Senior Research Engineer - Power Electronics

Salary: £45,585 - £54,395 per annum

Newcastle University is a great place to work, with excellent benefits. We have a generous holiday package; plus the opportunity to buy more, great pension schemes and a number of health and wellbeing initiatives to support you.

Closing Date: This opportunity will close on 25 February 2024; we may close this earlier if we identify a suitable candidate

Who are we?

The Driving the Electric Revolution Industrialisation Centre North East (DER-IC NE) is one of 4 state-of-the-art centres in a UK-wide initiative to support UK Power Electronics, machines and drives (PEMD) supply chain. Based in Washington, Sunderland, DER-IC NE focuses on the development, assembly, manufacture and test of electrical machines and Power Electronics – technologies that underpin the world shift towards ‘Zero Carbon’.

Click here to see more about us.

The Role

As a specialist in power electronic design and development, you will shape and lead industrially focused research projects that deliver advanced performance, next generation power electronic devices, modules and systems with added functionality, enhanced thermal management and innovative packaging. Applications are invited from candidates from both academic and industry backgrounds.

You will work at the Sunderland site with, and be supported by, a small but expanding multi-disciplinary engineering team pioneering new PEMD products and manufacturing processes. The site is easily accessible by road, with a regular bus service and free onsite parking.

Strong communication skills are essential to ensure effective collaboration with internal team members, researchers on the main University campus and external customers.

If this sounds like you, please reach out to Derrick Holliday (Centre Lead, Technical Director and Professor of Electric Drives) at Derrick.Holliday@newcastle.ac.uk or to Ruth Dixon (Business and Innovation Manager) at Ruth.Dixon@newcastle.ac.uk to have a chat about this opportunity.
 
As a Grade A sponsor, we are able to offer sponsorship under the skilled worker route for this role and we are happy to support with relocation packages for those candidates moving to us from outside the region.

Key Accountabilities

• Initiate and develop ideas/approaches and novel techniques supporting the development and test of power electronic devices, modules and systems
• Provide specialist technical expertise across DER-IC NE activities, contributing to the strategic direction of the Centre
• Promote and deliver innovative solutions to the Centre Lead and/or customers/partners
• Make a significant contribution to the development of research and commercial projects in the field of power electronic devices, modules and systems
• Initiate and develop activities in the field of your specialisation, including proposal preparation and costing
• Take responsibility for the technical delivery of projects and be the customers’ main technical contact through the delivery phase
• Present research findings at local/national level, for example through reports, contributions to industry standards, or high-quality journal publications
• Develop and deliver academic/industrial teaching/training opportunities in your field of expertise

Knowledge, Skills and Experience 

• Able to deliver experimental research, prototyping and physical assembly
• Experience of validating power electronic devices, modules and systems through testing against defined requirements
• Experience of CAD, modelling and simulation tools, and their application to electrical, mechanical and thermal design and development
• Ability to interpret customer requirements and schematics
• Familiarity with electronics manufacturing and test equipment, which could include chip and wedge bonders, encapsulation and sintering machines, SMT manufacturing equipment, automatic visual inspection and X-ray equipment, robots/cobots, environmental test equipment, and electrical integrity test instrumentation

Attributes and Behaviour

• Comfortable in a start-up environment. Able to work outside the core focus of the role when required
• Open and collaborative, and welcomes challenge. Comfortable working with all levels of technical organisations from senior management to technicians
• Strong written, oral and visual presentation of information. Comfortable demonstrating systems/processes
• Enjoys customer interaction and high-quality service provision
• Analytical skills, structured thinker
• Manufacturing aware. Able to identify process constraints arising from manufacturing equipment and translate to design constraints/design for manufacture feedback
• Able to interpret and work to technical standards

Qualifications

• Educated to degree level in electrical engineering or a cognate discipline, plus comprehensive work experience, with a significant proportion in a relevant engineering/scientific role

Desirable

• Registration with an accredited professional body
   

Newcastle University is a global University where everyone is treated with dignity and respect.  As a University of Sanctuary, we aim to provide a welcoming place of safety for all, offering opportunities to people fleeing violence and persecution.

We are committed to being a fully inclusive university which actively recruits, supports and retains colleagues from all sectors of society.  We value diversity as well as celebrate, support and thrive on the contributions of all of our employees and the communities they represent.  We are proud to be an equal opportunities employer and encourage applications from individuals who can complement our existing teams, we believe that success is built on having teams whose backgrounds and experiences reflect the diversity of our university and student population.

At Newcastle University we hold a silver Athena Swan award in recognition of our good employment practices for the advancement of gender equality.  We also hold a Race Equality Charter Bronze award in recognition of our work towards tackling race inequality in higher education REC.  We are a Disability Confident employer and will offer an interview to disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria for the role as part of the offer and interview scheme.

In addition, we are a member of the Euraxess initiative supporting researchers in Europe. 

Requisition ID: 25813

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