About Us
The Faculty of Natural, Mathematical & Engineering Sciences (NMES) comprises Chemistry, Engineering, Informatics, Mathematics, and Physics - all departments highly rated in research activities and a wide-ranging portfolio of education programmes.
Celebrating diversity and supporting staff is important to us and we offer a range of provision including flexible working, caring support (including a Parenting and Carers Fund and the Carer's Career Development Fund), training, and a variety of diversity and inclusion networks. Staff can apply for flexible working to help them balance the demands of their professional and personal commitments and we offer comprehensive leave policies for parental, adoption, surrogacy, dependant and shared leave.
The university is making investment in NMES, and both student and staff numbers are growing. Our staff come from over 45 countries and 56% of our students are from outside the UK.
Further details available at
About The Role
We are seeking a highly motivated Research Associate to join a 12-month project focused on building generative AI tools to accelerate the discovery of new homogeneous CO₂-to-methanol catalysts. This project leverages diffusion models and large open-source organometallic datasets to design multi-centered ligands using earth-abundant metals, inspired by enzymatic systems. You will work at the intersection of computational chemistry and machine learning, adapting state-of-the-art generative models for catalyst design.
The role involves data preparation, dimensionality reduction, and integration of open-source packages for diffusion modeling. The project is an interdisciplinary collaboration between 4 academic groups (Dr. Micaela Matta and Dr. Francisco Martin-Martinez, computational chemistry and machine learning; Dr. Clare Bakewell and Dr. Rebecca Musgrave, organometallic synthesis and catalyst design), as well as industry partners (Dr Charlie Adams, Dr David Wright, Kuano AI) specializing in pharmacophore design and AI for drug discovery.
This is a full-time (35 hours per week) post offered on a fixed-term contract for 12 months.
Research staff at King's are entitled to at least 10 days per year (pro-rata) for professional development. This entitlement, from the Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers, applies to Postdocs, Research Assistants, Research and Teaching Technicians, Teaching Fellows and AEP equivalent up to and including grade 7. Visit the Centre for Research Staff Development for more information.
About You
To be successful in this role, we are looking for candidates to have the following skills and experience:
Essential Criteria
PhD in chemistry, physics, biology, engineering or related areas
Demonstrable Python programming skills. Familiarity with packages such as pandas, numpy, PyTorch, TensorFlow, and Keras
Demonstrable software development skills. Experience in i) version control environments, ii) contributing to or developing open-source packages
Demonstrable experience in machine learning applied to chemistry
Demonstrable experience in cheminformatics techniques
Strong communication skills and collaborative attitude
Desirable criteria
Familiarity with diffusion models and their training
Familiarity with structural dimensionality reduction (e.g., pharmacophore modeling)
Familiarity with organometallic chemistry or catalysis
Downloading a Copy Of Our Job Description
Full details of the role and the skills, knowledge and experience required can be found in the Job Description document, provided at the bottom of the page. This document will provide information of what criteria will be assessed at each stage of the recruitment process.
Please note that this is a PhD level role but candidates who have submitted their thesis and are awaiting award of their PhDs will be considered. In these circumstances the appointment will be made at Grade 5, spine point 30 with the title of Research Assistant. Upon confirmation of the award of the PhD, the job title will become Research Associate and the salary will increase to Grade 6.
Further Information
At King's, we believe that the diversity of our community and a culture that is welcoming, open, inclusive and collaborative, are great strengths of the university.
The Equality Act of 2010 protects the rights of our students and staff and provides a framework to fulfil our duties to eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation and in addition, to advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations between those who share a protected characteristic and those who do not. At times, this will include balancing rights and beliefs that can feel in tension.
We are committed to free speech and to academic freedom, believing that our foundational purpose as a university, is to create spaces where a wide range of ideas, including ideas that are controversial, can be discussed and debated, and where members of our community can express lawful views without fear of intimidation, harassment or discrimination.
When engaging in the robust exchange of ideas, we ask that our community is mindful of our Dignity at King's guidance.
We ask all candidates to submit a copy of their CV, and a supporting statement, detailing how they meet the essential criteria listed in the person specification section of the job description. If we receive a strong field of candidates, we may use the desirable criteria to choose our final shortlist, so please include your evidence against these where possible.
We reserve the right to close adverts early due to the volume of applications we receive. While the closing date may change, all adverts will close at 23:59 to allow sufficient time for applications to be submitted on that day.
We encourage you to apply at the earliest opportunity to avoid disappointment as once we have closed a vacancy you will be unable to submit your application.
To find out how our managers will review your application, please take a look at our ' How we Recruit ' pages.