The Mission: Building Intelligent Data Infrastructure
Medical breakthroughs are often delayed by fragmented data infrastructure. VELA (Versatile Extraction & Logic Abstraction) is being built to solve this through three integrated capabilities:
Smart Query Orchestration: Translating data requests into optimized queries across multiple Trusted Research Environments (TREs)
Domain Knowledge Integration: Capturing and surfacing expert guidance about data quality, limitations, and best practices
Automated Quality Reporting: Ensuring researchers understand the data they're accessing and its limitations
The result? A unified Python interface to billions of health records across the UK's most secure data havens (e.g., SAIL, UK LLC, DataLoch), with built-in research quality safeguards.
This is a systems engineering role, not a research position. You'll transform a functional R prototype into production-grade Python infrastructure that will power national initiatives including the UK Government's Mental Health Goals, DATAMIND, and the National Centre for Suicide Prevention.
The Team: Fast-Paced, High-Impact
We work at a fast pace with iterative delivery cycles, backed by the stability and prestige of a Tier-1 research institution.
Collaborative, High-Achieving Group: We manage over £20M in funding and maintain high quality standards with iterative delivery cycles.
Team lead: The Team is led by Prof. Ann John, director of DATAMIND and NCSR, chair of the National Advisory Group on suicide and self-harm prevention to Welsh Government, member of SAGE, and Samaritans Trustee.
Direct Partnership: You will be the Lead Technical Architect on this project, working in close collaboration with project founder Dr. Marcos DelPozo-Banos. You own the technical roadmap, the architecture, and the execution.
Extension potential: Our team has successfully secured ongoing funding for previous high-performing team members, and we anticipate continued development of VELA beyond the initial contract period.
Professional Growth: We invest in high-performers. For the right person, this role is a platform for career-defining work.
Technical community: While you'll be the lead architect for VELA, you'll be part of our broader research/software engineering community and have access to our extensive network (Government, NHS, funding bodies)."
Who you are:
Essential Technical Skills:
Experience in professional software engineering with a track record of delivering complex, mission-critical systems.
Expert Python skills in object-oriented design, library development, and API development (you build production-grade systems, not scripts).
Deep database experience with large-scale relational databases, query optimization, and data modelling.
System design thinking to architect multi-component systems with clear separation of concerns.
Engineering rigor with SOLID principles, comprehensive testing, and documentation practices.
Your mindset:
You're self-motivated and ambitious, driven by challenging technical problems.
You balance engineering rigor with pragmatic delivery, thrive with technical ownership while collaborating closely with stakeholders.
You are energized by building systems that enable real-world research impact.