Senior Systems Developer at Human Sciences Research Council (HRSC)

Job Advert Summary    

• The Senior Systems Developer is a critical, hands-on role responsible for the design, development, and operational stability of mission-critical systems and data pipelines.
• This role goes beyond coding to encompass architectural contribution, enforcing modern DevOps practices, ensuring platform resilience, and mentoring junior team members.
• The ideal candidate will thrive in a cloud-native environment and champion security and performance by design.

Minimum Requirements    

• Proficient in PHP development.
• Strong experience with web application development (HTML, CSS, JavaScript, jQuery, or modern frameworks)
• Experience with MySQL, SQL Server, or other relational databases.
• Solid understanding of OOP, MVC, and software design patterns.
• Experience with RESTful APIs, Web Services, and integration between systems.
• Familiarity with version control systems (e.g., Git).
• Experience in deploying and maintaining applications in Windows and/or Linux environments.
• Strong problem-solving skills and ability to troubleshoot complex issues.
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills.

Education & Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or related field (or equivalent work experience).
• 5 years of professional experience in software development, with demonstrated expertise in PHP.
• Behavioral Competencies
• Ownership: Takes full accountability for the delivery and operational state of assigned systems.
• Mentorship: Proven ability to elevate the technical skill set of team members through code review and paired programming.
• Problem-Solving: Excellent analytical skills with a focus on solving complex architectural challenges under pressure.
• Communication: Ability to articulate complex technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders (e.g., researchers, business administrators).

Duties & Responsibilities    

• Design, develop, test, and deploy software applications using PHP.
• Collaborate with business stakeholders and the technical team to gather and refine requirements.
• Lead the architecture and implementation of scalable, maintainable, and high-performance software solutions.
• Maintain and enhance existing systems, troubleshooting and resolving technical issues.
• Write clean, well-documented, and reusable code following industry best practices.
• Implement and enforce coding standards, testing strategies, and version control practices.
• Mentor and guide junior developers to enhance team capability and knowledge sharing.
• Participate in code reviews, design sessions, and technical decision-making.
• Stay up-to-date with emerging technologies and recommend improvements to existing systems.
• Own the entire software development lifecycle (SDLC) for assigned system components, from initial requirement gathering through deployment and monitoring.
• Contribute significantly to the overall system architecture, ensuring solutions align with enterprise standards for security, data governance, and scalability.
• Champion and implement DevOps methodologies to automate build, testing, and deployment processes using pipelines (e.g., GitLab).
• Secure Software Development Lifecycle (SSDLC)                                                                                                                                                                                          
• Mandatory Security Testing: Integrate and enforce static (SAST) and dynamic (DAST) application security testing into the Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) pipeline.                                                                                                                                                               
• Vulnerability Remediation: Ensure timely prioritisation, fixing, and retesting of vulnerabilities found in the code base and third-party libraries (Dependency Scanning).     
• Secure Code Review: Lead and perform peer reviews specifically focused on identifying common security flaws (e.g., OWASP Top 10) before merging code.
• Cloud/Infrastructure Security (SecDevOps)                                                                                                                                                                                                      
• Infrastructure as Code (IaC) Security: Securely design and deploy infrastructure by eliminating hardcoded secrets and enforcing least-privilege principles.
• Secrets Management: Implement and manage robust solutions for handling API keys, credentials, and sensitive configuration data, ensuring they are never stored in source code.                                                                                                                                                                                                
• Logging and Monitoring: Ensure all deployed systems generate appropriate, tamper-proof logs for security auditing and integrate them with the organisation's Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) platform.
• Data and Access Control       
• Compliance and Training  

Closing Date    

• 2026/02/15