Software Engineer( Scientific applications)

Software Engineer (Scientific Applications )

Location: Cambridge, UK (Hybrid)

About the Role

We're looking for a pragmatic Software Engineer to help build and scale our computational drug discovery platform while developing software that enables scientists to work more efficiently.

This is a hands-on engineering role spanning backend development, cloud infrastructure, workflow automation, DevOps, scientific data management, and full-stack application development.

What You'll Do

• Design, develop, and maintain the core platform and backend services.
• Build modern full-stack applications and internal web portals that support scientific research.
• Develop software that automates experimental workflows and replaces semi-manual processes.
• Design and improve scientific data management systems and internal tooling.
• Build and maintain cloud-native infrastructure on AWS using Infrastructure as Code.
• Develop, deploy, and monitor containerised applications using Docker and Kubernetes/ECS where appropriate.
• Build and maintain CI/CD pipelines for reliable software delivery.
• Design workflow orchestration systems (e.g. Prefect) for large-scale computational pipelines.
• Improve platform reliability, observability, monitoring, and logging.
• Optimise compute infrastructure for high-performance workloads, including GPU resources.
• Collaborate closely with scientific teams to productionise new computational methods.
• Improve developer experience through automation, documentation, reusable libraries, and engineering best practices.
• Ensure platform security, scalability, and operational excellence.

Required Qualifications

• Experience working in biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, healthcare, or scientific research environments.
• Experience building internal scientific software or laboratory data management systems.
• Strong software engineering experience using Python.
• Experience developing backend services, APIs, and data-driven applications.
• Experience building modern web applications using contemporary front-end technologies.
• Experience working with relational databases and scientific or business data management systems.
• Experience with AWS and cloud-native application development.
• Strong understanding of Docker and containerised deployments.
• Experience with CI/CD tools such as GitHub Actions.
• Experience with Infrastructure as Code (Terraform, AWS CDK, or similar).
• Familiarity with Linux systems and shell scripting.
• Strong debugging, problem-solving, and software design skills.
• Excellent communication skills and experience working within multidisciplinary teams.

Technologies

• Python
• JavaScript/TypeScript (React or similar)
• AWS (Batch, ECS, EC2, S3, IAM, CloudWatch)
• Docker
• Prefect
• GitHub Actions
• Terraform / AWS CDK
• PostgreSQL
• Linux
• Redis (optional)
• Kubernetes (nice to have)
• MLflow (nice to have)
• Prometheus, Grafana & OpenTelemetry (nice to have)