Staff Engineer - Participant Engagement

We’re hiring a Staff Engineer to work as a technical lead on our public-facing engagement experiences: The digital capabilities that help people join Our Future Health, stay involved over time, and remain motivated to contribute. This is a high-impact role where you’ll evolve and extend our platform to support millions of people in securely discovering, taking part in, and staying engaged with health research.

You’ll shape the architecture and technical direction, working closely with product, design, data, and operations to deliver secure, scalable, and inclusive experiences. The work will span onboarding, retention journeys, communications, segmentation, personalisation, and feedback loops, combining greenfield development with integration of third-party tools into a seamless experience.

About Us

Our Future Health will be the UK’s largest ever health research programme, bringing people together to develop new ways to detect, prevent and treat diseases. We are a charity, supported by the UK Government in partnership with charities and industry. We work closely with the NHS and with public authorities across all nations and regions of the UK.

Our plan is to bring together 5 million volunteers from right across the UK who will be asked to contribute information to help build one of the most detailed pictures we have ever had of people’s health. Researchers will be able to use this information to make new discoveries about human health and diseases. So future generations can live in good health for longer.

Requirements

To be successful in this role you will need experience with some of the following:

• You have led the architectural design of systems
• Experience building cloud-hosted consumer applications, ideally in a start-up or scale-up environment, using open source technologies such as Node.js, Ruby on Rails, or Python
• Strong knowledge of modern frontend development, including JavaScript/TypeScript with frameworks like React or Next.js, with a track record of delivering accessible, performant, and maintainable user interfaces at scale
• Experience designing and implementing backend systems for data movement, processing, and storage, including services that enable access for non-technical users
• Prior experience with Azure (ideally), AWS or GCP
• Comfortable working with Infrastructure as Code, ideally with knowledge of Terraform
• Knowledge of good data modelling and design patterns; in-depth knowledge of relational databases (e.g. PostgreSQL) and familiarity with other types of data store (blob, document, graph)
• Expertise in modern, agile development practices like code review, TDD, CI/CD and pairing using tools like Git and GitHub
• Experience designing user-facing systems for growth, engagement, or participation that integrate multiple third-party SaaS platforms into a seamless experience
• Experience of operationally managing software components once live, including observability, logging, metrics, error reporting, debugging and live incident management
• Experience of working with sensitive personal data, ideally in a regulated environment or with awareness of relevant standards (e.g. ISO 27001), applying privacy-by-design and security-by-design, and operating robust controls for data and participant consent at population scale
• Understanding of event-driven architectures and real-time messaging for large-scale participant communications
• Ability to design inclusive digital experiences that scale to millions of users
• Experience building reusable capabilities for adoption across multiple product domains

Competencies

• You're comfortable working in cross-functional teams consisting of engineers, product, UX and non-technical stakeholders
• Proven ability to communicate with stakeholders and audiences at different levels
• Understanding of the importance of operational, security and legal factors when designing solutions, with the ability to articulate trade-offs and make informed decisions around design and technology choices
• Experience working in small, growing organisations with a high degree of ambiguity, where flexibility is valued
• Strong understanding of software quality principles and practices
• Experience in mentoring and coaching less experienced engineers
• Comfortable in facilitating technical discussions, encouraging collaboration and providing direction

Benefits

• Competitive base salary
• Generous Pension Scheme – We invest in your future with employer contributions of up to 12%.
• 30 Days Holiday + Bank Holidays – Enjoy a generous holiday allowance with the flexibility to take bank holidays when it suits you.
• Enhanced Parental Leave – Supporting you during life’s biggest moments.
• Career Growth & Development – £500 per year to spend on Learnerbly, our learning platform, plus regular appraisals and development opportunities.
• Cycle to Work Scheme – Save 25-39% on a new bike and accessories through salary sacrifice.
• Home & Tech Savings – Get up to 8% off on IKEA and Currys products, spreading the cost over 12 months through salary sacrifice
• £1,000 Employee Referral Bonus – Know someone amazing? Get rewarded for bringing them on board!
• Wellbeing Support – Access to Mental Health First Aiders, plus 24/7 online GP services and an Employee Assistance Programme for you and your family.
• A Great Place to Work – We have a lovely Central London office in Holborn, and offer flexible and remote working arrangements.

Join us - let’s prevent disease together.

We advise not delaying your application, as this advert may close early if a high number of applications are received.

At Our Future Health, we recognise the importance of having a diverse workforce and ensuring that all candidates, regardless of their background, have equitable access to our application process. We proactively encourage applicants who identify as having a disability, neurodiversity, or long-term health conditions to let us know if they require any reasonable adjustments as part of their application process. 

If you do require any reasonable adjustments, please email us at [email protected]