Salary: £56,509 to £62,159 per annum (dependent on skills and experience) Hours: Full time or Part-time (minimum 30 hours per week) Contract Type: Fixed Term to 31 st March 2027 Location: Science and Technology Facilities Council, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Harwell, Oxfordshire Come and do the kind of work that got you into technology in the first place. Work with cutting-edge tech and world-leading scientists and engineers. Harness the power of some of the country's most advances supercomputers to tackle work that improves daily life in the UK and far beyond. Put simply, come and discover the impact you can make when you're equipped, encouraged and inspired to perform to your very best. STFC's Central Laser Facility (CLF) provides advanced laser research facilities for UK and international scientists. The CLF has been awarded £17M funding for a transformation of their ultrafast laser spectroscopy facilities, Artemis and Ultra, (the HiLUX project, https://www.clf.stfc.ac.uk/Pages/HiLUX.aspx ). This four-year project will extend the range of techniques for ultrafast laser spectroscopy, and encompasses upgrades to laboratories, new laser systems, new detectors and sample-handling technologies, control systems and data handling. HiLUX will be the only open-access facility in the world providing access to such a wide range of spectroscopies. The aim is that the combination of scientific information we obtain will enable us to study more complex systems than has previously been possible, with relevance to a wide range of societally, environmentally and industrially important areas. These include biomolecular dynamics, biomedical analysis, energy storage, catalysis and photovoltaics.Our user community will be from both academia and industry. About the role The HiLUX project will provide higher quality spectroscopic data at higher data rates, and we aim to transform the methods available to our users for both data collection and data analysis. We are seeking to recruit a scientific software engineer to develop the software to maximise scientific exploitation of our data. You will develop data acquisition and data analysis software for a variety of ultrafast laser spectroscopy experiments, including: Providing data analysis software for photoemission spectroscopy, to enable on-the-fly analysis of spectra. Adapting commercial data acquisition software for photoemission spectroscopy with a momentum microscope and hemispherical analyser to work with laser-based experiments. Building on existing data acquisition and analysis interfaces for spectroscopy techniques including time-resolved infrared, visible and Raman, multidimensional and sum-frequency generation (SFG). Applying relevant and new approaches to data analysis such as global analysis, principal component analysis (PCA), lifetime density analysis and machine learning. You will work as part of a multi-disciplinary team, including physicists, chemists, materials scientists and engineers. You will interface directly with scientists to gather requirements and collaborate closely with our software engineering group. Our controls software team are providing a control system based on EPICS ( https://epics-controls.org/ ) and we plan to use Apache Kafka for data transport. You will also interact with STFC's scientific computing department, who provide data archiving and cloud-based virtual machines that host our data analysis packages, and with colleagues at other international facilities to develop shared approaches. The data acquisition and analysis packages that you create will be used by many research groups across a wide range of scientific applications. Person Specification The below essential criteria will be assessed at Shortlisting (S), Interview (I) or both (S&I) Degree in a STEM subject, and a demonstrable track record of scientific software development, including data acquisition and/or data analysis. (S&I) Experience developing well-designed, robust software in Python and its scientific packages (such as numpy, scipy, matplotlib, pandas). (S&I) Understanding of modern software development practices (e.g. testing, version control, continuous integration, Agile, object-oriented design). (S&I) Experience of leading software projects through the full life cycle, from gathering requirements to deployment and maintenance. (S&I) Track record in designing technical solutions independently and building completed software products. (S&I) Good communication skills and ability to work effectively as part of a team. (I) 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. STFC values their employees by offering a benefits package designed to provide an excellent work/life balance including 30 days' annual leave, 10.5 public and privilege holidays, flexible working hours, exceptional average salary pension scheme, social and sporting activities and societies and a subsidised restaurant. 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 Recruitment@ukri.org. 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 disabled applicants who meet the minimum criteria for the vacancy/ies. 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/