Diamond Light Source is the UK’s national synchrotron science facility. Located on the Harwell Science & Innovation Campus in Oxfordshire a 20 minute drive south of Oxford 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.

Senior Software Engineer

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 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.

Duties

• Provide leadership within the data acquisition group to develop, test, maintain and support the GDA software on Diamond’s beamlines, in collaboration with beamline staff and the Scientific Software and other groups
• Provide direction, support and motivation to members of the data acquisition group, ensure work is delivered on time and is of high quality. Support and encourage group members in following a disciplined engineering approach
• 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.

Duties

• 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.

Required for both roles

• First degree in engineering or science;
• Experienced professional with significant post-qualification experience in software engineering;
• Significant  relevant experience of Python, Java, C++, or C#.

Senior role

• Excellent technical/theoretical understanding of methods, systems and approaches relating to technical software engineering;
• Previous experience in supervising and directing small teams;
• Experience in managing significant projects, co-ordinating internal/external resources and managing associated budgets.

Required for both roles

• PhD in Science;
• Skilled in developing UI applications (especially in Java's Eclipse RCP);
• Experience of UNIX-like operating systems and their administration.

Lower role

• Excellent technical/theoretical understanding of methods, systems and approaches relating to technical software engineering;
• Experience in managing significant projects, co-ordinating internal/external resources and managing associated budgets;
• Experience of interfacing software to hardware.