University of Cambridge
Assistant Research Professor (Software Engineer) (Fixed Term)
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Join us at the world-leading CRUK Cambridge Institute
We're a unique department of the University of Cambridge, core funded by Cancer Research UK's charitable activities, and we're eagerly searching for an Assistant Research Professor with a background in software engineering to join us in a unique role.
Embedded in the Institute's Markowetz research group, the Assistant Research Professor role will lead critical software engineering research projects in support of the Institute's AI research strategy, and as part of the wider cross-Institutional CRUK AI Alliance.
The CRUK AI Alliance will link all four CRUK institutes and partners through shared infrastructure, data, and expertise. The Alliance will build foundation models spanning genotype, molecular regulatory networks, and tumour-organ interactions, factoring in age, sex, and environmental exposure. These models will let federated teams study disease processes that can't be observed directly, such as pre-cancerous lesions, dormant residual disease, and tumour-organ interactions. The Alliance will pursue questions such as:
- What drives cancer initiation, and how can it be intercepted to prevent disease?
- How can we infer patient states that can't currently be measured?
- How do we deliver precision healthcare?
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By pairing shared AI infrastructure with question-focused workstreams, the Alliance aims to make the UK cancer research ecosystem more cohesive and powerful, enabling approaches beyond the reach of current methods.
Principal Responsibilities Will Include
- Evaluate new and existing AI tools and software for relevance and fit to the Institute's research needs.
- Build, adapt, and integrate selected AI tools into the Institute's existing systems and workflows.
- Test and validate AI tool outputs against the standards required for research use.
- Communicate the capabilities and limitations of AI tools clearly to non-specialist researchers.
- Guide the Institute in adopting good practice around AI tool use and software development and provide training on using adopted or built tools effectively.
- Collaborate with other groups across the Institute and the CRUK AI Alliance to share evaluations and avoid duplicated effort.
- Liaise with external groups and developers to inform evaluation and adoption decisions.
- Follow good software engineering practice (version control, testing, documentation) when building or adapting tools.
- Assess the trade-offs (cost, maintainability, data security) between adopting third-party tools and building bespoke solutions.
- Report on the progress and outcomes of evaluations and integrations to the Institute and wider CRUK AI Alliance.
- Maintain and troubleshoot integrated tools, and keep up to date with a fast-moving AI/software landscape.
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Fixed-term: The funds for this post are available for 1 year in the first instance.
Applications are welcome from internal candidates who would like to apply for the role on the basis of a secondment from their current role in the University.
Click the 'Apply' button below to register an account with our recruitment system (if you have not already) and apply online.
Please quote reference SW51133 on your application and in any correspondence about this vacancy.
The University actively supports equality, diversity, and inclusion and encourages applications from all sections of society.
The University has a responsibility to ensure that all employees are eligible to live and work in the UK.
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