Scientific Software Engineer / Senior

at  Science and Technology Facilities Council STFC

Job Title: Scientific Software Engineer / Senior
Salary: £42,840 - £47,124 / £53,818 - £59,199 (Senior) depending on experience and skill set
Hours: Full time or Part time (minimum 0.75 FTE)
Contract Type: FTC 2 Years
Location: Science and Technology Facilities Council, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory Harwell, Oxfordshire. Hybrid Working from locations in the UK also available.
Additional Details: Early applicants are encouraged as we aim to interview on a rolling basis.

ABOUT US

ISIS is a world-leading centre for research in the physical and life sciences. Our suite of over 30 neutron and muon instruments gives unique insights into the properties of materials on the atomic scale. We support a national and international community of more than 3000 scientists for research into subjects ranging from clean energy and the environment, pharmaceuticals and health care, through to nanotechnology and materials engineering, catalysis and polymers, and on to fundamental studies of materials. We foster strong collaborations with complementary facilities in the UK and abroad to maximise the support for this science community.

Scientific software is fundamental to the overall process at ISIS. They enable our community to visualise, analyse, model and interpret the results of their experiments. With the constant progress of science and computing leading to an increasing complexity and sophistication of experiments and analysis workflows, there is a strong need to enhance and extend our current software solutions to match the evolving needs of our science users.
SpinW (https://github.com/SpinW/spinw) is used to simulate the magnetic dynamics of ordered magnetic materials and determine the spin exchange interactions by fitting to inelastic neutron scattering data. The main goal of this project is to improve the fitting engine in SpinW, better integrate it to other software used on our spectrometers which handle the data and gradually translating the code from Matlab to Python. This will enable our science users to better and more quickly analyse their data on a variety of materials from low dimensional and geometrically frustrated magnets to multiferroics. One focus area will be in better fitting of polycrystalline data to aid in the analysis of new materials which can only be synthesised in polycrystalline form.
You need to love code and have strong analytical skills. The role could suit, for example, research software engineers, scientists with strong programming skills, or software engineers with a strong technical or scientific background. The role offers a great opportunity to work in a high-level research environment, with the chance to learn from and work together with scientists, researchers and software developers with a variety of backgrounds and skills.
This is an opportunity to join an established development team and really progress your career, as there is scope to take ownership for significant areas of work. Our team prides itself in being diverse and welcoming to all. We also aim to provide accommodations to optimise work-life balance without sacrificing opportunities for progression.