This vacancy is now closed
Job Title Software Scientist
Job Reference DIA0899/CH
Post Type
Division Science
Salary information Circa £33k
Application deadline 09/02/2014


Job Description

Diamond Light Source is the UK’s national synchrotron science facility. Located at Harwell Science and Innovation Campus in Oxfordshire, we enable world-leading research across a wide range of scientific disciplines and industrial applications.

The macromolecular crystallography beamline I04 (http://www.diamond.ac.uk/mx-home/I04.html) is looking for a highly motivated scientific programmer to contribute to integration and control of hardware at the beamline as well as software tools to aid in data collection and analysis in concert with Diamond software scientists and engineers. The post holder will also provide support to our international community of users during experiments.
 
At Diamond Light Source we aim to deliver state of the art beamlines for structural biology research. The integration of novel hardware and software tools in the beamline environment is fundamental to improving the experimental science tool kit provided to the users of such world-leading facilities.  To complement the current beamline team we’re looking for solid self-starters with at least a 2.1 degree in a STEM subject with a keen interest in science, as well as proficiency in Java, C++, C# or Python, to enable the delivery of key hardware and software tools into an Eclipse RCP software environment.  Some examples of hardware to be integrated at the software level include multi-axis goniometry; multivariate X-ray focusing optics; beam position diagnostics feedback.
 
Diamond is co-located alongside the ISIS neutron source and the Research Complex at Harwell which hosts the Oxford Protein Production Facility (OPPF), the Central Laser Facility and CCP4. You will work closely with other developers at Diamond.
 
This post provides an exciting opportunity for an enthusiastic software scientist/engineer to contribute significantly in a challenging and rewarding scientific environment.
 
Responsibilities include:
  • Work with the project leader, software teams and beamline staff and to implement new equipment and features into the hardware and software environments of macromolecular crystallography (MX) beamlines and to develop and integrate software toolkits for modelling beam delivery for users and staff;
  • Use advanced programming tools and object oriented languages to design, implement and support the data acquisition and scientific software of MX beamlines;
  • Writing scripting software for the control of instrumentation associated with MX beamlines;
  • Working with the beamline scientists, scientific software and data analysis teams to define and document requirements for MX beamlines;
  • Provide user and beamline support;
  • Maintain responsibility for the management and co-ordination of own workload and ensure outputs delivered on time and to high quality;

Qualification & Experience - Essential

  • Appropriate first degree or equivalent qualification or experience;
  • Good working knowledge of scientific programming;
  • Good interpersonal, communication, organisational and presentational skills;
  • Ability and initiative to get to the heart of the problem and take it effectively through to completion;
  • Ability to work as part of a multi-disciplinary team;
  • Ability to work flexibly with occasional weekend and out-of hours;
  • Self motivation;
  • Experience of Java or C++ and Python;

Qualification & Experience - Desirable

  • Experience of contributing in a major way to a successful scientific software project;
  • Be available to travel occasionally within the UK and abroad, including overnight absences;
  • Experience of interfacing software to hardware;
  • Graphics programming toolkits;
  • Experience in macromolecular crystallography data collection and analysis;
  • Experience in providing expert support to end-users;

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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