Java Developer / Search Engine Specialist

About this position

The European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) is a worldwide leader in bioinformatics. We make the world’s public biological data freely available to the scientific community via a range of data resources and tools. We are at the forefront of computational biology research, with work spanning sequence analysis methods, multi-dimensional statistical analysis and data-driven biological discovery, from plant biology to mammalian development and disease. 

We are the second largest site of EMBL (European Molecular Biology Laboratory) and our state-of-the-art campus is located near Cambridge, UK on the Wellcome Genome Campus, which is one of the world’s largest concentrations of scientific and technical expertise in genomics.

We are proud to have a diverse, multidisciplinary team of over 850 forward-thinking people. Our exciting work attracts software developers, scientists and technicians from over 70 countries and we strongly encourage applications from individuals worldwide.

Your role

Reporting to Head of Web Production within the Web Production team, you will play a key role developing and maintaining our unique, Big Data search engine which currently indexes over 3 billion records a day.

Key focuses for your role will include:

• Working with a team of 5 passionate developers in the present and future development of our Lucene based search engine.
• Participating in weekly and monthly SCRUMS
• Help build and maintain effective relationships with internal and external stakeholders while executing pilot trials
• Identifying poorly performing code
• Supporting the development of our powerful API allowing search to be integrated into third party portals and pipelines
• Facilitating connecting users with the right products

You have

As the successful candidate it is likely you will have:

• A passion for delivering a fast and scalable service for our international community
• The desire to work with state-of-the-art search technologies, i.e. Apache Lucene core
• Experience working as Java technologies, web application servers and troubleshooting these
• Experience working in CI/CD environments -  Gitlab or equivalent systems

You might also have

• Experience with Jira, Confluence  or other team / project management tools
• Familiarity with Agile techniques
• Familiarity with CI/CD practices and techniques

Why join us

Our supportive culture encourages personal and professional development and we are committed to ensuring our employees feel valued, supported and empowered to reach their potential at work.

Surrounded by beautiful South Cambridgeshire countryside, our Campus provides employees with a relaxed atmosphere where the pursuit of scientific discovery and meaningful work, underpin every role. In addition, our employees have access to a wide range of benefits including:

• 30 days annual leave plus bank holidays
• Flexible work arrangements (including remote working, part-time and job share options)
• Unique pension scheme with a generous employer contribution
• Annual salary review
• Private medical insurance for you and your dependent family members (including all prescriptions and generous dental & optical cover)
• Death benefit, long-term care, accident at work and unemployment insurances
• Significant opportunity for career development within the cluster
• Relocation package including installation grant (if required)
• On-site library
• Subsidised on-site gym and cafeteria
• Casual dress code
• Free shuttle bus to and from Campus
• Extensive sports and social club activities (run on campus and remotely)
• Family benefits: Onsite nursery, child sick leave, generous parental leave, holiday clubs on campus and monthly family and child allowances
• Benefits for non UK residents: Visa exemption, education grant for private schooling, financial support to travel back to your home country every second year and a monthly non-resident allowance

VIDEO: Find out more about what it is like to work as a Developer at EMBL-EBI here.

What else you need to know

This position is a 3 year staff member contract, renewable to a maximum of 9 years.

To apply, please submit your application through our online system.  Applications will close on and we aim to provide a response within two weeks after the closing date.

At EMBL-EBI, we strongly believe that inclusive and diverse teams benefit from higher levels of innovation and creative thought. We encourage applications from women, LGBTQ and individuals from all nationalities. Visa exemptions will be offered to international candidates and details will be discussed during interview.

This role is based in Hinxton, UK and you will be required to relocate once it is safe to do so if you are currently based abroad. More info on how we are recruiting in this period is available on our page: Recruitment and Onboarding during Covid19.