Project R&D Engineer

hackajob*
is collaborating with
BBC*
to connect them with exceptional tech professionals for this role.
Job Title: Project R&D Engineer - EXTEND

JOB DETAILS

JOB BAND: D

CONTRACT TYPE: Permanent, Full-time

DEPARTMENT: BBC Research & Development

LOCATION: Salford - 2 days a week Hybrid

PROPOSED SALARY RANGE: £48,500 - £58,500 depending on relevant skills, knowledge and experience. The expected salary range for this role reflects internal benchmarking and external market insights.

Interviews will be conducted in January

We're happy to discuss flexible working. If you'd like to, please indicate your preference in the application - though there's no obligation to do so now. Flexible working will be part of the discussion at offer stage.

BBC EXTEND

This role is advertised as part of our BBC Extend programme for disabled people. To apply for this role you should identify as deaf, disabled or neurodivergent and must meet either the definition of disability in the Equality Act (2010), or the definition of disability in the Disability Discrimination Act if applying in Northern Ireland. You're broadly defined as disabled under both acts if you have a physical or mental impairment that has a substantial and long-term negative or adverse effect on your ability to do normal daily activities. This definition includes both apparent and non-apparent conditions and impairments, and medical conditions such as Cancer, HIV or Multiple Sclerosis.

We are committed to making the process of applying for this role as accessible as possible. If you need to discuss adjustments or access requirements for the application process, or have any questions about our Extend programme, please contact

The BBC are fully committed to providing workplace adjustments to help eliminate barriers in the workface that disabled people face. To do this, we have our own dedicated BBC Access and Disability Service that provides assessments and support throughout employment with us. If you are successful in applying for this role and require workplace adjustments, we will work with you to get your adjustments in place.

If you'd like more information on BBC Extend, please visit the BBC Extend webpage. EX2324

PURPOSE OF THE ROLE

BBC R&D has been at the forefront of broadcast technology innovation since the founding of public service broadcasting in the UK. As a Project R&D Engineer, you'll join our Scaled Infrastructure Systems team to design, develop, and test advanced server and networking software and hardware that will underpin the BBC's next generation of media production and delivery systems.

WHY JOIN THE TEAM

Scaled Infrastructure Systems is a small, friendly and collaborative research team, where your ideas and contributions can have a real impact. You'll work in a modern, well-equipped environment, with hands on access to cutting-edge and pre-release datacentre hardware, working to shape the BBC's future infrastructure. The role offers the chance to learn, experiment, and grow while collaborating closely with passionate colleagues working on a broad spectrum of R&D projects that push the boundaries of public service broadcasting.

Your Key Responsibilities And Impact
Design, develop, and maintain core features of BBC R&D's innovative OpenStack cloud platform, supporting the department's diverse research and experimentation needs, including live uncompressed UHD video support, 400Gb/s networking and PTP timing.

Contribute to research and prototyping activities, exploring emerging technologies (such as Ampere CPUs, Coherent Optics, NVIDIA GPUs and DPUs), and helping to shape the future direction of the BBC's infrastructure strategy.

Drive automation, scalability, and security across infrastructure services using modern deployment, orchestration, and configuration management tools.

Implement robust monitoring, observability, and alerting solutions to ensure the ongoing health, performance, and reliability of systems and services.

Collaborate with cross-disciplinary R&D teams, providing expertise, tooling, and support to accelerate innovation and promote the effective adoption of shared platform capabilities.

Essential Criteria
YOUR SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE

Linux Knowledge: Proficient in using and troubleshooting Linux-based environments using command line tools (such as Ubuntu, Debian, or Rocky Linux). Preferably with exposure to containerisation and components such as systemd.

Networking Fundamentals: Understanding of IP networking concepts, including IPv4 subnetting, Layer 2/Layer 3 protocols, and LAN/WAN architectures.

Software Development: Experience with Python or similar languages, with a demonstrable interest in developing tools, automation scripts, or system integrations.

Version Control: Competent in using Git for source code management, including experience working on a shared codebase with a team.

Debugging Experience: Competent in using situation-appropriate debug tools to identify and resolve complex technical problems. For example ping/tcpdump, gdb, ELK log collection, Grafana dashboards etc.

Desired But Not Required
Deployment Automation: Experience with infrastructure automation and orchestration tools such as Ansible, Puppet, Terraform, or Kubernetes.

Cloud & Virtualisation: Experience operating cloud back-end technologies and virtualisation platforms, including OpenStack, libvirt, Ceph, LXC/LXD/Incus, or similar.

Pre-Release Technology: Experience working with pre-release hardware and collaborating with vendors to understand and resolve issues.

Kernel & Low-Level Development: Interest or experience in Linux kernel-level programming (including BPF), device drivers, or performance tuning.

Advanced Networking: Understanding of routing and switching concepts, including hands-on experience with Arista or Cisco hardware, and knowledge of BGP, EVPN/VXLAN, multicast, or PTP.

Security & Secrets Management: Understanding of infrastructure security practices, secrets storage, PKI management, and credential handling.

Monitoring & Observability: Exposure to system and network monitoring solutions such as SNMP, Prometheus, or Grafana, including metrics visualization and alerting.

Systems Management: Knowledge of core infrastructure services (TFTP, DHCP, DNS) and out-of-band management interfaces (Redfish, IPMI).