Senior Research Software Engineering Lead
Join the University of Glasgow as Senior Research Software Engineering Lead, designing and delivering innovative software and data science solutions that unlock the potential of urban data for research, policy, and public impact.
Job Purpose
Oversee end‑to‑end development of robust data analytics pipelines, scalable applications, and intuitive user interfaces. Work directly with interdisciplinary teams to co‑create solutions that support data‑intensive social research and drive the UBDC’s strategic research agenda.
Responsibilities
* Provide leadership of research software engineering and data science services at UBDC.
* Develop a strategic vision and operational plans, including policies and procedures.
* Apply and direct state‑of‑the‑art software engineering and AI techniques to address research challenges.
* Liaise with researchers, administrators and end‑user stakeholders to capture requirements.
* Document systems and provide training, manuals and workshops.
* Present and disseminate UBDC work via presentations and reports.
* Support research colleagues in using external cloud providers and university computing infrastructure.
* Contribute to major funding bids and business cases.
* Provide technical project management for multiple concurrent projects.
* Line‑manage UBDC RSE team members.
* Support open research by applying FAIR principles to data and tools.
Knowledge, Qualifications, Skills & Experience
Essential
* Scottish Credit and Qualification Framework level 9‑11 or equivalent, with management experience.
* Strong programming skills in multiple modern languages (Python, R, JavaScript/React/Next.js, Node).
* Excellent understanding of best practices in project management, version control, CI/CD, and package management.
* Experience designing, developing, deploying and maintaining production‑ready web systems.
* Proficiency with software tools and computational resources across research disciplines.
* Excellent communication skills and teamwork.
Desirable
* Knowledge of geospatial data structures and visualisation.
* Experience in user‑centred design and tools such as Figma.
* Familiarity with Scrum, Docker and Kubernetes.
* Knowledge of cloud platforms (AWS, Azure).
Skills
* Leadership, planning, organization and workload management.
* Technical writing, reporting, presentations and training.
* Independent work and proactive collaboration.
* Rapid comprehension of research requirements and resource planning.
* Evaluation of new computational opportunities.
* Analytical thinking and continuous improvement.
* Stakeholder networking.
* Behavioural leadership and team motivation.
* Development of institution‑wide software engineering services.
Experience
* Technical project management and leadership for multiple research or software projects.
* Collaboration on high‑quality, well‑tested data‑intensive software.
* Project portfolio resourcing and prioritisation.
* Mentoring and evaluation, formal or informal.
* Experience in data‑intensive social research and digital humanities (desirable).
* Multi‑developer collaborative software development and client support (desirable).
Terms and Conditions
Salary Grade 8: £50,253 – £58,225 per annum. Full time (35 hours/week). Funding for up to 3 years. Relocation assistance where necessary.
Visa sponsorship may be available under the Skilled Worker route. For more information visit https://www.gov.uk/skilled-worker-visa.
Closing Date
4 January 2026 at 23:45
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