Description Position Details Department of Applied Health Sciences, School of Health Sciences, College of Medicine and Health Location: University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham UK Full time starting salary is normally in the range £36,636 to £46,049 with potential progression once in post to £48,822 Grade: 7 Full Time, Fixed Term contract up to February 2029 Closing date: 18th March 2026 Our offer to you People are at the heart of what we are and do. The University of Birmingham is proud to have been a part of the City of Birmingham and the wider region for over 100 years, and we are equally proud to be recognised as a leading global university. We want to attract talented people from across the city and beyond, support them to succeed, and celebrate their success. We are committed to helping the people who work here to develop through our sector-leading Birmingham Professional programme which provides all professional services staff with development opportunities and the encouragement to reach their full potential. With almost 5,000 professional services jobs in a wide-range of functions in Edgbaston and in our campus in Dubai, there are plenty of opportunities for you to be able to develop your career at the University. We believe there is no such thing as a typical member of staff and that diversity is a source of strength that underpins the exchange of ideas, innovation, and debate. We warmly welcome people from all backgrounds and are committed to fostering an inclusive environment where diversity is at the heart of who and what we are, and how we work. Supporting our people to achieve a healthy work/life balance is important both to our employees and to the success of the University and, depending on the role, we offer a variety of flexible working arrangements. We therefore welcome discussions on all forms of flexible working. In addition, you will receive a generous package of benefits including 40 days paid holiday a year, one paid day a year for volunteering, occupational sick pay, and a pension scheme. We also have three high quality subsidised day nurseries. The University is situated in leafy Edgbaston and there are excellent transport links to our beautiful campus, including main bus routes and a train station on site. On campus we have a state-of-the-art sports centre with pool, shops, places to eat and drink, our own art gallery, museum and botanical gardens. Find out more about the benefits of working for the University of Birmingham Background We are seeking a highly motivated Research Software Engineer with strong expertise in statistical computing, data science, or a related quantitative field to support our research team in the Department of Applied Health Sciences. The successful candidate will contribute to a Gates Foundation funded project focused on developing and applying advanced spatial and spatio-temporal statistical methods to inform disease mapping and control strategies in low-resource settings. The project offers a unique opportunity to work at the intersection of statistical methodology, epidemiology, and global health, within a vibrant international network coordinated by the newly established Geostatistics for Population Health research group at the University of Birmingham. The research will involve developing new geostatistical approaches to integrate multi-country disease surveillance data and generate policy-relevant outputs. The post holder will work under the guidance of Prof. Emanuele Giorgi and Dr. Claudio Fronterre, contributing to the development, implementation, and optimisation of research software and analytical tools supporting methodological innovation and applied disease mapping. The role will involve close collaboration with the NTD Modelling Consortium (University of Oxford), the Task Force for Global Health, and other international partners across Africa, Asia, and the Americas. The post holder will support the design, optimisation, and maintenance of open-source R packages, data pipelines, and reproducible analytical workflows, supporting large-scale data analysis, dissemination, and long-term sustainability of project software outputs. We welcome and encourage applications from candidates with complementary backgrounds. This includes candidates with a background in statistics, mathematics, or related quantitative disciplines who are interested in focusing on the software and computational aspects of complex statistical models, as well as candidates with a background in computer science or software engineering who are motivated to work closely with statisticians and epidemiologists to improve model implementation, performance, scalability, and reproducibility through high-quality research software. In both cases, the emphasis of the role is on robust software development rather than leading statistical inference. Prior experience in disease mapping is not essential, and domain-specific training will be provided. About the project The Geostatistics for Global Health (GGH) initiative is a four-year, Gates Foundation–funded programme led by Dr Claudio Fronterre and Prof Emanuele Giorgi at the University of Birmingham, in partnership with the NTD Modelling Consortium (University of Oxford), the Task Force for Global Health, WHO/ESPEN, and regional research institutions across Africa, Asia, and the Americas. The project aims to develop, validate, and operationalize advanced spatial and spatio-temporal statistical methods for mapping and analysing neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). These methods will enhance the precision of disease surveillance, improve targeting of control interventions, and strengthen programme evaluation across endemic regions. GGH will deliver open-source geostatistical tools, reproducible R-based analytical pipelines, and accessible training resources to ensure sustained