Data Platform Engineer II

The Onyx Research Data Tech organization is GSK’s Research data ecosystem which has the capability to bring together, analyze, and power the exploration of data at scale. We partner with scientists across GSK to define and understand their challenges and develop tailored solutions that meet their needs. The goal is to ensure scientists have the right data and insights when they need it to give them a better starting point for and accelerate medical discovery. Ultimately, this helps us get ahead of disease in more predictive and powerful ways.

Onyx is a full-stack shop consisting of product and portfolio leadership, data engineering, infrastructure and DevOps, data / metadata / knowledge platforms, and AI/ML and analysis platforms, all geared toward:​

• Building a next-generation, metadata- and automation-driven data experience for GSK’s scientists, engineers, and decision-makers, increasing productivity and reducing time spent on “data mechanics”​
• Providing best-in-class AI/ML and data analysis environments to accelerate our predictive capabilities and attract top-tier talent​
• Aggressively engineering our data at scale, as one unified asset, to unlock the value of our unique collection of data and predictions in real-time​

Purpose of Onyx

John spotlight on recruitment GSK Onyx

We are looking for a skilled and experienced Data Platform Engineer II to join our growing team. Data Platform Engineers take full ownership of delivering high-performing, high-impact data platform as products, and services, from a description of a problem customer Data Engineers are trying to solve all the way through to final delivery (and ongoing monitoring and operations). They are standard bearers for software engineering and quality coding practices within the team and are expected to mentor more junior engineers; they may even coordinate the work of more junior engineers on a large project. They devise useful metrics ensuring their services are meeting customer demand, having an impact, and iterate to deliver and improve on those metrics in an agile fashion.

The Data Platform team builds and manages reusable components and architectures designed to make it both fast and easy to build robust, scalable, production-grade data products and services in the challenging biomedical data space. 

In this role, you will

• Be a technical individual contributor, building modern, cloud-native systems for standardizing and templatizing data engineering such as:
  • Standardized physical storage and search / indexing systems  
  • Schema management (data + metadata + versioning + provenance + governance)  
  • API semantics and ontology management  
  • Standard API architectures  
  • Kafka + standard streaming semantics  
  • Standard components for publishing data to file-based, relational, and other sorts of data stores  
  • Metadata systems  
  • Tooling for QA / evaluation  
• Know the metrics desired for your tools and services and iterate to deliver and improve on those metrics in an agile fashion.  
• Given a well-specified data framework problem, implement end-to-end solutions using appropriate programming languages (e.g. python, Java, scala, bash), open-source tools (e.g. Spark, Elasticsearch, ...), and cloud vendor-provided tools (e.g. AWS boto3, gcloud cli)  
• Leverage tools provided by Tech (e.g. infrastructure as code, cloud Ops, DevOps, logging / alerting, ...) in delivery of solutions  
• Write proper documentation in code as well as in wikis/other documentation systems  
• Write fantastic code along with proper unit, functional, and integration tests for code and services to ensure quality  
• Stay up-to-date with developments in the open-source community around data engineering, data science, and similar tooling

Why you?

Qualifications & Skills:

We are looking for professionals with these required skills to achieve our goals: 

• Bachelors’ degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering or related discipline.

• Significant experience working in a relevant role in industry.
• Experience with DevOps and/or cloud infrastructure.
• Strong Python skills.

Preferred Qualifications & Skills:

If you have the following characteristics, it would be a plus:

• Master’s degree  in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or related discipline.
• Experience with open-source tools such as Spark, Elasticsearch etc.
• Experience with cloud vendor-provided tools such as AWS boto3, gcloud clo etc.

Closing Date for Applications: Wednesday 5th March 2025 (COB)

Please take a copy of the Job Description, as this will not be available post closure of the advert. 
When applying for this role, please use the ‘cover letter’ of the online application or your CV to describe how you meet the competencies for this role, as outlined in the job requirements above. The information that you have provided in your cover letter and CV will be used to assess your application.

During the course of your application, you will be requested to complete voluntary information which will be used in monitoring the effectiveness of our equality and diversity policies. Your information will be treated as confidential and will not be used in any part of the selection process.  If you require a reasonable adjustment to the application / selection process to enable you to demonstrate your ability to perform the job requirements, please contact 0808 234 4391. This will help us to understand any modifications we may need to make to support you throughout our selection process.

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Why GSK?

Uniting science, technology and talent to get ahead of disease together.

GSK is a global biopharma company with a special purpose – to unite science, technology and talent to get ahead of disease together – so we can positively impact the health of billions of people and deliver stronger, more sustainable shareholder returns – as an organisation where people can thrive. We prevent and treat disease with vaccines, specialty and general medicines. We focus on the science of the immune system and the use of new platform and data technologies, investing in four core therapeutic areas (infectious diseases, HIV, respiratory/ immunology and oncology).

Our success absolutely depends on our people. While getting ahead of disease together is about our ambition for patients and shareholders, it’s also about making GSK a place where people can thrive. We want GSK to be a place where people feel inspired, encouraged and challenged to be the best they can be. A place where they can be themselves – feeling welcome, valued, and included. Where they can keep growing and look after their wellbeing. So, if you share our ambition, join us at this exciting moment in our journey to get Ahead Together.

As an Equal Opportunity Employer, we are open to all talent. In the US, we also adhere to Affirmative Action principles. This ensures that all qualified applicants will receive equal consideration for employment without regard to neurodiversity, race/ethnicity, colour, national origin, religion, gender, pregnancy, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, age, disability, genetic information, military service, covered/protected veteran status or any other federal, state or local protected class*(*US only).

We believe in an agile working culture for all our roles. If flexibility is important to you, we encourage you to explore with our hiring team what the opportunities are.

Should you require any adjustments to our process to assist you in demonstrating your strengths and capabilities contact us on [email protected] or 0808 234 4391.  The helpline is available from 8.30am to 12.00 noon Monday to Friday, during bank holidays these times and days may vary.

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