Junior Research Engineer

The Jean Golding Institute ’s Research Engineering Group collaborates with researchers from all disciplines to support research involving data and artificial intelligence (AI). We are a team of specialists that can be embedded into research projects to provide in-depth technical expertise to explore new questions, deepen insight, and drive innovation and impact.

We are looking for an enthusiastic Junior Research Engineer to join our team of research data scientists , research AI engineers and research software engineers (RSEs) , and we are open to candidates with any of these backgrounds.

This role would suit someone who is looking to develop their expertise in a collaborative research environment. You will be working across a wide range of domains and with support of more senior colleagues who will provide guidance and mentoring.

No two projects are the same, and you may find yourself contributing to research in fields as diverse as climate science, healthcare, robotics, transport or social science. Typically, you will have a long-term research project, where you will contribute AI, statistical modelling or software engineering expertise, attend project meetings and interact with the project’s team.

The rest of your time will be spent on smaller activities, including meeting with researchers to assist with queries received through our Ask-JGI helpdesk, delivering training in data science, AI and research software engineering, and helping facilitate seminars, workshops, hackathons and outreach activities.

You can expect to contribute to publications, conference presentations, blog posts and open-source software.

You should have relevant industry or academic experience working with data science, AI, statistical modelling or related disciplines. We are particularly interested in candidates that have experience applying modern AI techniques to research problems, including large language models (LLMs), although we welcome applicants whose experience is primarily in data science, statistics or research software engineering.

You should be fluent in Python and/or R, but demonstrable use of other programming languages for research and/or an interest in learning new languages is most welcome. You should have experience in applying best practices in reproducible research and sustainable software development, such as version control, testing and documentation, and be able to embed those practices within the projects you work on.

You do not need expertise in any particular research domain. What matters more is your ability to learn quickly and collaborate with the JGI team and researchers outside your own area of expertise. You should be able to explain technical concepts, communicate the advantages and disadvantages of the various techniques/tools and agree a suitable approach for each project.

You should be able to manage your own time and plan your workload across your projects. Whilst we encourage you to have your own areas of interest, you should be prepared to work on a wide range of projects, as dictated by the needs of researchers at the University.

We recognise that excellent candidates may not meet every requirement. If this role excites you, we encourage you to apply.

Contract type: Open ended with fixed funding initially for 12 months

Work pattern: Full time

Hybrid working is available with team members expected to spend at least two days per week at the office, and attend in-person meetings and events as required.

Grade: I

We recently launched our strategy to 2030 tying together our mission, vision and values.