Research Software Engineer – Geospatial Software Developer

The University of Manchester has an exciting opportunity for a Research Software Engineer – Geospatial Software Developer with expertise and experience in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Geospatial Software Development. You will join an interdisciplinary project team to help support the technical development of the £8m NERC funded Digital Solutions Programme.

NERC’s Digital Solutions programme, based at the University of Manchester, was created to develop innovative digital services that deliver economic, societal, and environmental benefits across the UK. Its purpose extends beyond purely academic use and the exploitation of existing data holdings. Our ethos is to build a Digital Solutions Hub as a gateway to a broad set of inter-connected toolkits that facilitate improved access and better use of NERC data. These may already exist or will be created with our partners, which include the NHS, Defra, PHE and HSE, as well as local and regional SMEs and individual members of society. Providing easier access to NERC's environmental data offers opportunities for improving peoples' health and better understanding the impacts of climate change on people, land, and property across the UK. Initially we will focus on two areas 'A Connected Healthy Nation' and 'A Climate Ready Nation' as use cases. It is expected that more use cases will come online as the programme develops.

The focus of the Digital Solutions Programme is to build a UK wide decision support system at the cutting edge of theory and practice, which will contribute to improvements in the overall quality of environmental decision making in public, private and third sector settings throughout the UK. Developing productive partnerships with policymakers and practitioners in a range of sectors, including social, economic, environmental and health will be a key objective for these posts. This is to ensure the digital solutions programme develops a working ‘hub’ that supports their short-, medium- and longer-term planning.

What we are looking for

To be considered for this role you must have expertise in Geographic Information System (GIS) and GeoSpatial Software Development with demonstrable abilities in developing geospatial web applications using tools such as ArcGIS JavaScript API, ArcGIS Runtime. We require you to have expertise in ESRI desktop products, such as ArcGIS Pro and ArcGIS Desktop, including the development of desktop plugins for ArcGIS Pro and extensions / customisations in ArcGIS Desktop. In-depth knowledge of Geospatially enabled databases, preferably PostGIS, and proficiency in Geodatabase development including schema creation and table optimisation is essential. A comprehensive understanding and application of ArcGIS Services, OGC Services, and APIs and in-depth exposure to the ArcGIS Enterprise suite, including ArcGIS Server, Portal, ArcGIS Image Server, ArcGIS GeoAnalytics Server, ArcGIS Notebook Server, etc is also essential, as is proficiency in scripting using the ArcGIS Python API.

Purpose of the Role

As a Research Software Engineer working on this programme, you will collaborate with academics, post-doctoral researchers, software engineers and a broad user community, working closely with Programme Director Professor Richard Kingston. Your core responsibility involves designing, modifying, and implementing software systems to meet specific research requirements. You will identify and apply software engineering concepts to practical designs, offering development expertise, consultancy, and guidance.

The role encompasses software development, service development, problem solving for users, documentation creation, community building, software installation and configuration, maintaining licencing compliance, ensuring compatibility with current architectures, and the adherence to regulatory standards, industry regulations, and organisational policies.

Key Responsibilities, Accountabilities and Duties

• Engage in the development of high-quality software as a Full Stack software engineer with the additional expertise of Geospatial Software Engineering. This includes developing and testing high-quality Object-Oriented Code using best practices like SOLID, and employing formal methods and standard software patterns.
• Ability to work as a part of a team as well as on their own.
• Ability to prioritize tasks and to solve problems with an engineering mindset rather than a developer mindset.
• Independently working on moderately complex systems and collaborating with colleagues on larger and more complex systems. This involves defining user / system interfaces, designing, coding, testing, and debugging software applications using multiple programming languages such as Python and C#, whilst ensuring efficiency, performance, and maintainability.
• Maintains comprehensive documentation using specified standards and tools, including prototyping tools when appropriate.
• Develops and implements unit, integration, and system testing to ensure software quality, reliability, and security.

What you will get in return :