Software Engineer

Job id: 086330. Salary: £51,974 - £53,350 per annum, including London Weighting Allowance.

Posted: 21 March 2024. Closing date: 21 April 2024.

Business unit: IoPPN. Department: Academic Psychiatry.

Contact details:Professor Roland Zahn. [email protected]

Location: Denmark Hill Campus. Category: Professional & Support Services.

Join our team as a lead Software Engineer on an exciting MRC-funded project in collaboration with our medical engineering quality team from The London Institute for Healthcare Engineering (www.kcl.ac.uk/bmeis/london-institute-for-healthcare-engineering ). This is a unique opportunity for talented informatics professionals to contribute to the development of a cutting-edge web-based mental health app.

The role is key to developing the front and back end of a web-based app following the regulatory framework for ‘Software as a Medical Device’. The post will be supervised and closely supported by Roland Zahn, Professor of Mood Disorders & Cognitive Neuroscience, Consultant Psychiatrist (https://translational-cognitive-neuroscience.org ). The post holder will be trained in quality management system  processes and supported in the requirements of medical device regulation by the quality team (Medical Engineering Quality Team | School of Biomedical Engineering & Imaging Sciences | King’s College London (kcl.ac.uk). The role will be based at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN) at Denmark Hill, South London.  

The successful candidate will have relevant experience, qualifications and a track record of delivering software projects on time. 

This post will be offered on a full-time, fixed term contract for 12 months.

• Liaise with our Quality Management Systems (QMS) engineering team and document and code web-based app using software development standard IEC 62304
• Work with our Quality Management Systems team to identify the best software environment for our web-based mental health app
• Develop the front and backend of our web-based mental health app according to software and design specifications co-developed with our research team and user experience group
• Respond to user feedback and debugging requests
• Set up and maintain secure server for app data storage
• The web-based app will contain self-report scales, reminder systems (email, sms-based) and will also ideally allow for video-based interactions for mental health support sessions. Results of self-report scales will need to be graphically and numerically fed back to users and risk alert systems to investigators need to be included.
• The research team will need a web-based dashboard allowing them to review results.
• The web-based app needs to be fast loading so that user experience is not compromised

The above list of responsibilities may not be exhaustive, and the post holder will be required to undertake such tasks and responsibilities as may reasonably be expected within the scope and grading of the post.

Essential criteria

1.       Full Stack Development : with a strong background in both front-end (JavaScript, React, etc.) and back-end (Node.js, Python, etc.)

2.       User Experience (UX) Design: Understanding of UX design principles to create interfaces

3.       Database Management: Familiarity with database systems (e.g., MySQL, MongoDB, PostgreSQL)

4.       Experience of successful Testing and Debugging

5.       Good understanding of security requirements

6.       Good problem solving skills

7.       Good oral and written communication skills in English

8.       Good team player enabling collaborative work with users to optimize user experience

9.       Ability to manage time and meet deadlines

Desirable criteria

1.   Experience working within a Quality Management System (QMS) and medical device or healthcare app development knowledge/experience, such as with software development standard IEC 62304

As part of your application, please send a pdf of some of your written work (e.g. manuals, projects, undergraduate dissertation) which we require for assessing your writing skills, otherwise we will not be able to consider your application.

Due to funding restrictions this post will commence on 1st of July 2024. There is no flexibility with the start date.

Shortlisting will be in two stages due to the expected high number of applicants:

Stage 1 shortlisted candidates

- will be invited for a 30-minute assessment skills observation, where they will solve a software development-related task

- candidates will be emailed a task to probe attention to detail and asked to email this back within a given timeframe.

Stage 2

Once candidates have passed through stage 1 shortlisting, they will be invited for interview as stage 2 of the selection process. At interview, candidates will be asked to give a presentation about their previous experience and how the advertised job fits with their interests and career objectives.

This post is subject to a DBS clearance.