Diamond Light Source is the UK’s national synchrotron science facility providing X-rays approximately 30 to 35 weeks per year for UK and international user experiments. Located on the Harwell Science & Innovation Campus in Oxfordshire a 10 minute drive south of Didcot in a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, Diamond Light Source conducts world-class research in virtually all fields of science and offers rewarding career opportunities covering both technical and scientific disciplines.

The macromolecular crystallography village at Diamond comprises 7 beamlines dedicated to life science studies, from high throughput highly automated facilities through to world first, technically challenging macromolecular crystallography beamlines. Significant advances in automation have been made which cater for a demanding and diverse user programme. This provides a stimulating environment to continually drive new developments to enable ever more challenging structural biology experiments to be realised.

The newly commissioned dedicated in situ diffraction beamline VMXi is looking to recruit a crystallisation laboratory manager that will be embedded at the beamline to manage crystallisation facilities at Diamond and the Research Complex at Harwell. The position will provide the opportunity to develop new workflows and methodologies with the VMXi team as well as provide state of the art facilities for crystallisation of soluble and membrane proteins. The post holder will be responsible for operations and development of crystallisation facilities at Diamond.  The post holder will provide both scientific and technical support to the large user base catering for both on-site and remote users.

This post provides an exciting opportunity for an enthusiastic person to contribute to the continued success of a world-leading scientific facility.

Duties / Responsibilities

To manage and develop the crystallisation platform for soluble and membrane proteins within the Research complex/Diamond and integrate seamless interaction with the VMXi beamline.

To support the VMXi beamline in the following areas:

• Contribute to the establishment of an enhanced crystallisation platform through the integration of existing instrumentation (OPPF (OPPF-UK)/MPL (MPL)/RCaH (Research Complex at Harwell);
• Management of day-today operations of the crystallisation platform for local and external users of the facility;
• Enhancement of crystallisation screening capabilities through active development and introduction of new technologies;
• Coordination, planning and contribution to training and supervision of both local and external Diamond users. 
• Following and ensuring safety procedures and safety checks are maintained.

• Ability to interact effectively and diplomatically with staff and facility users at all levels;
• Proven organisational skills with good attention to detail;
• Good interpersonal and communication skills;
• Willingness to help and the ability to work as part of a multi-disciplinary team;
• Flexible approach to work;
• Ability to work independently;
• Good IT skills, including MS Office Suite;
• Experience in working in a structural biology laboratory.

• PhD in Biochemistry, Biophysics or related field;
• Ability to carry out research work independently and drive ideas/developments;
• Experience in managing laboratory general infrastructure and processes;
• Experience in molecular biology;
• Experience in protein production;
• Experience in crystallisation of macromolecules;
• Experience in preparing risk assessment for biological safety and general laboratory practices.