Detector Scientist

Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Harwell, Oxfordshire

£31,931 - £34,709 or £39,748 to £44,166 per annum (dependent on skills and experience) 

Fixed Term – 4 years

Come and do the kind of science that made you want to become a scientist. Explore the unknown and get to grips with the biggest challenges in Big Science. And, alongside world class engineers and technologists, use everything you've learnt to find real-answers that shape society and improve lives.

Put simply, discover the kind of impact you can make when you work with some of the best facilities and brightest scientists in the world.

Discover the science your skills can enable by bringing your scientific experience to our Central Laser Facility (CLF) . The facility is one of the world’s leading laser centres, providing scientists mainly from the UK and continental Europe with access to an unparalleled range of pioneering laser technology.

The CLF is building a new national facility based on laser-driven plasma accelerators: the Extreme Photonics Applications Centre (EPAC) . EPAC is an £88M facility that will use lasers developed by our team to drive particle and radiation beams to study fundamental physics problems and innovative applications of the bright multi-modal secondary sources that can be produced.

About The Role

We are now looking for a highly skilled scientist with relevant experience to help facilitate designs of x-ray and energetic particle detectors for EPAC.

You will take a leading role in the design, calibration, and experimental use of detectors and diagnostics for use in the current and upcoming laser facilities. This will involve coordinating with teams of scientists and engineers to find the optimum configuration to make scientific measurements in collaboration with academic user groups. Emphasis will be on the high repetition operation and analysis routines of these new diagnostics. This will involve assisting in the planning and safe execution of experiments for academic users in the current facilities and you will also be encouraged to conduct your own research activities in laser-plasma interactions in collaboration with our user community.

This is an excellent opportunity for an emerging scientist to develop further: the successful candidate will have a stimulating work environment with exposure to cutting-edge laser plasma technology and fantastic prospects to do collaborative research with some of the world-leading groups in the field.

We are looking for someone with:

• A completed or close to completion of a PhD in experimental physics involving high power lasers, or have equivalent research experience.
• A good understanding of the science underlying laser-plasma, secondary source production and future potential research.
• Experience of high energy particle and radiation detector, diagnostics, and underlying mechanisms.
• The ability to work well in a team whilst being able to develop projects independently.
• To be considered for the higher salary, we expect you to have postdoctoral experience (or other relevant employment experience)  and evidence/ideas for independent research.

What we offer

We are offering a fixed term position with a whole host of benefits including:

• 30 days holiday annually (in addition to 10.5 bank holidays and privilege days) .
• Flexible working hours.
• An excellent defined average salary pension scheme.
• Employee shopping/travel discounts.
• Excellent learning and development opportunities.
• Visa Sponsorship for candidates applying outside of the UK.

Plus many more benefits and wellbeing initiatives that enable our employees to have a great work life balance!

UKRI is an Equal Opportunity & Disability Confident Employer.

We ask some of the biggest questions in the universe, to answer some of the biggest challenges in the world. Together, our scientists, technologists, engineers and business support team explore the unknown across every field you could think of. And they turn what they find into work that changes the world around us.

What could you achieve with the world-leading facilities and experts of one of Europe's largest research organisations by your side? Join us and discover what's possible.