This vacancy is now closed
Job Title Senior Data Acquisition Scientist / Data Acquisition Scientist
Job Reference DIA0988/CH
Post Type Full time / permanent
Division Life Science Division
Salary information Competitive
Application deadline 08/03/2015
Date of interviews 20/03/2015


Job Description

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 Data Acquisition Scientist - Provide leadership within the group that supports and enhances the data acquisition software used on Diamond’s beamlines. Work with beamline scientists and external users to help them express and prioritise their needs and then if necessary with software engineers and scientists to implement new functionality, and enhance and streamline existing functionality. Be actively involved in the development of the core GDA framework. Look for opportunities to automate and improve experiment workflows and share solutions across Diamond’s beamlines.

  • Provide leadership within the group that develops, tests, maintains and supports the GDA software on Diamond’s beamlines, in collaboration with beamline staff, other members of the Data Acquisition group, and the Scientific Software and other groups;
  • Provide direction and support to other Data Acquisition scientists. Encourage the consolidation of workflows and software used across beamlines that use overlapping techniques. Keep the user experience across beamlines consistent;
  • Lead larger projects that require the input of software engineers from the group and from Diamond’s scisoft & controls groups;
  • Provide first line support of the software for beamlines, interacting closely with both beamline staff and external users. Including fault diagnosis and resolution. Call on specialists if required;
  • 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.

Data Acquisition Scientist - Support and enhance the data acquisition software used on Diamond’s beamlines. Work closely with beamline scientists and users of Diamond to help them express and prioritise their needs and then if necessary with software engineers and scientists to implement new functionality, and enhance and streamline existing functionality. Look for opportunities to automate and improve experiment workflows.

  • 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. Call on specialists if required;
  • Work with software engineers from the group and from Diamond’s Scisoft & Controls groups to deliver larger projects;
  • 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.

Qualification & Experience - Essential

  • First degree in engineering or science;
  • Experienced professional with post-qualification experience in experimental science.
  • Experience of object oriented languages such as Java, C, C++ or Python;
  • 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;
  • Ability to communicate complex information to a ‘non-technical’ audience in an easily comprehensible way

Additional requirements for appointment at the senior level:

  • 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. 

Qualification & Experience - Desirable

  • PhD in Science;
  • Experienced professional with significant post-qualification experience in technical software engineering;
  • Excellent technical/theoretical understanding of methods, systems and approaches relating to technical software engineering;
  • Experience of UNIX-like operating systems and their administration;
  • Experience in managing significant projects, co-ordinating internal/external resources and managing associated budgets, (Essential for appointment at the senior level);
  • Previous experience in supervising and directing small projects, (Essential for appointment at the senior level);
  • Experience in planning ahead for resource, budget and/or technical requirements and negotiating appropriate resources, (Essential for appointment at the senior level). 

 

Further Information

Applying for employment

For further details on applying for employment at Diamond, please visit our 'Application Form' page.

Appointments will be made depending on the skills and experience of the candidate. Electronic Diamond application forms in MS-Word are preferred. These should be emailed to recruitment@diamond.ac.uk



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