Help us support world-class science at The Wellcome Sanger Institute. We are proud to launch our first-ever Tech Talent Scheme and are looking for the next generation of Techs who will lead and support our science for the future. 

Our scheme lasts two years and will consist of up to three rotations around key IT and Informatics teams across the Institute. Starting September 2022, you will play a pivotal role in supporting our vast ambitions for world-leading genomics research. You will also gain an invaluable combination of technical, operational and project management hands-on to accelerate your career at Sanger Institute. With a guaranteed permanent job at the end!!

If you are relocating to Cambridgeshire, we are offering successful candidates an interest-free £2k loan upon acceptance to the Programme. This loan may be used towards re-location costs or a house rental deposit, for example. The loan will be repaid over the duration of the scheme via monthly salary deduction. For more information about this see our FAQS. 

Life at Sanger Institute 

Life at Sanger Institute is truly unique. We encourage a work-life balance, with the opportunity to work flexibly. You will be joining 1000 + employees from 70 + nationalities across 130 acres, just outside of Cambridge.

Throughout your time with us, you will have access to a wide variety of campus-run courses, various networking and professional development events. Plus access to a mentor and regular conversations about your progress and ambitions

•   Find out more about Life at the Sanger Institute
•   Want to know more about the Benefits of working at Sanger Institute?

Who is the Tech Talent Scheme for? 

We are looking for individuals who have a Degree (Hons) or equivalent relevant experience in computer science or associated disciplines. You don’t need to be a Scientist to contribute to science. The work you will be doing will help support the improvement of human health and understanding of life on Earth.

Find out about what it’s like being a Tech Graduate at Sanger Institute with Michael and Matthieu

After the Scheme

We are keen to grow our own talent at Sanger Institute. By joining us you will be working on real projects from the start supported by some inspiring colleagues and projects.

Upon satisfactory completion of the scheme, all successful candidates for the Tech Talent Scheme will be offered a permanent contract within the organisation.

What else are we offering?

Not only are we offering a two-year rotation around key IT and Informatics teams in our world-class facilities, we are offering a relocation loan, a permanent contract upon satisfactory completion of the scheme and also a BCS membership. A BCS membership provides the opportunity to access a community knowledge from outside your sector along with: 

• Access to our community of branches international sections and specialist groups 
• Volunteering and engagement opportunities across all the work of BCS
• Access to our London office member facilities
• Knowledge access 
• Regular features through our electronic newsletters and membership magazine
• Access to a wide range of events 
• Access to our research and insight reports
• Exclusive discounts to BCS publications 
• Membership extras (discounts on lifestyle, business & legal services)   
• Career development 
• Find a mentor or mentee via our BCS Career mentoring network  
• Exclusive access to Browse SFIAplus (IT skills framework online tool) and our CDP recording tool
• Springboard – online career portal that includes assessments, eLearning and career advice  
• Recognition 
• Professional code of conduct and member post-nominal letters  
• Professional recognition of experience, knowledge and competence, including Chartered Status
• Options to appear on our public registers of professionals (including registers for Chartered status holders)
• BCS membership logo usage and certificate 

About the Scheme 

The scheme will last two years and will consist of three individual rotations around key IT and Informatics teams across the Institute.  You will get the opportunity to express your preferences in your application. There are a total of nine areas to choose from:

Tree of Life

The Tree of Life Programme was established to develop and deliver platforms that will transform our understanding of the natural world through high-volume and high-quality biodiversity genomics. 

The Tree of Life informatics teams is currently building the infrastructure, the platforms, and the software to support the generation and analysis of tens of thousands of genomes for Tree of Life.

