Company Description
Genomics England is a global leader in enabling genomic medicine and research, focused on creating a world where everyone benefits from genomic healthcare. Building on the 100,000 Genomes Project, we support the NHS’s world-first national whole genome sequencing service and run the growing National Genomic Research Library, alongside delivering numerous major genomics initiatives. By connecting research and clinical care at national scale, we enable immediate healthcare benefits and advances for the future.
Our mission is to provide the evidence and digital systems so that by 2035 genomics could play a role in up to half of all healthcare interactions, whilst securing the UK’s position as the best place to discover, prove and benefit from genomic innovations.
We are accelerating our impact and working with patients, doctors, scientists, government and industry to improve genomic testing, and help researchers access the health data and technology they need to make new medical discoveries and create more effective, targeted medicines for everybody.
Behind the Healthcare and Research outcomes, Genomics England delivers through designing, developing and operating complex healthcare software systems.
We're on the cusp of big changes with the real prospect of genomics becoming the fabric of everyday healthcare through the lifetime - from birth to old age.
Job Description
About the role
We’re looking for an experienced Principal Data Engineer with a proven track record of senior technical leadership across Genomics England’s data engineering capability.
This is a senior individual contributor role operating at Principal level, where you will set technical direction and influence data engineering strategy across complex, regulated, national scale clinical and research platforms.
You will shape how we design, build and operate scalable, secure and highly reliable data platforms. This includes defining standards, patterns and data engineering approaches that multiple teams will align to and deliver against.
This is a hands-on leadership role. You will stay close to data engineering, code and delivery where it matters, while also operating at architectural and strategic level to guide direction, influence technical decisions, raise data engineering maturity, and build capability across the organisation.
Working across data engineering, data architecture, product and governance, you will ensure our data platforms are robust, interoperable and aligned to organisational and national priorities, including highly sensitive clinical and research data.
What you will be doing
Setting technical direction and influencing data engineering standards across data platforms, pipelines and data products used by multiple teams
Leading the design and delivery of complex, large scale data solutions across cloud and hybrid environments
Influencing architectural direction for enterprise data platforms, including Lakehouse, distributed and event driven systems
Acting as a technical authority across squads, influencing alignment to data engineering standards and data architectural principles
Working closely with senior engineers, architects, bioinformaticians, data colleagues and product teams to influence delivery and technical decision making
Ensuring all data engineering approaches meet strict governance, privacy, security and regulatory requirements
Driving adoption and influencing use of modern engineering practices including DataOps, DevOps, CI/CD, infrastructure as code, automation and observability
Improving platform resilience, performance and operational maturity across critical data systems
Evaluating and influencing adoption of new tools, technologies and data engineering approaches where appropriate
Mentoring experienced data engineers and influencing capability uplift across teams
Contributing to organisation wide technical communities, standards and design governanceWhat we are looking for
Proven experience operating at senior or Principal level in data engineering
Strong track record of designing and successfully delivering enterprise scale data platforms and systems
Deep experience with modern data architecture, cloud infrastructure and scalable data processing systems
Strong hands-on programming experience, i.e. Python and SQL
Strong expertise in data modelling, data lifecycle management, metadata and governance
Experience working in complex regulated environments such as healthcare, genomics or research
Strong understanding of security by design and handling highly sensitive data
Proven ability to influence architectural and data engineering direction across multiple teams or domains
Strong stakeholder engagement skills, with experience influencing senior technical and non-technical stakeholders in matrix environmentsDesirable
Experience with genomics, bioinformatics or clinical data platforms
Familiarity with GA4GH, OMOP or FHIR standards
Experience with orchestration tools such as Airflow, Prefect or AWS Glue
Experience with modern data architecture patterns such as data mesh or Lakehouse approachesThis is a rare opportunity to define how data engineering operates at national scale in a regulated, mission driven organisation. As an experienced Principal Data Engineer with a strong and demonstrable track record, you will help set direction, shape standards others build to, and directly influence the maturity and reliability of critical data platforms, while staying close enough to the engineering to make a real hands-on impact.
Qualifications
Degree in Computer Science, IT or equivalent practical industry experience
Architecture or data related certifications are beneficial, TOGAF especially valued
Additional Information
Salary From: £103,400 pa
Closing Date: Tuesday 12th May @ 23:00 (UK time)
Being an integral part of such a meaningful mission is extremely rewarding in itself, but in order to support our people, we’re continually improving our benefits package. We pride ourselves on investing in our people and supporting them to achieve their career goals, as well as offering a benefits package including:
Generous Leave: 30 days’ holiday plus bank holidays, plus additional leave for long service, and also the option to apply for up to 30 days of remote working abroad annually (approval required).
Family-Friendly: Blended working arrangements, flexible working, enhanced maternity, paternity and shared parental leave benefits.
Pension & Financial: Defined contribution pension (Genomics England double-matches up to 10%, however you can contribute more if you wish), Life Assurance (3x salary), and a Give As You Earn scheme.
Learning & Development: Individual learning budgets, support for training and certifications, and reimbursement for one annual professional subscription (approval required).
Recognition & Rewards: Employee recognition programme and referral scheme.
Health & Wellbeing: Subsidised gym membership, a free Headspace account, and access to an Employee Assistance Programme, eye tests, flu jabs.Equal opportunities and our commitment to a diverse and inclusive workplace
Genomics England is actively committed to providing and supporting an inclusive environment that promotes equity, diversity and inclusion best practice both within our community and in any other area where we have influence. We are proud of our diverse community where everyone can come to work and feel welcomed and treated with respect regardless of any disability, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, religion, sexual orientation, or social background.
Genomics England’s policies of non-discrimination and equity and will be applied fairly to all people, regardless of age, disability, gender identity or reassignment, marital or civil partnership status, being pregnant or recently becoming a parent, race, religion or beliefs, sex or sexual orientation, length of service, whether full or part-time or employed under a permanent or a fixed-term contract or any other relevant factor.
Genomics England does not tolerate any form of discrimination, harassment, victimisation or bullying at work. Such behaviour undermines our mission and core values and diminishes the dignity, respect and integrity of all parties. Our People policies outline our commitment to inclusivity.
We aim to remove barriers in our recruitment processes and to be flexible with our interview processes. Should you require any adjustments that may help you to fully participate in the recruitment process, we encourage you to discuss this with us.
Culture
We have four key behaviours that represent what we would like Genomics England to feel like and the culture we want to encourage, in order for us to achieve our mission. These behaviours help us all work well together, deliver on our outcomes, celebrate our successes and share feedback with each other. You can read about these and other aspects of our culture here
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