Research Laboratory Technician

Open ended contract - Permanent: Full time - 35 hours per week. 

The opportunity:

The School of Engineering is seeking to appoint a versatile and experienced Research Laboratory Technician to join its skilled Technical Services team of nearly 40 technical staff. The appointee will be primarily responsible for supporting research activity in the School’s Chemical Process Engineering Laboratory (“Process Lab”). The post-holder will contribute to the safe and efficient running of the Lab, including through routine servicing and maintenance of equipment, Health & Safety implementation within the Lab, and the transfer of knowledge and practical skills to undergraduate and postgraduate students as well as staff (including, technicians and modern apprentices).

The School’s Chemical Process Engineering Laboratories form a hybrid wet chemistry/process engineering workspace supporting an extensive range of work from large adsorption rigs to benchtop optical experiments and from wet chemistry and surface coatings to surface characterisation using. In this workspace the post-holder will encounter both chemical and physical safety hazards. The successful candidate should therefore demonstrate good H&S awareness and familiarity with H&S documentation (e.g., risk assessments, COSHH). It is not expected for the post holder to be familiar with all of the equipment and apparatus in the Lab, but they should be eager and willing to learn. An interest in knowledge transfer and the Continuous Professional Development of themselves and others would be beneficial.

With extensive work experience in a similar work environment (e.g., process or chemical engineering facility, wet laboratory) and with qualifications in a relevant engineering discipline (e.g., recognised apprenticeship, S/NVQ, O/HNC) the post holder will have proven technical abilities. A varied skillset is desirable which might include: analytical instrumentation, chemical preparation, pipe fitting, mechanical assembly and technical drawing/CAD skills. 

The role is customer-facing and the School is a diverse and international community of staff and students. The post holder will therefore have excellent interpersonal and communication skills and a strong commitment to service delivery.

This is a new role which is full-time, open-ended and available immediately.

The School of Engineering is committed to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion and we are particularly interested in hearing from candidates from under-represented groups. Please contact Sally Morgan (SoE Technical Services Manager; tsm@eng.ed.ac.uk) if you would like to discuss the role informally.

A full list of main responsibilities and the knowledge, skills and experience required for the role can be found in the full job description below.

Your skills and attributes for success:

• Passion for engineering
• Proven technical fault-finding and problem solving skills
• Good understanding of health & safety regulations and procedures in a laboratory/workshop environment(including COSHH)
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills
• Commitment to Continuous Professional Development (CPD)

Applicants should include a cover letter, explaining how they fulfil each of the criteria listed under ‘Knowledge, skills and experience’, and an up-to-date CV with their application.

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