Senior Research Software Engineer

Description:

Central IT services at the University of Birmingham use complex, large-scale architectures based on Unix, Linux, Windows and cloud technologies, coupled with advanced storage solutions. These need to be configured and maintained to the highest possible standards of reliability, performance and quality. Business continuity and high service levels are demanded equally for mission-critical research services as well as for those relied on for teaching, learning and administration.

ARC builds and runs (or buys-in) a range of specialist services for researchers, collectively known as BEAR (Birmingham Environment for Academic Research). Aimed at all disciplines, BEAR covers an increasingly broad spectrum of needs, ranging from the traditional HPC through storage and archiving solutions to collaboration and analytics tools and new ‘on premises’ cloud HTC offerings. ARC also supports the exploitation of specialist regional and national services, including HPC Midlands Plus and the new Birmingham-based Baskerville supercomputer. Together with the national supercomputer Archer (Tier 1) and Birmingham’s own BEAR infrastructure, they form a powerful resource for research.

Role Summary

This post is established at the University of Birmingham, where the post holder will join a strong and dynamic group of Research Software Engineers with a particular focus on supporting researchers.

The Senior Research Software Engineer (RSE) will provide a technical software development and support service to academics from a wide range of disciplines. As a senior member of the Research Software Group, the RSE will help shape Birmingham’s delivery of research software services.

The post holder will collaborate closely with research colleagues from many different academic disciplines and will provide expert knowledge and skills to develop, improve, maintain and support high quality software solutions and access to services, fulfilling the requirements of research projects. The post holder will contribute to developing the knowledge and skills within the research community at all stages of the research software development cycle, e.g. by providing training and coaching sessions as well as promoting the adoption of best practices.

The post holder will be part of the Advanced Research Computing Team (ARC) in IT Services, a well-respected and highly performant team with a national and international profile. As the post holder develops in this role, they will be expected to collaboratively work with academic colleagues to secure external funding for future software development projects, to meet the growing demand for support in this area and ensuring sustainability of software created for research.

The RSE will have a varied and interesting workload that changes with the requirements that arrive from world-class researchers. The post holder will be joining an existing group of RSEs, and as such is likely to specialise in particular aspects of this job description – depending on their skills, the skills of the rest of the group, and the work available.

The Pool of RSEs within Advanced Research Computing has been set up to provide RSEs to work on funded research projects across all five Colleges at the University. An RSE would commonly work on two funded research projects simultaneously, each at 45%, with the remaining time being used for other tasks in ARC. When a research project finishes, the RSE would be allocated to further projects.

Main Duties

Provide advice, support, coaching, and coding services; crucially always with the aim of ownership and responsibility remaining with the research group. Prioritise tasks across multiple engagements to meet agreed objectives, ensuring effective communication to project leads. Manage the expectations of researchers and research groups. Engage with researchers at all development stages and disseminate best practices in the development of sustainable research software. 
Take responsibility and work collaboratively with research groups from across the University for the definition, documentation, development and satisfactory completion of collaborative software projects: defining requirements; devising solutions; agreeing timescales and priorities as well as identifying the risks to be managed. Each of these engagements will be unique in nature and complexity. They will typically range from requiring a few days to several months of effort. 
Build and maintain relationships with research communities within the University and beyond, seeking opportunities to contribute to research or funding sources for new projects. Work closely with researchers and contribute to research bids to funding bodies. This will mean defining the scope of work and the associated costs for software engineering support for the grant applications as well as the associated IT infrastructure and support costs. Contribute to research papers to be published in academic literature, and produce case studies. 
Engage with researchers at all development stages and model and disseminate best practices in the development and sustainability of research software. 
Contribute to raising awareness of BEAR and Tier2 services for researchers and the profile of the team. Help build active user communities locally and regionally, by contributing to seminars and networking events, encouraging the adoption of best practice, sharing knowledge and expertise. Contribute to the support of computational research at the University, within ARC and the wider research software engineering ecosystem. Provide software engineering input to assist the maintenance of the infrastructure and deliver integrated support and services for local and Tier2 research communities. 
Deliver training courses, devising content where applicable or, where qualified, delivering externally validated material, e.g. Software Carpentries. Content will vary from introductory to specialized and advanced levels. 
Liaise and engage with external professional networks within the software engineering sector, such as national RSE networks and the Software Sustainability Institute, to keep informed of the latest developments and sector initiatives. 
Identify opportunities for service improvement, such as efficiency, reliability and performance of parallel codes and third-party applications, and propose and develop innovative solutions to enrich the user experience, to enhance service delivery, and reduce costs or environmental impacts. 
Maintain an awareness of technical developments, tools and ideas in research computing and in software engineering, including attending seminars, technical briefings, conferences and technical groups. 
In addition to University provided training and development, you will undertake sufficient personal and professional development as required, ensuring skills and knowledge are up to date so that the role is performed to the required level. 
Actively manages equality, diversity and inclusion through monitoring and evaluation and actively challenging unacceptable behaviour.
Any other duties commensurate with the grade. 

Required Knowledge, Skills, Qualifications, Experience

Educated to degree level or equivalent qualification plus substantial work experience in a relevant technical/scientific and/or management/supervisory role in a specialist area. A higher degree may also be held. Where no equivalent qualification is held a proven track record of extensive and substantial work experience in a series of progressively more demanding and relevant roles will be required.
Proven technical specialist knowledge and understanding in a relevant technical area (specialists will require advanced technical expertise) – details in “Core competencies/transferable skills” above.
GCSEs to a minimum of grade C in English and Mathematics (or equivalent qualifications). 
Experience of championing Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in own work area. 
Ability to monitor and evaluate the extent to which equality and diversity legislation, policies, procedures are applied. 
Ability to identify issues with the potential to impact on protected groups and take appropriate action.