The two largest projects currently are the Darwin Tree of Life and Aquatics Symbiosis Genomics projects which, combined, aim to sequence over 73,000 species, and more are expected through the Earth BioGenome Project. Technologies include:

• Various programming languages, e.g. Python, JavaScript (+React), Rust, Shell, Perl, C
• REST APIs to connect all components, incl. third-party applications
• Workflow management systems (Nextflow, Snakemake, GA4GH APIs)
• Relational databases (e.g. PostgreSQL)
• Container-based deployments, e.g. Docker and Singularity, Kubernetes and Helm, Docker Swarm on premises (LSF compute clusters, and OpenStack private cloud)

Human Genetics

The Human Genetics Programme is driving a step-change in our understanding of genetic causes and biological mechanisms of disease susceptibility and progression, focusing on developmental disorders and diseases of the blood and immune system. We integrate population-scale genetics, longitudinal clinical data, and large-scale genetic perturbation studies in cellular model systems. We aim to transform the clinical utility of human genetic variation.

The types of software you’ll be helping develop could span:

• Scientific data management. We are working towards end-to-end resource tracking of scientific studies, for instance comparing their predicted usage at inception to actual live usage. We are heavily invested in real-time, fine-grained resource tracking and optimisation. We are also aggressively capturing study metadata, in order to make our datasets more findable and reusable.
• Scientific workflows. We create and run diverse data workflows to analyse sequencing data for our faculty groups. These are written in specialised workflow languages and are powered by compute in the Sanger cluster, the Sanger on-prem cloud and the public cloud.
• Trusted Research Environment (TRE) building and support.  We play a key role in the creation and ongoing running of a TRE hosted in the public cloud. The TRE hosts a multi-institution / industry scientific collaboration, and its care requires both technical and data security / information governance expertise.

Genomic Surveillance Unit (GSU)

The Genomic Surveillance Unit is a not-for-profit department, whose mission is to enable all countries to use genomic surveillance as a practical tool for local disease control and as a pillar of global pandemic preparedness with a primary focus on supporting low and middle-income countries. The Business Systems and Data Engineering team within the GSU is made up of software developers, data engineers, product managers, QA testers, scrum masters and DevOps/Systems Engineers who build, implement and support the technology layer of the GSU. Through many multi-centre projects, we provide a framework for generating, integrating and sharing genetic and genomic data, and for investigating key questions about COVID-19, malaria biology and epidemiology.

We have a range of projects on the go at any point in time where you will have exposure to:

• Development of Python-based software and web applications that support internal operations, in-country partner activities as well as public health organisations
• Development and support of systems that streamline our internal operations
• Best practice QA testing and test automation that supports the production of scalable, robust, high quality software
• The use of Agile methodologies to deliver value to the organisation and our customers
• Understanding how data lakes can be implemented for improved metadata management
• Understanding how to migrate legacy systems to new platforms creating a supportable software base for the future
• Review and implementation of enterprise software packages to support internal operations
• Understanding how CI/CD is implemented within a technical team with the view to automate infrastructure deployments

Cellular Genetics

The Cellular Genetics programme is focused on cell-atlasing and cellular genetics. The programme uses these approaches to map cells in the human body combining cutting-edge methodologies and computational approaches. This enables us to understand what the identity of cells are, how they are regulated, relationships between them and, importantly, how this can change during development, health, disease and ageing.

Types of projects that you will have exposure to:

• Spatial transcriptomic and imaging pipelines, which provide a unique challenge for informatics analysis and storage.
• Data management workflow and tools review to assess the programme’s current state. Understanding how data makes an impact in science and how it can be managed to improve findability, accessibility, interoperability, and reusability.
• Development of Python-based software and web applications to leverage big data and cutting edge libraries to support the programme needs.

  Pipeline Solutions

Almost all the DNA sequencing data at Sanger flows through the core facilities we provide. That data comes from a variety of instruments and feeds all the scientific programmes. To do this we create and run automated analysis, tracking and QC systems, as well as providing more bespoke advice and analysis. You’ll help us keep Sanger science production going by:

• Helping us field queries from both faculty teams and from the upstream operational teams who feed and run the DNA sequencers.
• Ensuring our critical systems are running okay: then troubleshooting and fixing any that aren’t!
• Learning and enhancing our automation: deployments, testing, and new functionality
• Helping dealing with more complex queries and bioinformatics requests from our scientists
• Aiding in the development of our systems.

