Industry Partnerships and Innovation Group Leader at STFC

Location: Science and Technology Facilities Council, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Harwell, Oxfordshire (some flexibility for homeworking can be considered)

Come and discover the kind of impact you can make when you work with some of the best facilities and brightest scientists in the world!

An exciting opportunity exists to join us at the Central Laser Facility (CLF) to lead our Industry Partnerships and Innovation (IPI) group, driving forward the application of advanced laser based scientific techniques for the benefit of UK industry and economic health. 

About you

We are seeking an individual that has a strong experimental science and industry engagement background, and is capable of translating the scientific and technical knowledge embodied in the CLF across multiple disciplines, into potential solutions to problems or challenges faced by industry and non-academically based organisations.

If that is you, you will have a natural flair that is able to push forward our industry partnerships and engagement strategy, and to further grow the innovation and direct societal impact of our work. You will be confident in directly and/or indirectly leading a multi-disciplinary team of scientists and engineers in identifying new opportunities for future partnerships, and building upon those that already exist.

As part of the senior management team of the CLF, you will have a naturally diplomatic and collaborative style that engenders confidence in internal and external senior leaders and stakeholders, maintaining and developing relationships. 

About The Role

The key areas of the role include:

• providing leadership and design strategies to create growth and diversification in proprietary entities accessing the CLF
• to have oversight of the industry / non-academic user access programme and provide reports on outcomes – to help develop impact cases
• networking with a multi-disciplinary community and facilitate interactions between CLF and industrial / non-academic partners across many sectors where appropriate 
• managing a small, multi-disciplinary team of scientists 
• oversight of CLF’s innovation and business engagement portfolio, working collaboratively with STFC’s Business and Innovation Directorate

About us

As part of the Science and Technologies Facilities Council (STFC), the CLF contains many state-of-the-art laser systems and experimental stations, along with scientists, engineers and technicians that work with academic and industry users to deliver science across a broad range of fields.

We are currently in a period of significant change, with over £200M of new investment in our facilities. We are constructing a new facility – the Extreme Photonics Applications Centre – that will  transform our industry programme when it opens for users in 2025, especially for those interested in applying the unique properties of laser-driven x-rays and particle sources for imaging, inspection or discovery, in pursuit of innovation goals. We are simultaneously building the highest power laser in the world, Vulcan 20-20 and making unprecedented investment in our facilities for dynamics research via the Hilux initiative. Our innovation centres in the UK (CALTA) and India (EPIC) are also developing new technology ripe for commercial translation. 

The CLF has around 200 staff and it is a very friendly, outgoing, externally facing sort of place.  You will find that people will naturally help and support you.

What we offer

We are offering a permanent position with a whole host of benefits including:

• 30 days holiday annually (in addition to 10.5 bank holidays and privilege days)
• flexible working hours
• an excellent defined average salary pension scheme
• employee shopping/travel discounts
• excellent learning and development opportunities
• visa Sponsorship for candidates applying outside of the UK

Plus many more benefits and wellbeing initiatives that enable our employees to have a great work life balance!

UKRI is an Equal Opportunity & Disability Confident Employer.

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.

To apply, please click on the ‘Apply’ button above