Senior Developer

The UK Data Archive is the lead partner of the UK Data Service, which is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) to meet the data needs of researchers, students and teachers from all sectors, including academia, central and local government, charities and foundations, independent research centres, think tanks, and business consultants and the commercial sector. Data is the heart of our business, and we hold the largest collection of social science survey data in the UK.

As we look towards deeper integration with European and North American infrastructures, we are increasingly working with different datasets from other sectors like Energy and deploying cloud-based infrastructures and Privacy Enhancing Technologies. Our strategy in the next three to five years is to be a world-class repository for cross-disciplinary data that allows customers to find and analyse the highest quality data both securely and quickly.

We are looking for someone to work in a small, motivated, multi-disciplinary team who isn’t afraid to challenge conventional wisdom and think differently about how we do things.

Duties of the Role

The Senior Developer (SD) is responsible for expanding and optimizing our data and data pipeline architecture, as well as optimizing data flow and collection. The post holder will liaise with software developers, data modelers and the wider business to optimize and re-design our department’s data architecture to support our next generation of products and data initiatives.

You will have line management responsibility for the Data Engineers working within the team and additionally play a pivotal role in supervising, mentoring and supporting these Data Engineers. This would include ensuring adherence to our ISO27001 SDLC procedures.

Finally, you will represent the UKDS at National, European and International levels forging collaborations on mutually beneficial projects.

A full list of duties and responsibilities can be found within the job pack.

Qualifications and Skills required

The ideal candidate might be an experienced data pipeline builder and data wrangler who enjoys optimizing data systems and also building them from the ground up.

The data we create, curate and disseminate includes tens of thousands of datasets in many formats including SPSS, STATA, CSV, XML and graph-based RDF data. You will have data skills including an understanding of statistical disclosure control and you will be highly experienced in cloud technologies, ideally AWS. Experience or a keen interest in machine learning / artificial intelligence would be beneficial skills as would UI skills such as React.js.

Much of our data is sensitive and so you will also have an appreciation of data security issues and are familiar with developing software within a Secure Development Lifecycle (SDLC).

This post is fixed term until 31/03/2025 due to short term funding. Whilst this a full-time post (36 hours per week), we will also welcome part-time applications from anyone who can work a minimum of 0.8 FTE.

Please use the 'Apply' button to read further information about this role including the full job description and person specification which outlines the full duties, skills, qualifications and experience needed for this role. You will also find details of how to make your application here. Our website http://www.essex.ac.uk contains more information about the University of Essex. If you have a disability and would like information in a different format, please email resourcing@essex.ac.uk. 

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