Software Engineer - Recontact

We’re looking for a full-stack Software Engineer to join our Recontact team. Recontact studies allow researchers to invite participants into further studies, making them a core part of Our Future Health’s mission to accelerate health research.

This is a chance to work in a small, growing team where you’ll contribute both to early design and hands‑on delivery. You’ll help shape and build the systems that enable Recontact, making pragmatic decisions about what to develop, when to reuse, and how to integrate with existing platforms.

The work will involve developing cohort selection capabilities, creating participant‑facing flows for consent and engagement, and designing secure, auditable systems that manage sensitive health data with trust and transparency. It will also include implementing mechanisms for invitations and communications at scale, as well as supporting experimentation to understand what drives participant engagement.

The role combines practical engineering with opportunities to influence how Recontact evolves, ensuring we deliver value quickly while laying the foundations for scalable solutions in the future.

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.

• Knowledge and experience of building cloud‑hosted backend services using open source technologies in a start‑up or scale‑up environment, ideally using Python, though equivalent experience is welcome.
• Familiarity with modern frontend technologies (such as Typescript, JavaScript, Next.js) or equivalent frameworks.
• Some exposure to backend systems for data movement, processing and storage, and an interest in enabling access to data by non‑technical users.
• Prior experience with Azure (ideally), AWS or GCP.
• Comfortable working with Infrastructure as Code, ideally with knowledge of Terraform, and some familiarity with containerisation (e.g. Docker).
• Knowledge of good data modelling and design patterns; working knowledge of relational databases (e.g. Postgre
  
  SQL) and familiarity with other types of data store (blob, document, graph).
• Good experience in using modern, agile development practices like code review, TDD, CI/CD and pairing using tools like Git and Git Hub.
• 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.

• Experience working in/with cross‑functional teams consisting of e.g. engineers, product, UX and non‑technical stakeholders.
• Experience working in small, growing organisations with a high degree of ambiguity, where flexibility is valued.
• Strong understanding of software quality principles and practices.
• Comfortable in sharing knowledge and helping others.
• Comfortable in taking part in technical discussions.

• Competitive salary starting from £60,000
• 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…