Project R&D Engineer - EXTEND

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.
INTERVIEWS WILL BE CONDUCTED IN JANUARY

BBC EXTEND

The role is offered through our BBC Extend programme for disabled people. To apply you should identify as deaf, disabled or neurodivergent and meet either the definition of disability in the Equality Act (2010) or the Disability Discrimination Act (1995) if in Northern Ireland. If you need adjustments or access support during the application process, please contact . The BBC provides workplace adjustments to eliminate barriers for disabled employees.

Purpose of the Role

As a Project R&D Engineer on the Scaled Infrastructure Systems team, you will design, develop, and test advanced server and networking software and hardware that will underpin the BBC's next generation media production and delivery systems. You will work in a modern, well equipped environment, collaborating with passionate colleagues on a broad spectrum of R&D projects.

Key Responsibilities and Impact

• Design, develop, and maintain core features of BBC R&D's OpenStack cloud platform.
• Support high performance research needs such as live uncompressed UHD video, 400Gb/s networking, and PTP timing.
• Explore emerging technologies (Ampere CPUs, Coherent Optics, NVIDIA GPUs, DPUs) and shape future infrastructure strategy.
• Drive automation, scalability, and security using modern deployment, orchestration, and configuration management tools.
• Implement robust monitoring, observability, and alerting to ensure system health and reliability.
• Collaborate with cross disciplinary R&D teams to accelerate innovation and promote effective adoption of shared platform capabilities.

Skills and Experience Essential Criteria

• Proficient Linux knowledge and troubleshooting (Ubuntu, Debian, Rocky Linux). Experience with containerisation and systemd is preferable.
• Understanding of IP networking, including IPv4 subnetting, Layer 2/3 protocols, and LAN/WAN architecture.
• Experience in Python or a similar language for developing tools, automation scripts, or system integrations.
• Competent use of Git for source code management and collaboration on shared codebases.
• Debugging skills with tools such as ping, tcpdump, gdb, ELK, and Grafana dashboards.

Desired but Not Required

• Infrastructure automation (Ansible, Puppet, Terraform, Kubernetes).
• Experience with OpenStack, libvirt, Ceph, LXC/LXD, or similar virtualization platforms.
• Experience with pre release hardware and vendor collaboration.
• Linux kernel level programming, including BPF, device drivers, or performance tuning.
• Advanced networking (BGP, EVPN/VXLAN, multicast, PTP) and hardware experience with Arista or Cisco.
• Infrastructure security practices, secrets management, PKI, and credential handling.
• Monitoring and observability knowledge (SNMP, Prometheus, Grafana).
• Systems management (TFTP, DHCP, DNS, Redfish, IPMI).

Before your start date you may need to disclose any unspent convictions or police charges, in line with our Contracts of Employment policy.

Disclaimer

This job description outlines the essential characteristics and responsibilities of the role, including necessary skills, knowledge, and experience. It is not a comprehensive list of all duties.

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion

The BBC is an equal opportunities employer. We welcome applications from all qualified individuals, regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, or background. For individuals with disabilities, please contact for interview and role adjustments.

Benefits

Competitive salary package, flexible 35 hour week, 25 days annual leave plus the option to buy 5 extra days, pension scheme, discounted dental, health, and gym. Career development opportunities and support for flexible working are available.

For more information about life at the BBC and our values, please visit our candidate pack. The BBC will conduct employment screening checks, including reference checks, eligibility to work checks and, where applicable, safeguarding and adverse media checks. Offers are contingent upon satisfactory checks.