Science and Technology Facilities Council
Salary: £35,049 per annum + £1,000 welcome bonus
Contract Type: Permanent
Hours: Full-time
Location: Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Harwell, Oxfordshire OX11 0QX
Closing date: 19th October 2025
Assessment Centre: December 2025 / January 2026
Start date: September 2026
RAL Space is one of the largest interdisciplinary space departments in Europe, having a consistent track record contributing to more than 200 instruments in space. The department works throughout the lifecycle of space missions - from leading concept studies for future missions, developing custom scientific instrumentation, providing space test and ground-based facilities, operating ground-stations, and to processing and analysing data.
The group is recognised for its major contributions in a diverse range of space instrumentation; standout highlights include:
* Imaging electronics on NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, a flagship mission designed to understand the causes of solar variability and its impacts on Earth
* Imaging electronics for the RAMAN spectrometer on ESA's ExoMars rover, looking to identify minerals and biomarker signatures of past and/or current life on Mars
* Electronics for the SPICE ultraviolet spectrometer on ESA's Solar Orbiter, to study a range of solar questions including the origins of the coronal magnetic field
* A mass spectrometer on ESA's Rosetta/Philae mission to Comet 67-P, to investigate the origin and composition of comets, and where the water on Earth originates
Graduate Scheme
The STFC Graduate scheme will give you the opportunity to really pursue your interests and passion early in your journey with us, supported by technical training and a broader programme of career support and training and development.
Our dedicated Graduate Development Team will provide the right combination of challenge and support throughout, helping you achieve your ambitions. We know that professional recognition is also important to you too, so we will provide mentoring and expertise to help you achieve valued qualifications or chartered status in your chosen field.
Key Duties & Responsibilities
We're pleased to be on the look out for a graduate to work under the supervision of one of our experienced electronics engineers working on one of our many projects for spacecraft instruments and ground-based telescopes. Duties may include, but may not be limited to:
* Analogue and digital circuit design
* PCB layout of complex multilayer boards
* Functional testing of assembled boards
* VHDL design work
* Create manufacturing drawings and participate in design reviews
* Complete relevant analyses and documentation including test plans, specifications and reports as required
* Be vigilant in terms of health and safety
* Help with outreach activities and tours of the Division on occasion.
* Working as part of a multi-disciplinary team
Person Specification
In order to apply for the role we are looking for the following:
Essential:
* Achieved, or be on course to achieve, a minimum 2:1 degree, in a relevant field of study (S)
* Have the right to live and work in the UK at time of starting employment (S)
* Analogue design skills (S&I)
* Digital design skills including knowledge of VHDL and/or Verilog (S&I)
* Prior use of electronics CAD tools, especially schematic capture and circuit simulation (S&I)
* Proven practical skills such as verification and testing of circuit boards and components (S&I)
Desirable:
* Experience using higher-level software programming languages or applications (e.g. C/C++, LabVIEW) and/or low-level programming languages (S&I)
* Knowledge of designing electronics for space applications (S&I)
Employee Benefits
We are offering a permanent position with a whole host of benefits including:
* 30 days holiday (in addition to 10.5 bank holidays and privilege days).
* Flexible working hours.
* An excellent defined average salary pension scheme.
* Easily accessible public transport links/ free parking.
* Excellent learning and development opportunities.
* Cycle to work scheme.
Link to more benefits: https://stfccareers.co.uk/rewards-and-benefits/
Please note, if you will require sponsorship to work in the UK, as part of your sponsorship application, you and any dependants travelling with you, will be required to pay costs directly to The Home Office for the application before you start your role with us. UKRI is normally able to reimburse some, or all of these fees after you have become an employee and this can be discussed with the Hiring Manager. For more information, please visit https://www.gov.uk/skilled-worker-visa/how-much-it-costs or contact stfcgraduates@ukri.org.
Application Guidance
Please note that we can only accept a maximum of 2 applications per candidate.
Part of our application process involves submitting your CV and a cover letter. Your cover letter should address your suitability for the opportunity based how you meet each essential criteria stated in this advert.
Please note that we hold the right to close this vacancy early if a sufficient number of applications have been received.
We ask some of the biggest questions in the universe, to answer some of the biggest challenges in the world. Together, our scientists, technologists, engineers and business support team explore the unknown across every field you could think of. And they turn what they find into work that changes the world around us.
What could you achieve with the world-leading facilities and experts of one of Europe's largest research organisations by your side? Join us and discover what's possible!
UKRI - UK Research and Innovation
UKRI is an organisation that brings together the seven disciplinary research councils, Research England and Innovate UK. Together, we build an independent organisation with a strong voice and vision ensuring the UK maintains its world-leading position in research and innovation.
Supporting some of the world's most exciting and challenging research projects, we develop and operate some of the most remarkable scientific facilities in the world. We are pushing the frontiers of human knowledge through fundamental research and delivering benefits for UK society and the economy through world-class research, skills and business-led innovation.
More information can be found at www.ukri.org .
Choosing to come to work at UKRI means that you will have access to a whole host of benefits from a defined benefit pension scheme, excellent holiday entitlement, access to employee shopping/travel discounts and salary sacrifice cycle to work scheme. For more details, visit benefits of working for UKRI .
How we support EDI in the workforce
At UKRI, we believe that everyone has a right to be treated with dignity and respect, and to be provided with equal opportunities to thrive and succeed in an environment that enables them to do so. We also value diversity of thought and experience within inclusive groups, organisations and the wider community. For further information, please visit 'How we support EDI in the workforce'.
Disability Confident Employer
As users of the disability confident scheme, we guarantee to interview all applicants with a disability who opt into the disability confident scheme and meet the minimum criteria for the role. We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and to receive other benefits and privileges of employment. Please contact us to request accommodation.
How to apply
Online applications only preferred for this role. Please submit a CV and covering letter which clearly outlines how you fulfil the criteria specified along with your motivation for UKRI and the role. Ensure that the job reference number is included in the filename description of each document uploaded. Note that failure to address the above criteria or submit an application without a covering letter may result in the application not being considered. Assessment will only be based upon the content of your submitted covering letter and CV and not the 'experience' section of the application.
UKRI seeks to ensure it creates and maintains a system of openness, fairness and inclusion - a collaborative, trusted environment, which is attractive to and accessible to everyone who is interested in developing their career with us.
The role holder will be required to have the appropriate level of security screening/vetting required for the role. UKRI reserves the right to run or re-run security clearance as required during the course of employment.
The Science and Technology Facilities Council is a world-leading multi-disciplinary science organisation where curiosity-driven, blue-skies thinking meets practical, application-led science and engineering. Our goal is to deliver economic, societal, scientific and international benefits to the UK and its people - and more broadly to the world.
One of Europe's largest research organisations, we're trusted to support, enable and undertake cutting-edge projects in an amazing diversity of fields. Through world-class facilities and people, we're driving ground-breaking advances in science, engineering, computing and technology. Our research seeks to understand the Universe from the largest astronomical scales to the tiniest constituents of matter, yet creates impact on a very tangible, human scale.
For more information about STFC please visit https://stfc.ukri.org/
You can also visit our careers site https://www.stfccareers.co.uk/