Software Development Intern - Ensembl API R Package

at  European Molecular Biology Laboratory

Trainee and Internships
EMBL Heidelberg
EMBL is Europe’s life sciences laboratory – an intergovernmental organisation with more than 110 independent research groups and service teams covering the spectrum of molecular biology. It operates across six sites in Heidelberg (headquarters), Barcelona, Cambridge, Grenoble, Hamburg and Rome. Our mission is to perform basic research in molecular biology; train scientists, students and visitors at all levels; offer vital services to scientists in the public and private sectors within the member states; develop new instruments and methods; and engage actively in technology transfer.
The Data Science Centre aims to facilitate research advances in data science, offers internal and external services, tools and resources, develops common representations (data, conventions, workflows) and contributes to training and career development. The Data Science Centre collaborates with all EMBL sites to progress internal and external training, integrated data management, scientific workflow sharing, AI, provision of public data services, and technical infrastructure.
With this call, EMBL is seeking an intern at the Data Science Centre. You will be preferentially based in Heidelberg, but other options can be discussed, and collaborate with members from EMBL’s Analysis Centres and the Bio-IT support community, as well as the Data Management Coordination.
We are seeking a highly motivated and detail-oriented Software Development Intern to join our team. This internship focuses on developing an R package to access the Ensembl REST API, a powerful resource for genomic data hosted at the EMBL-EBI.

Your role

• Develop and maintain an R package to interface with the Ensembl REST API.
• Collaborate with our data science and bioinformatics teams to understand requirements and implement solutions.
• Write clean, efficient, and well-documented code.
• Perform rigorous testing and validation of the developed package.
• Provide user documentation and support for the package.

Closing date: 15 October 2024
Contract duration: 3 months; renewable based on funding and performance up to 1 year
Grading: up to 1300 EUR monthly
Reference number: HD02707

You have

• Experience writing code in a high-level scripting language - preferably R
• Meticulous attention to detail
• A commitment to delivering high-quality software

You might also have

• Familiarity with RESTful APIs and HTTP requests.
• Experience with version control systems, particularly Git.
• Understanding of genomic data and bioinformatics.
• Experience with other programming languages such as Python.
• Prior experience in software package development

Why join us

This internship will give you the opportunity to:

• Be involved in the development of a software project from initiation to first release
• Contribute to the worldwide Bioconductor project
• Write code to interact with web services via REST API
• Practice code version control with Git
• Learn how to test software by writing comprehensive unit tests
• Understand how good documentation strengthens scientific software

Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis and we reserve the right to close them once a candidate is identified.
EMBL is curiosity-driven, community-oriented and international. As an inclusive, equal opportunity employer, we believe that diversity enables us to collaborate more effectively and be innovative in our approaches. We are, therefore, committed to creating an inclusive and flexible culture - one where everyone can realise their full potential and make a positive contribution to our organisation.
We encourage applications from individuals who can complement our existing team – we believe that success is built on having teams whose backgrounds and personal experiences reflect the diversity of the populations that our science serves. We actively encourage applications from all genders and cultures, ethnic groups and all demographics to help us avoid perpetuating biases and oversights at this transformational point in our people strategy.
What else you need to know
We are Europe’s research laboratory for the life sciences – an intergovernmental organisation performing scientific research in disciplines including molecular biology, physics, chemistry and computer science. We are an international, innovative and interdisciplinary laboratory with more than 1900 employees from many nations, operating across six sites, in Heidelberg (HQ), Barcelona, Hinxton near Cambridge, Hamburg, Grenoble and Rome.
Our mission is to offer vital services in training scientists, students and visitors at all levels; to develop new instruments and methods in the life sciences and actively engage in technology transfer activities, and to integrate European life science research. The working language of the institute is English.
Please note that appointments on fixed term contracts can be renewed up to 9 years in total, depending on circumstances at the time of the review.
EMBL is a signatory of DORA. Find out how we implement best practices in research assessment in our recruitment processes here.
Please apply online through: www.embl.org/job

• Develop and maintain an R package to interface with the Ensembl REST API.
• Collaborate with our data science and bioinformatics teams to understand requirements and implement solutions.
• Write clean, efficient, and well-documented code.
• Perform rigorous testing and validation of the developed package.
• Provide user documentation and support for the package