use of these methods by partner institutions and national disease programmes. A key focus is on embedding geostatistical modelling capacity within African research centres to enable independent analysis and local ownership of spatial data systems. The project’s research portfolio includes methodological innovation in geostatistical model development, integration of serological and entomological data, modelling of infection intensity, and the design of surveillance and post-elimination sampling strategies. Close collaboration with operational partners ensures that scientific advances translate directly into programme-relevant decision tools, thereby contributing to global NTD elimination goals. Role Summary The post holder will work under the guidance of Dr. Claudio Fronterre and Prof. Emanuele Giorgi, contributing to the design, development, optimisation, and long-term maintenance of research software supporting spatial and spatio-temporal disease mapping within a Gates Foundation funded programme. The role will focus on translating advanced statistical methodology into robust, efficient, and reusable software tools, including R packages, data pipelines, and integrated dashboards, to support large-scale, multi-country disease surveillance and decision-making. The post holder will take responsibility for ensuring that project software and analytical workflows are scalable, reproducible, and accessible to both academic and operational partners. The Research Software Engineer will work closely with researchers, epidemiologists, and international collaborators to ensure that methodological developments are implemented in well-engineered, production-quality code, and will contribute to the sustainability and usability of open-source tools developed within the project. Main Duties The responsibilities may include some but not all of the following: Design, develop, document, and maintain research software implementing spatial and spatio-temporal statistical methods. Write, refactor, test, and optimise production-quality R code, including the development and maintenance of reusable R packages. Improve and maintain data pipelines for ingesting, validating, transforming, and analysing large, multi-country spatial and spatio-temporal datasets. Manage and structure spatial data assets, including geospatial formats, metadata, and versioning, to support efficient analysis and reproducible workflows. Implement and promote software engineering best practices, including version control (e.g. GitHub), code review, testing, documentation, and reproducibility standards. Develop and maintain software-integrated dashboards and interactive interfaces (e.g. Shiny or equivalent frameworks) for exploration and communication of spatial data and model outputs. Collaborate closely with researchers and international partners to translate methodological requirements into robust and maintainable software solutions. Contribute to technical documentation, user guides, and training materials to support uptake of project software by external partners and national programmes. Support project coordination activities related to software development, maintenance, and delivery of technical outputs. Promote equality, diversity, and inclusion, fostering an inclusive and collaborative research software culture within the team. Required Knowledge, Skills, Qualifications, Experience Degree plus professional experience in Statistics, Data Science, Research Software Engineering, Computer Science, or a related quantitative discipline. Strong experience in scientific software development for statistical or data-intensive applications. Advanced proficiency in R programming, including package development, testing, documentation, and performance optimisation. Experience designing and maintaining data pipelines and reproducible analytical workflows. Experience working with spatial or spatio-temporal data, including geospatial data formats and associated tooling. Demonstrated use of version control systems (e.g. Git/GitHub) and collaborative software development workflows. Experience developing interactive dashboards or analytical interfaces integrated with underlying codebases and data pipelines. Excellent problem-solving skills, with attention to software robustness, scalability, and reproducibility. Ability to work both independently and collaboratively in a multidisciplinary and international environment. Effective communication skills, particularly in documenting and explaining technical systems. Commitment to equality, diversity, and inclusion in research and collaboration. Informal enquiries to Dr. Claudio Fronterre, email: c.fronterre@bham.ac.uk View our staff values and behaviours here Use of AI in applications: We want to understand your genuine interest in the role and for the written elements of your application to accurately reflect your own communication style. Applications that rely too heavily on AI tools can appear generic and lack the detail we need to assess your skills and experience. Such applications will unlikely be progressed to interview. We believe there is no such thing as a 'typical' member of University of Birmingham staff and that diversity in its many forms is a strength that underpins the exchange of ideas, innovation and debate at the heart of University life. We are committed to proactively addressing the barriers experienced by some groups in our community and are proud to hold Athena SWAN, Race Equality Charter and Disability Confident accreditations. We have an Equality Diversity and Inclusion Centre that focuses on continuously improving the University as a fair and inclusive place to work where everyone has the opportunity to succeed. We are also committed to sustainability, which is a key part of our strategy. You can find out more about our work to create a fairer university for everyone on our website .