The UK’s national synchrotron science facility, Diamond Light Source, conducts world-class research in virtually all fields of science. Located 20 minutes from Oxford, it sits in a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and offers rewarding career opportunities.

Senior Software Engineer - Lead a team that supports and enhances the data acquisition software used on a group of Diamond’s beamlines. Work with beamline scientists and external users to understand their needs and to help establish data acquisition processes and software requirements; implement new functionality, and enhance and streamline existing functionality. Be actively involved in the development of the core GDA framework.

• Lead a small team that develops tests, maintains and supports the GDA software on a group of Diamond’s beamlines, in collaboration with beamline staff, other members of the Data Acquisition group, and the Scientific Software and other groups.
• Provide direction, support and motivation to the team. Ensure work is delivered on time and of high quality. Ensure the team follows a disciplined engineering approach;
• Act as technical lead within the team, responsible for the underlying architecture of the beamlines’ software, as well as for overseeing the work being done by other software engineers and scientists. Keep the user experience across supported beamlines consistent;
• Provide first line support of the software for beamlines, interacting closely with both beamline staff and external users. Including fault diagnosis and resolution. Take responsibility for escalated issues;
• Enhance the core GDA framework to make it robust, adaptable, and easy to use by developers;
• Use technical and professional knowledge to identify opportunities for technical or process improvement across the beamlines supported by the team;
• Deliver high quality reporting and professional advice, presenting findings to senior management and guiding future approach.
   

Software Engineer - Support and enhance the data acquisition software used on Diamond’s beamlines. Work with beamline scientists and users of Diamond to understand their requirements; implement new functionality, and enhance and streamline existing functionality. Be actively involved in the development of the core GDA framework.

• Develop, test, maintain and support the GDA software on Diamond’s beamlines, in collaboration with beamline staff, other members of the Data Acquisition group, and the Scientific Software group.
• Provide first line support of the software for beamlines, interacting closely with both beamline staff and external users.
• Enhance the core GDA framework to make it robust, adaptable, and easy to use by developers.
• Provide a technical advisory/support function to other departments.
• Use technical and professional knowledge to identify opportunities for technical or process improvement.
• Undertake research or development work within parameters determined by more senior roles, and with regular review of progress.
• Maintain responsibility for the management and coordination of own workload, and ensure outputs are delivered on time and to high quality.

• First degree in engineering or science;
• Experienced professional with significant post-qualification experience in technical software engineering;
• Significant relevant experience of Python, Java, C++ or C#;
• Ability and initiative to get to the heart of the problem and take it effectively through to completion;
• Good interpersonal, communication  and presentational skills;
• Conscientious and pays attention to details;
• Ability to interact effectively with staff at all levels;
• Self motivated;
• Must be available to travel occasionally in UK and overseas including overnight absences;
• Ability to work on own initiative and take personal responsibility for delivery of work packages.

Additional requirements for appointment at the senior level:

• Ability to communicate complex information to a ‘non-technical’ audience in an easily comprehensible way;
• Ability to analyse, collate and present information in coherent reports or briefings;
• Ability to influence at a senior management level using in-depth professional knowledge;
• Experience in supervising and directing small teams

• PhD in Science;
• Skilled in developing UI applications (especially in Java's Eclipse RCP);
• Experience of UNIX-like operating systems and their administration;
• Experience of interfacing software to hardware;
• Excellent technical/theoretical understanding of methods, systems and approaches relating to technical software engineering; (Essential for appointment at the senior level)
• Experience in managing significant projects, co-ordinating internal/external resources and managing associated budgets; (Essential for appointment at the senior level)