Earlham Institute
Senior Developer
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Help build the platform behind some of the largest biodiversity genomics programmes ever attempted.
COPO (Collaborative OPen Omics) is the metadata backbone for projects of international scientific significance, including the Darwin Tree of Life programme and Biodiversity Genomics Europe, supporting the description and submission of samples, sequencing data and derived analyses from biodiversity genomics at scale.
It helps researchers describe, manage and publish biological data in line with the FAIR principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable). COPO captures standards-compliant metadata and brokers submissions to public repositories including the European Nucleotide Archive (ENA), BioSamples, Zenodo and DataCite, and packages research outputs as RO-Crates.
We are seeking a talented Senior Developer to deliver the next phase of COPO's evolution.
The work will evolve COPO's existing Python/Django codebase, establishing a cleaner, more maintainable architecture with improved APIs and user-facing components. You will enhance the platform's ability to support new use cases and integrations while preserving the metadata handling excellence that makes COPO invaluable to the research community.
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Working across the full technology stack, you will develop dashboards, data portals, APIs and the services that support COPO's metadata validation, curation and submission workflows. Data visualisation and API design sit at the heart of the role, transforming complex, multi-source scientific metadata into clear, reliable and well-documented interfaces that researchers can depend on.
Ideal candidate
The ideal candidate will have a degree (or equivalent professional/practical experience) in computer science, software engineering, bioinformatics or a related discipline.
- You will have experience delivering full-stack web applications using modern frontend and backend technologies, with a strong track record in designing, building and documenting RESTful APIs.
- Comfortable working in collaborative engineering environments, you will be confident with version control, code review practices, containerisation and CI/CD workflows.
- The post holder will have a talent for turning complex or ambiguous requirements into intuitive, user-focused solutions, and an appreciation of FAIR data principles, ontologies or controlled vocabularies.
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Experience with data visualisation and dashboard development, scientific data or metadata standards, cloud or research-computing environments, or domains such as genomics, biodiversity or ecology would be advantageous.
- Salary on appointment will be within the range £47,450 to £58,000 per annum depending on qualifications and experience.
- This is a full-time post for a contract until 31 August 2028.
As a Disability Confident employer, we guarantee to offer an interview to all disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria for this vacancy.
- The closing date for applications will be 5 August 2026.
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