By 2050, the planet could be using twice as much electricity compared to today. Are you interested in contributing and helping to shape the future of the world’s energy? If so, read on.

Fusion, the process that powers the Sun and Stars, is one of the most promising options for generating the cleaner, carbon-free energy that our world badly needs. UKAEA are at the forefront of realising energy from fusion, working with industry and research partners to deliver the ground-breaking developments that will underpin tomorrow's fusion power stations with the aim of bringing fusion electricity to the grid.

As we work towards our mission and goals, UKAEA has devised values that capture the spirit of how we work. These values include being: Innovative, Committed, Trusted and Collaborative.

Who are we looking for?

As we are growing the UKAEA virtual engineering programme, we currently have an exciting opportunity for computational engineers or physicists who want to work at the forefront of their field leading in research and execution of integrated multi-disciplinary and multi-physics simulation tools to solve some of our most complex problems.

As an experienced engineering analyst, you will be adept in performing computational engineering or physics analyses, have experience in supervising others or leading teams, and bring enthusiasm, flare, and diversity to our dynamic team.

What will you be responsible for?

This role will foster and implement a strategy for coupled/integrated simulations towards the realisation of a `digital twin`, including promoting the concept and identifying and exploiting opportunities for growth, writing research proposals, making links between related disciplines, and holding deep knowledge of the landscape of computational simulations both within and outside the fusion community. Among the specific needs at present are analysts with experience in multi-body dynamics and electromagnetic simulations.

Essential skills, experience and competence required

• A Master`s degree in engineering or other relevant discipline, or equivalent experience.
• Expertise in the application of numerical simulation techniques, including experience in at least two types of numerical analysis: thermal, structural, structural dynamics, fluid dynamics, magnetic (static or transient), neutronics, multi-physics, magnetohydrodynamics, 2-D plasma `fluid` codes, multi-body dynamics.
• Experience in writing research grant proposals and/or contributing to organisational research strategy documents.
• Ability to rapidly investigate, understand and adopt existing / new software products and apply innovative solutions for integration into simulation workflows.
• Working knowledge of structural and thermal engineering, solid mechanics and materials.
• Good communication, both technical and interpersonal skills, and report writing skills.

Desirable skills, experience and competence

• Extensive experience in multi body dynamics simulation using packages such as MSC ADAMS or similar, including familiarity with simulation of rigid and flexible body dynamics, mechanical drives and actuators.
• With systems modelling using software such as Simulink-Simscape, AMESIM or similar
• With model order reduction techniques and their application
• With probabilistic simulation allowing simulation input and output parameters to be represented as probability distributions
• PhD or equivalent experience in computational engineering or physics, working in an academic or industrial research environment.
• Attained or actively working towards Chartered status with a suitable professional institution.
• Experience leading teams and supervising other staff.
• Existing links with relevant external professional network including collaborators, suppliers and universities.
• Demonstrable experience researching new technologies and effective dissemination of this knowledge.
• Experience in coupled or integrated simulations, involving creating numerical processes or recipes to feed the output from one code into the input of an entirely separate code, and high-level architecture from which to execute such analysis.
• Experience with environmental factors relevant to nuclear fusion, such as vacuum and transient magnetic fields.
• Experience with working to engineering design standards (particularly pressure vessel standards).
• Experience of applying and promoting good code development practices (collaborative development, version control, automated testing, documentation).
• Experience using scientific computing platforms such as compute clusters, HPC facilities, cloud systems or alternative architectures.
• "Dev-ops" skills for configuring and managing deployment of software systems and developer tools in production (e.g. managing VMs, containers, packaging and build systems, web hosting environments, repository and CI systems, data storage and management systems, system monitoring).

Please note that this role is split over two levels and the Level 4 offers a salary of £36,397 - £38,620 (inclusive of MPP) and the Level 5 offers a salary of £49,396 - £52,293 (inclusive of MPP). Your level will be assessed as part of the interview process.

What we offer

• A competitive salary  
• A culture committed to being fully inclusive, supported by a Being Inclusive Strategy and Inclusion Ambassadors 
• An Employee Assistance Programme and trained Mental Health First Aiders, with a full calendar of health and wellbeing initiatives 
• Flexible working options including family friendly policies  
• Emergency leave (paid) 
• 30.5 days annual leave (including privilege days and 3 days between Christmas and New Year) increased with length of service 
• Wide range of career development opportunities (e.g professional registration, internal promotions, coaching and mentoring programme)  
• Outstanding defined benefit pension scheme  
• Annual corporate bonus scheme  
• Relocation allowance (if eligible) 

We welcome applications from under-represented groups, particularly from individuals from black and other ethnic minority backgrounds, including nationality and citizenship, people with disabilities, (visible and hidden) and women. The Executive team with support from our EDI ‘Equality, Diversity and Inclusion’ (EDI) partner and Inclusion Ambassadors, is actively promoting EDI and taking steps to increase the diversity of our people through reinforcing best practice in recruitment and selection, and revaluating approaches where it is clear we can remove barriers to success. We are easily accessible by car and are a 10-minute walk from Culham Railway Station in Oxfordshire.

Please be advised that this vacancy is due to close on 24th November 2021

Please be advised that this vacancy may close earlier than stated if large or sufficient numbers of applications are received.

Please note all employees working at the UK Atomic Energy Authority will be required to complete an online Disclosure Certificate application as part of their clearance – The Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) checks will show the details of all current criminal convictions (convictions considered unspent under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974) or will confirm that there are no such convictions.