Senior Software Engineer, Central Computation

As a UW employee, you have a unique opportunity to change lives on our campuses, in our state and around the world. UW employees offer their boundless energy, creative problem-solving skills and dedication to build stronger minds and a healthier world.
UW faculty and staff also enjoy outstanding benefits, professional growth opportunities and unique resources in an environment noted for diversity, intellectual excitement, artistic pursuits and natural beauty.
The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) is an independent research center at the University of Washington. Its mission is to deliver to the world timely, relevant, and scientifically valid evidence to improve health policy and practice. IHME carries out its mission through a range of projects within different research areas including the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors; Future Health Scenarios; Cost Effectiveness and Efficiency; Resource Tracking; and Impact Evaluations. Our vision is to provide policymakers, donors, and researchers with the highest-quality quantitative evidence base so all people live long lives in full health.
IHME is committed to providing the evidence base necessary to help solve the world’s most important health problems. This requires creativity and innovation, which are cultivated by an inclusive, diverse, and equitable environment that respects and appreciates differences, embraces collaboration, and invites the voices of all IHME team members.
IHME has an outstanding opportunity for a full-time Senior Software Engineer on our Central Computation team. We are looking for an individual to lead the engineering strategy to build a modern, reproducible, data-driven research infrastructure and supporting analytical software tools that can easily be utilized by other staff with less coding experience. This position may additionally work alongside other teams on complementary projects and will require knowledge and skill sharing and collective problem-solving. Overall, the Senior Software Engineer will be a critical member of an agile, dynamic research team. This position is contingent upon project funding availability.
DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
Software Development and Architecture

Lead a team of engineers in the creation and implementation of software solutions to turn experimental research methods into a production-ready code base.

Lead the redesign and refactor of existing code to improve efficiency, operability, and performance while maintaining high-quality results.

Optimize code efficiency and parallelize across a massive computing cluster to enable researchers to quickly produce results.

Enforce and assure the quality of IHME software products through continuous integration, automated unit testing, code versioning, and code coverage tools.
Supervision & Team Responsibilities

Serve as lead engineer and supervise or mentor a team of engineers.

Collaborate in creating short-, medium-, and long-term development plans to achieve strategic objectives.
Research Command

Work with researchers to find novel solutions to existing analytic questions, researching and incorporating new technologies as required.

Exhibit command of the dimensions and uses of health data in IHME analytic pipelines.

Understand the main operational underpinnings and goals of the Central Computation team and how those directly relate to key production tools, analytic machinery, data, and diagnostics.
Other duties as assigned.
MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS

Bachelor’s degree in computer science, mathematics, engineering, statistics, or related field plus eight years’ related experience, or equivalent combination of education and experience.
Equivalent education/experience will substitute for all minimum qualifications except when there are legal requirements, such as a license/certification/registration.
ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS

Demonstrated ability to lead an application development project from conception through to implementation.

Significant expertise in developing code in Python, Java, R, and/or other coding language. [Python most preferred including pandas, NumPy, and xarray].

Experience deploying software to Linux servers.

Experience with application containerization using tools such as Docker, Kubernetes, and Rancher.

Strong sense of focus and attention to detail.

Ability to plan and organize technical projects.

Experience supervising or leading engineering staff.

Demonstrated organizational skills, self-motivation, flexibility, strong communication skills, and the ability to thrive in a fast-paced, energetic, highly creative, entrepreneurial environment.

A commitment to working to alongside others at IHME to illuminate the health impacts of systemic racism and to work within IHME to make our organization more diverse and inclusive. See IHME’s DEI statement here.
DESIRED QUALIFICATIONS

Good applied statistics skills, such as distributions, statistical testing, and regression.

Statistics and/or public health interest.

Experience with relational databases, e.g., MySQL, PostgreSQL.

Automation experience.

Experience and interest in actively engaging and creating learning experiences.

Knowledge of at least one lower-level, high-performing computing language (e.g., C++).

Weekend and evening work sometimes required.

This position is open to anyone authorized to work in the US. The UW is not able to sponsor visas for staff positions.

Office is located in Seattle, Washington. This position is eligible to work fully remote in the US.
Application Process:
The application process may include completion of a variety of online assessments to obtain additional information that will be used in the evaluation process. These assessments may include Work Authorization, Cover Letter and/or others. Any assessments that you need to complete will appear on your screen as soon as you select “Apply to this position”. Once you begin an assessment, it must be completed at that time; if you do not complete the assessment you will be prompted to do so the next time you access your “My Jobs” page. If you select to take it later, it will appear on your "My Jobs" page to take when you are ready. Please note that your application will not be reviewed, and you will not be considered for this position until all required assessments have been completed.