push forward on the innovative work our institution delivers. Both our work and our institution are better for it.

For further information, view our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Policy. We are committed to creating an inclusive environment where every applicant has an equal opportunity to showcase their talents and abilities. This includes making adjustments for candidates with specific needs. Please contact us to discuss your requirements confidentially.

Please note that whilst we normally welcome applications from all around the world, students studying for degrees at universities outside the UK are not eligible for this programme.