Research Software Engineer

At Honda we embrace inclusion in our various policies, so whilst our contracts state that the hours are as required to fulfil the role with a minimum of 37 hours per week, we offer flexibility for when you work, providing that there is no business requirement.

Whilst there is no contractual right to work from home, the flexibility we offer is that you can request to work from home for a maximum of 50% of the working days in any one month, again providing there is no business requirement to attend the office.

This position will be based from our Theale office. 

Role:
The successful candidate will join Emerging Technology Lab (ETL) that is a part of Honda R&D Europe (UK) Ltd.  At ETL, we have nurtured a culture of collaborative innovation rooted in creativity, kindness, mutual trust, and respect. Our primary mission revolves around applied research in multi-domain software technology where we are actively sensing global business challenges. Our key output is creation of proof of concepts (PoCs), with potential of integration into next generation Honda products, platforms, and services. 

With an active involvement in European technology, regulation, and standards ecosystems, we stay attuned to the broader industry landscape. While being a technology-centric team, we remain committed to a human-centred design process, continually assessing and aligning with future customer and business value propositions.

The successful candidate will be joining a forward-thinking team engaged in applied research on decentralisation technologies, including Web3, Metaverse, Mixed Reality, and Artificial Intelligence. The primary responsibility will involve hands-on development work to bring PoC ideas to life, in collaboration with senior researchers. This is an opportunity to explore challenges within emerging technologies, applying deep programming language skills to real-world problems, to generate tangible outcomes encompassing both software and hardware components.

This role is well-suited for a polyglot programmer or a generalist software engineer possessing a robust understanding of mathematics and algorithms and a curious mindset. The candidate is expected to employ their expertise to identify suitable technology options and iterate towards solutions for complex problems through coding a series of PoC applications. This requires leveraging programming languages, APIs frameworks, and platforms to develop applications compatible with web, smartphones, and other emerging hardware. The candidate will showcase advocacy for their specialist area and stay updated on the latest research, technology, and trends, contributing to project direction and methodologies.
 
Stakeholder management is a key requirement, ensuring high quality and agreed timelines are met, including the requirement to work with both the Honda teams and wider external network. Strong communication skills are essential for building working relationships and to develop a comprehensive network both within and outside of the company. Awareness and a passion of the latest technology is a requirement, allowing research to be conducted and adding value to the EU technical direction.

Main Responsibilities: 

• Hands-on development work within the Decentralization Research group, under the supervision of senior researchers. 
• Engage with the broader interdisciplinary team to develop and integrate Proof of Concepts (PoCs) within their respective research domains.
• Take ownership of work packages related to PoC and application development, utilizing a variety of programming languages, APIs, and application development frameworks across diverse hardware platforms.
• Communicating complex technology concepts and results to stakeholders, including non-technical audiences.
• Researching wider technical and economic situation and actively proposing projects/ PoCs and activities to senior management (bottom-up approach).
• Travel within the UK (and EU) to attend conferences, suppliers, workshops, and seminars.

Qualifications, skills and experience:
Required

• University degree in a related field e.g. Computer Science, Mathematics, Physics, or an equiv. science or analytical discipline.
• Demonstratable experience in R&D or strong development experience in technology, quantitative finance or opensource software community.
• Proven fundamental knowledge in programming languages like Rust, Swift, Haskell, Go etc. 
• Experience that includes any of Web, Mobile, Cloud and similar application development frameworks and tools.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills. Ability to document simple narratives to explain complex issues/systems and be able to adapt communication style to suit different audiences.
• Proactive and self-motivated with the ability to work independently and as part of a team.

Desirable

• Familiarity with software architecture design and software design patterns. 
• Familiarity with Cryptography, Economics, Statistics, Distributed ledger technologies, protocols and algorithms.
• Experience with dApps, digital assets, tokenisation, DAO, DeFi protocols.
• Experience with Cloud Native software development and cloud service providers e.g. AWS.
• Experience with UX/UI design, wireframing and prototyping tools, accessibility requirements.
• Post graduate qualification e.g. Masters in a related field.
   

Honda is committed to the principle of equal opportunity in the workplace for all employees, temporary workers, contractors, applicants and visitors. Honda also encourages respect for the individual differences and talents of others while making full use of one's own abilities, based on Honda's philosophy of respect for the individual.

At Honda, we value and celebrate diversity and are committed to being a fair, non-discriminatory company that promotes and welcomes the uniqueness and differences of people around the world. We recognise that a diverse workforce allows for different ideas and perspectives, and we encourage everyone to share them. We strive to foster a culture of belonging that is consistent with Honda's core values and lived out in the way we work and respect each other. For us at Honda, diversifying our workforce means increasing its overall strength by providing people with equal opportunities - regardless of personal characteristics or previous careers.

This commitment flows directly from the Honda philosophy and the belief that we are all working towards a common goal. Honda recruits, hires, trains and promotes the most qualified/experienced individuals at all levels without regard to race, origin, religion or belief, gender, sexual orientation, age, disability or any other protected characteristic.