 Enterprise Solutions

The Enterprise Solutions unit supports users across the whole campus, supporting key applications. Its goal is to provide cost-effective and high-performance technology support for the smooth running of the Institute. As well as providing applications for functions such as HR, Finance, Estates etc, this unit also supports our web presence (circa 150 web sites) and GRL user devices (c 1500 users).

• Working in an ITIL environment you will be expected to develop your customer service and technical skills dealing with level 1-3 technical problems in a mixed Windows and Mac estate. In your rotation you will be expected to gain ITIL certification.
• Working within the web team you will work on the whole lifecycle of web development from conception through to implementation of public facing websites using a variety of development tools.
• Working in the infrastructure team you will work on technical support and project work relating to server and networking infrastructure, including the management of firewalls and other security appliances.

Information Governance and Security 

The Information Governance and Security team supports operations across the whole of the campus, working collaboratively with technical, scientific and management teams to ensure the security and integrity of our technology and information assets.  As a newly developed team there are a number of projects to support such as:

• Working with scientific programmes to assure operations against security standards
• Develop our approach to DevSecOps in conjunction with technical teams across the institute 
• Monitor and remediate security tools and alerts to ensure all critical vulnerabilities are mitigated
• Developing information management framework, working with users to understand operational requirements and translating to technical specifications

  Agile Change Delivery 

The Agile Change Delivery team is the main means of delivering major change and improvements in IDS’s services. It underpins the solutions work in all the other areas. It is tasked with predictable and effective change delivery, working closely with sponsors and stakeholders across all GRL as required and is critical towards equipping GRL with better and more effective IDS systems. The vision is to ensure a department-wide approach to identifying, prioritising, planning and successfully delivering a portfolio of work through agile ways of working. The key functions that you will have the opportunity to work on are;

• Agile Delivery/ Project Management. To support / coordinate work, by getting the exposure to agile ways of working as required. 
  • You will get the opportunity to work on projects from its inception all the way to closure. 
  • As an entry-level project manager, you will work on project tasks with experienced project managers to ensure successful project delivery 
  • You will get the opportunity to learn various Project management tools and techniques and help improve current project management practices
• Systems Analysis: To gather requirements and ensure that planned changes meet the intended outcomes
  • You will work on designing and analysing our current and future IT systems.
  • You will have the opportunity to take responsibilities in creating specifications and enhancements to adopt, enhance or upgrade systems across IDS
  • You will learn current systems, understand user requirements and validate the intended outcome for end users 

Scientific Computing (Informatics Support Group)

The informatics Support Group (ISG), provides world leading private cloud, high performance computing and data archival services (https://www.sanger.ac.uk/news_item/sanger-s-cloud-computing-wins-award/). Combined, these platforms and the support our team provides, enables our scientific partners to get the best out of the solutions available and continue to perform their data analysis at a scale that would not otherwise be possible. The continued vision to provide best of breed large scale platforms includes wide ranging engagements to ensure that we remain at the forefront of acceleration and technology solutions so that we can continue to support Sanger’s scientific endeavours into the future.

• You will aid our team in supporting our scientific partners in getting the best out of these highly performant platforms.
• You will have the opportunity to learn and develop new skills within our multidisciplinary team
• You will have the opportunity to co-design and deliver new platforms, and acceleration platforms
• You will be supported by a team mentor and have the ability to try new approaches and opportunities as you develop within the role
• Have the opportunity to develop and enhance our current monitoring and metrics solutions

Further information 

We have developed some hints/tips to help with your application process. As well as a set of FAQs.

We have a dedicated team looking after all queries/applications for our Tech Talent Scheme please email: mtscontact@sanger.ac.uk