Salary: £29,605 to £30,487 with progression to £32,982 per annumNewcastle University is a great place to work, with excellent . We have a generous holiday package; plus the opportunity to buy more, great pension schemes and a number of health and wellbeing initiatives to support you.Closing Date: 16 April 2024The RoleWe are inviting applications for a Software Developer to join the Data Science & AI Programme at the NIHR Innovation Observatory (IO), based at Newcastle University. The IO, supported by £27M of NIHR funding, integrates the expertise of horizon scanning analysts, evidence synthesis researchers and data scientists into a cohesive hub focused on observing and reporting on health innovation.In this role, you will play a key part in the continuous enhancement and support of OpenScan, our in-house developed, cloud-based data science engine. Your expertise will be leveraged to refine our data ingestion pipeline, designed to collate, standardise, and analyse health data from diverse sources, including clinical trial registries and research publication databases. OpenScan is used as a platform to develop search and analytical tools to support the IO’s horizon scanning and evidence synthesis research activities.The position calls for a proficient coder, to develop and optimise data processing routines in OpenScan. You will also be involved with supporting the integration of emerging technologies, such as large language models and generative AI.This post is available fixed term until 31 March 2026 in the first instance.For informal queries, please contact Dr Christopher Marshall at the following email address:Key Accountabilities
- Contribute to the development and maintenance of OpenScan’s data pipeline, focusing on enhancing data crawling, extraction, and analysis capabilities, primarily using Python
- Engage in data collection and processing, effectively managing structured and unstructured health data. Employ data transformation techniques to prepare data for analysis
- Support the use and maintenance of databases such as MongoDB
- Participate in integrating emerging technologies, including large language models and generative AI, into our data processing workflows, working with our academic researchers
- Collaborate with cross-functional teams to support projects, maintain clear documentation, and communicate clearly technical progress
- Proficient in Python programming, with a focus on web scraping and data manipulation
- Familiarity with web crawling libraries such as Selenium and Beautiful Soup
- Promote strong programming standards, prioritising clear, maintainable, and easily testable code
- Experience in data collection, cleaning, and processing for diverse datasets
- Proficiency in utilising source code version control systems such as GitHub
- Knowledge and proficiency in cloud computing environments, particularly AWS, demonstrating the ability leverage cloud services effectively
- Proficient in Java programming
- Exposure to JavaScript frontend libraries such as React and NodeJS, with an openness and willingness to learn new frameworks
- Experience with NoSQL databases (MongoDB) and Elasticsearch
- Interest and/or experience with generative AI technologies
- Experience as a full-stack developer
- Effective communicator with the ability to articulate technical concepts clearly to non-technical colleagues
- Eager to join and contribute to a collaborative environment, supporting team objectives and sharing knowledge
- Willing to tackle challenges with a positive and proactive attitude, and a willingness to seek out learning opportunities to resolve a problem
- Open to exploring innovative ideas and approaches, showing a keen interest in staying updated with the latest technology trends
- Undergraduate degree in Computer Science or a related discipline
- Postgraduate degree in Computer Science or a related discipline