The world-first XChem facility at Diamond has since 2015 been offering routine and fast crystal-based fragment screening to academia and industry: in 2017 the facility helped over 30 user groups screen over 35,000 crystals.

To meet steadily increasing demand and ensure long-term sustainability, Diamond is expanding capacity, and therefore recruiting an Industrial Liaison Scientist to focus on delivering the facility to industrial users.  The successful candidate will work closely with both the Diamond Industrial Liaison Team and the XChem team to support industrial and academic users with experiments and service work, and developing new fragment-related methodologies. 

The nature of the role requires graduate or postdoctoral experience in crystallography and crystallization, but additionally requires someone highly organised and with the natural authority necessary to assist users productively.

Provide scientific, technical and service support to industrial and academic users of the facility, ensure the facility is optimally usable, and participate in developments to keep it cutting-edge.

Working closely with the XChem and Industrial Liaison teams to carry out the following duties: -

• Support soaking users, primarily industrial but also academic, from beginning to end of the fragment screening experiment, including beamtime and data analysis; this includes user induction and training, but also scientific guidance and advising on experiment design;
• Perform selected experiments in the context of soaking and fragment screening, aimed both at improving the process and contributing to the science program of the Diamond MX group;
• Assist in management of the Soaking Laboratory, which includes working independently and taking ownership of general and specific lab organisation, enforcing tidiness, ensuring appropriate stocking of reagents and labware, and generally ensuring that the laboratory at all times can function as a user facility;
• Assist in equipment maintenance, including liaising with service companies, ensuring regular service, performing routine operation tests, and scheduling;
• Develop protocols for record keeping;
• Assist in keeping fragment libraries up-to-date, including regular quality control, maintaining an accurate and generally accessible inventory, and ensuring historical records are always available;
• Design and perform Quality Control experiments for both processes and fragment libraries;
• Assist in supervising the general use of the laboratory, including use of equipment and reagents, monitoring H&S and other compliance and maintaining records as appropriate;
• Assist in all safety matters in the laboratory, both existing arrangements and future requirements;
• Carry out regular inspections of the facility to identify faults and issues;
• Undertake other duties of a similar nature including working flexibly with other employees as required. 

•  First degree in a relevant scientific discipline;
• Ability to perform laboratory work independently and rigorously;
• Excellent organisational and time management skills;
• Excellent interpersonal skills and ability to work with staff and users of any level of seniority;
• Experience in conflict management;
• Technical proficiency with equipment and ability to troubleshoot independently;
• Ability to work part of a multi-disciplinary team, including effective communication of results and updates;
• Ability to manage interactions with vendors;
• Ability to design and perform rigorous scientific experiments and draw convincing conclusions;
• Track record of advanced laboratory work;
• Strong track record of organisational  skills.

• PhD;
• Ability to drive a research project independently and bring it to a scientific conclusion;
• Ability to write scientific papers;
• Ability to present at scientific meetings;
• Ability to manage scientific collaborations;
• Must be available to travel occasionally within the UK and abroad, including overnight absences;
• Experience with compound management;
• Fully versant in macromolecular crystallography;
• Experience with crystal handling and soaking;
• Experience with fragment screening (any);
• Experience of synchrotrons / x-ray beamlines;
• Experience with Windows/Linux/Unix;
• Experience of programming, especially Python, and Java;
• Experience with database programming.

• Must be available to travel occasionally within the UK and abroad, including overnight absences.