(Senior) Research Software Engineers (x3 posts)

Edinburgh - Kings Buildings, Midlothian, United Kingdom (Hybrid working)

Job Info

• Job Identification: 11609
• Locations:Royal Observatory, Edinburgh, EH9 3HJ, GB (Hybrid working)
• Organization: Institute for Astronomy, Institute for Astronomy, Institute for Astronomy, Edinburgh University Group
• Department: Institute for Astronomy
• Health and Safety Requirements: No key hazards identified for this post
• Criminal Record Check: No criminal record check required
• Grade: UE08
• Number of Openings: 3
• Job Function: Researcher

Job Description

Grade range UE07/UE08: £40,247 to £60,321 per annum, pro rata if part time.

School of Physics and Astronomy / College of Science and Engineering

Full time: 35 hours per week 

Fixed Term: for 2 years

3 vacancies:

- Senior Research Software Engineer
- Research Software Engineer (Rubin)
- Research Software Engineer (Gaia)

The Opportunity:

We are looking for a Senior Research Software Engineer and two Research Software Engineers with experience developing, deploying and maintaining cloud-based data analysis services to join our team operating science platforms for multi-PB sky survey datasets used by the global astronomy community. 

The Institute for Astronomy’s Wide-Field Astronomy Unit (WFAU) is involved in the production and curation of a number of large sky survey datasets and supports astronomers analysing them. Increasingly, this involves the use of science platforms, which couple notebook-style programming interfaces and virtualised compute resources. These positions relate to the science platforms for the European Space Agency’s Gaia mission and the Vera C. Rubin Observatory’s Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST), both of which use OpenStack and Kubernetes technologies. 

The two Research Software Engineer (RSE) posts – one for Gaia and one for Rubin LSST – will focus on the development and maintenance of existing science platforms for the two surveys, while the Senior RSE position has a service delivery responsibility, ensuring smooth operation of the UK’s LSST Independent Data Access Centre.

All three posts are full-time (35 hours per week); however, we are open to considering part-time or flexible working patterns. The posts available from now to 31 December 2026, with the possibility of extension dependent on continuing funding streams. We are open to considering requests for hybrid working (on a non-contractual basis) that combines a mix of remote and regular on-campus working.  

The salary for the Senior Research Software Engineer post is £49,250 to £60,321 per annum. pro rata if part time, and the salary for the two Research Software Engineer posts is £40,247 to £47,874 per annum, pro rata if part time.

Your skills and attributes for success: 

• A degree in a relevant discipline.
• Experience of data-intensive research projects.
• Experience of cloud computing, virtualisation and distributed computing.
• Experience of good software engineering practice.
• Programming experience in Python.

Click below to view a copy of the full job descriptions:

• Senior Research Software Engineer LSST-UK- (opens new browser tab)
• Research Software Engineer (Rubin)- (opens new browser tab)
• Research Software Engineer (Gaia)- (opens new browser tab)

Application Information 

 Please ensure you include the following documents in your application:

- CV

- Cover letter, noting the position(s) for which you wish to be considered and summarising how you meet the essential and desirable criteria listed for each.

As a valued member of our team you can expect:

• A competitive salary.
• An exciting, positive, creative, challenging and rewarding place to work. 
• To be part of a diverse and vibrant international community.
• Comprehensive Staff Benefits, such as a generous holiday entitlement, competitive pension schemes, staff discounts, and family-friendly initiatives. Check out the full list on our staff benefits page (opens in a new tab) and use our reward calculator to discover the total value of your pay and benefits. 

Championing equality, diversity and inclusion

The School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Edinburgh is committed to encouraging equality and diversity among our workforce, and eliminating discrimination.

The School strives to create a more diverse, equitable and inclusive workplace for all and we are looking to actively diversify our staff. We welcome applications from all qualified candidates and in particular encourage applications from people of colour, women, people with disabilities, LGBTQ+ people and other minority and under-represented groups. We aim to ensure that our culture and systems support flexible and family-friendly working, as evidenced by our Juno Champion and Athena SWAN Silver awards.

The University of Edinburgh holds a Silver Athena SWAN award in recognition of our commitment to advance gender equality in higher education. We are members of the Race Equality Charter and we are also Stonewall Scotland Diversity Champions, actively promoting LGBT equality. The School of Physics and Astronomy is also an Institute of Physics Juno Champion.

Prior to any employment commencing with the University you will be required to evidence your right to work in the UK. Further information is available on our right to work webpages (opens new browser tab)

The University may be able to sponsor the employment of international workers in this role.  This will depend on a number of factors specific to the successful applicant. 

Key dates to note

The closing date for applications is 6 January 2025.

Unless stated otherwise the closing time for applications is 11:59pm GMT. If you are applying outside the UK the closing time on our adverts automatically adjusts to your browsers local time zone. 

Interviews will be held online during January 2025.

About Us

As a world-leading research-intensive University, we are here to address tomorrow’s greatest challenges. Between now and 2030 we will do that with a values-led approach to teaching, research and innovation, and through the strength of our relationships, both locally and globally.

About the Team

The School of Physics and Astronomy is in the College of Science and Engineering and comprises the Institute for Particle and Nuclear Physics (IPNP), the Institute for Condensed Matter and Complex Systems (ICMCS) and the Institute for Astronomy (IfA). We have around 100 academic staff, over 120 research staff and around 65 professional services staff.

The School of Physics and Astronomy was ranked 4th in the UK and 1st in Scotland in the Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2021 listing for the quality, scale and breadth of its research by Times Higher Education. Consistently ranked within the top 20 physics departments worldwide, these results confirm the exceptional performance of our staff, our excellent facilities, and our world-leading research.

The School runs undergraduate programmes at BSc and MPhys level in Physics, Mathematical Physics, Theoretical Physics, Computational Physics, Astrophysics and (jointly with the School of Chemistry) Chemical Physics.  The undergraduate programme has flexible entry and exit points, creating courses of variable duration and level. The School accepts around 230 new undergraduates into its programmes each year and has current student populations of over 800 undergraduates, 50 taught postgraduates and 220 research postgraduates. 

We aim to ensure that our culture and systems support flexible and family-friendly working and recognise and value diversity across all our staff and students. The School has an active programme offering support and professional development for all staff; providing mentoring, training, and networking opportunities.

The School of Physics and Astronomy holds Athena SWAN Silver and IoP Juno Champion awards, in recognition of our commitment to advance gender equality.