Senior Facility Technician (Characterisation)

Salary: Full time starting salary is normally in the range £30,062 to £31,900, with potential progression once in post to £35,883 

The University of Birmingham is committed to engineering excellence, and the School of Metallurgy and Materials is one of the UK’s leading centres for research, education, and innovation. The School is proud of its strong and extensive links with industry and boasts a creative and dynamic environment, which provides opportunities for both staff and students to develop.

The Characterisation Facility in the School of Metallurgy and Materials plays a vital role in delivery of cutting-edge practical research and high quality undergraduate and postgraduate teaching, by providing staff and students with access and training on a range of equipment from materialographic preparation to advanced physical and thermal characterisation techniques. The equipment in the facility includes XRD, XRF, Particle Size Analysers, STA, DSC, TMA, heat treatment furnaces, hardness testing and universal testing machines.

The primary focus of the Senior Facility Technician is to train and support the facility users with the materialography and heat treatment laboratories, run samples for external and internal customers, repair and care for the equipment, prepare equipment for use through routine maintenance and calibration, replenish and restock consumables, and ensure adherence to health and safety policies. 

Role summary

You will provide technical expertise, support and guidance for research and teaching activities in the Characterisation Facility in the School of Metallurgy and Materials. You will utilise your technical skills to support customers with a wide range of techniques and activities in the Characterisation Facility laboratories, providing training, supervision, and guidance to Characterisation Facility customers at a variety of levels, ranging from undergraduate students to postgraduate research staff.

Working as part of the Characterisation Facility team, you will carry out routine equipment care; undertaking preventive and reactive maintenance as required, and reporting any faults or issues which cannot be resolved by yourself to your line manager.

You will maintain consumable stock levels, proactively raising purchase requisitions to replenish consumable levels before they run out. You will be expected to ensure your working area is safe; writing and updating risk assessments and Standard Operation Procedures. You will support Characterisation Facility customers in following and upholding health and safety instructions.

About you

The successful candidate should have extensive relevant workplace experience, equivalent professional qualification or degree in materials science, engineering, physical science or similar. Knowledge of materialography/metallography, heat treatment, microscopy or mechanical testing would be advantageous. You will be familiar with health and safety requirements in a laboratory and have a good understanding of COSHH and hazardous materials handling. You should be able to work with a range of stakeholders in a professional manner, and be able to work both independently and as part of a team.

Interviews will likely be scheduled around Tuesday 15^th December.

Informal enquiries can be made to Jem Hammerton (j.hammerton@bham.ac.uk)

To download the full job description and details of this position and submit an electronic application online please click on the 'Apply' button above.

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We value diversity and inclusion at the University of Birmingham and welcome applications from all sections of the community and are open to discussions around all forms of flexible working.

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