Senior Developer - Reimagining Research Practices

Location: Bailrigg, Lancaster, UK

(Full time, indefinite with end date)

Interview date: To be confirmed

The Department of Psychology at Lancaster University is seeking to appoint a full time Senior Developer to support a Wellcome Trust funded project on changing research cultures. The two-year, £1M project will explore how we can build a sustainable, ethical and inclusive research culture. The Senior developer will be responsible for developing software applications, designing and maintaining software infrastructure and creating new services that support the work of the Wellcome research team.

The project you will be working on is part of a Wellcome Trust funded project aimed at improving research culture across three pillars:

• Climate and Environmental Sustainability
• Inclusion of Citizen Researchers
• Digital Data Ethics

Whilst this role will be positioned within the Psychology Department, you will be working alongside a wider team of PDRA’s, support staff, technical staff and academic staff. A web developer and two education fellows will also be joining the team.  

As a Senior Developer you will have: 

• Experience in a relevant area is desirable
• Experienced in writing excellent quality, well documented and efficient code in required programming languages
• Highly developed written and oral communication skills and experience of explaining information in a way that is easy to understand and targeted appropriately for the audience
• Able to make good decisions under time pressure, and answer questions in a variety of circumstances 
• Able to influence, mediate and resolve complex problems, situations and conflicts and work effectively with senior stakeholders.
• Ability to work independently, translating requirements into technical specifications, and able to make decisions without sufficient information for certainty 
• Well-developed organisational skills
• Ability to think highly creatively and generate new innovative ideas 

You will collaborate with each other and members of the interdisciplinary research team; work with research partners and an internal and external steering group; work with stakeholders and research participants; liaise with the wider Wellcome Trust network on changing research cultures; and disseminate research findings and project outputs. 

The benefits of the role

• Generous holiday leave - 25 days (pro-rata) annual leave plus University closure days and bank holidays.
• Access to employee pension scheme, and annual flexible benefits scheme.
• We are committed to promoting Equality, Diversity and Inclusion across the Faculty, and supporting family-friendly and flexible working policies on an individual basis. The Department holds an Athena Swan Silver Award, which recognises and celebrates good employment practice undertaken to address gender equality in Higher Education and research.  
• For more information about the benefits of working at Lancaster University, including support for relocation from overseas, see Jobs - Lancaster University 

The Psychology Department is a busy teaching and research active Department. It is home to a friendly group of over 40 Academic staff, with teams of Research and Professional Services and Technical staff. The Department supports a large cohort of Undergraduate students; a thriving group of Masters and Postgraduate research students; and a wide range of research projects including several cross-institution grants. 

Further information about the Department is available at: www.psych.lancs.ac.uk

Please upload a cover letter with your application.

We welcome applications from people in all diversity groups, and for this full-time post, we expect a start date by late 2024.

This role is indefinite, subject to funding, which is currently only available until May 2026

Informal enquiries are welcome and should be addressed to Mark Levine at mark.levine@lancaster.ac.uk

Further details:

• Job Description
• Person Specification