Experimental Officer in High Throughput Catalyst Testing

12011BR

Cardiff School of Chemistry

Managerial, Professional and Specialist Staff – MPSS

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Experimental Officer in High Throughput Catalyst Testing

The Cardiff School of Chemistry is seeking to appoint a self-motivated and enthusiastic individual as an Experimental Officer. The post holder will be responsible delivery of efficient and effective high-level experimental support to academic and research staff based in the Cardiff Catalysis Institute (CCI), providing effective support for running the high-throughput catalyst testing and solid state Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) catalyst characterisation facilities. The successful candidate will be an effective team player and committed to seeking constant improvement and a willingness to undertake training and development.

For informal enquiries about the role and the Cardiff School of Chemistry, please contact Dr R L Jenkins, Deputy School Manager ([email protected]; 029 2087 6750) or Dr M Akhtar, School Manager ([email protected]; 029 2087 0680).

For further details about working at Cardiff University, please contact: Ms Caroline Pasmore ([email protected]; 029 2087 4073).

Please visit www.cardiff.ac.uk/chemistry for further information about the School of Chemistry.

This is a full-time position of 35 hours (1 FTE) per week, available from 1 August 2021 for 2 years.

To work for an employer that values and promotes equality of opportunity, please visit www.cardiff.ac.uk/jobs and search for vacancy number: 12011BR.

Salary: £33,797 - £40,322 per annum (Grade 6).

Important note: It is the University’s policy to use the person specification as a key tool for short-listing. Candidates should evidence that they meet ALL of the essential criteria as well as, where relevant, the desirable. As part of the application process you will be asked to provide this evidence via a supporting statement.  Please ensure that the evidence you are providing corresponds with the numbered criteria outlined below. Your application will be considered based on the information you provide under each element. 

When attaching the supporting statement to your application profile, please ensure that you name it with the vacancy reference number, e.g. Supporting Statement for 12011BR.

Date advert posted: Wednesday, 28 July 2021

Closing date: Wednesday, 25 August 2021

This post has previously been advertised to employees of Cardiff University only.  We now invite external applications.

Cardiff University is committed to supporting and promoting equality and diversity and to creating an inclusive working environment. We believe this can be achieved through attracting, developing, and retaining a diverse range of staff from many different backgrounds who have the ambition to create a University which seeks to fulfil our social, cultural and economic obligation to Cardiff, Wales, and the world. In supporting our employees to achieve a balance between their work and their personal lives, we will also consider proposals for flexible working or job share arrangements.

Job Description

Job Purpose

To be responsible for the delivery of efficient and effective high-level experimental support to academic and research staff based in the Cardiff Catalysis Institute (CCI), providing effective support for running the high-throughput catalyst testing and solid state Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) catalyst characterisation facilities.
Duties and Responsibilities

Key Duties

•    Provide professional advice and guidance on high-throughput catalyst testing and solid-state NMR processes and procedures to internal and external customers that will have institute wide impacts, using judgement and creativity to suggest the most appropriate course of action where appropriate, and ensuring complex and conceptual ideas are understood.

•    Take responsibility for resolving issues independently that arise in CCI Section when they fall within set role objectives. Additionally, take responsibility for resolving issues independently for high-throughput catalyst testing and solid-state NMR where they fall within set role objectives

•    Investigate and analyse specific issues within the CCI Section, creating recommendation reports, supported by advances within Catalysis  

•    Ensure that the provision of the high-throughput catalyst testing and solid state NMR catalyst characterisation is delivered to the CCI, institution and external users, proactively changing the delivery according to users requirements

•    Establish working relationships with key contacts, developing appropriate communication links with the University’s Schools/Directorates and outside bodies as required

•    Create specific working groups from colleagues across the CCI, and potentially the University, to achieve CCI and School objectives

•    Plan and deliver specific small scale projects, co-ordinating and supervising project teams created as needed

•    Develop and deliver training within high-throughput catalyst testing and solid state NMR catalyst characterisation

•    Instruct and guide other employees across the University within high-throughput catalyst testing and solid state NMR catalyst characterisation as required

•    Support academic members of staff in the preparation of grant applications

•    Support the high-throughput catalyst testing external advisory board in discharging their duties

•    Plan and schedule access to the high-throughput catalyst testing and solid-state NMR catalyst characterisation facilities. Including the planning and delivery of specific small-scale projects, co-ordinating and supervising project teams created as needed

•    To ensure that all CCI laboratories comply with current HSE legislation and to provide guidance to post graduate students on matters of laboratory safety

•    To develop and maintain specialist knowledge relevant to the role

•    To conduct and/or assist in the completion of risk assessments and in the drafting of standard operating procedures and other guidance documentation for high-throughput catalyst testing and solid state NMR facilities and all other associated equipment and procedures

•    To liaise closely and collaboratively with key colleagues in the CCI and School to resolve any issues that may arise in a timely manner

General Duties

•    Ensure that an understanding of the importance of confidentiality is applied when undertaking all duties
•    Abide by University policies on Health and Safety and Equality and Diversity & Inclusion
•    Perform other duties occasionally which are not included above, but which will be consistent with the role

Person Specification

Essential Criteria

Qualifications and Education

1.    Degree/NVQ 4 in Chemistry / Chemical engineering or a related relevant subject
equivalent Professional membership/experience

Knowledge, Skills and Experience

2.    Substantial experience of working within catalyst testing (gas/solid and gas/liquid/solid flow reactors – preferably high-throughput) and professional knowledge to give advice and guidance to internal users, and when appropriate external users
3.    Experience of solid state NMR, or demonstrable aptitude and commitment to learn the skills to run the equipment and to give advice and guidance to internal users, and when appropriate external users
4.    Proven of using analytical techniques including NMR, gas chromatography, high performance liquid chromatography and Fourier Transform infrared spectroscopy, and ability to develop analytical protocols for quantitative analysis of complex mixtures. 

Customer Service, Communication and Team Working

5.    Ability to communicate conceptually detailed and complex information effectively and professionally with a wide range of people, including constructive negotiations with instrument vendors and instrument service engineers
6.    Evidence of ability to explore customers’ needs and adapt the service accordingly to ensure a quality service is delivered
7.    Proven ability to develop networks in order to contribute to long term developments

Planning, Analysis and Problem Solving

8.    Evidence of ability to solve expansive problems using initiative and creativity; identify and propose both practical and innovative solutions
9.    Evidence of demonstrable knowledge of key advances within specialist discipline
10    Evidence of ability to undertake and deliver specific projects and supervise short term project teams, with the ability to work unsupervised to deadlines, planning and setting priorities for own work and that of others and monitoring progress

Desirable Criteria

1.    A PhD in the areas of heterogeneous catalysis or chemical engineering
2.    Experience of working with solid state NMR
3.    Evidence of ability to provide leadership to colleagues
4.    A record of attracting external funding
5.    Experience of a higher education or industrial environment
6.    Experience in the supervision of students/staff
7.    Ability to interact and negotiate constructively with instrument vendors and instrument service engineers.
8.    Experience with tube fitting i.e. Swagelok, and simple mechanical skills
9.    Experience with integrated workflow manager software, such as LabView
10.    Proven ability of a strong academic track record and to publish in high impact journals
11.    Fluency in Welsh, written and oral

Additional Information

About Cardiff School of Chemistry

The Cardiff School of Chemistry sits within Cardiff University’s College of Physical Sciences and Engineering and provides a stimulating environment for research, teaching and learning, working at the cutting edge of modern chemistry. Each year, we admit approximately 150 students to undergraduate MChem and BSc programmes and around 70 students to postgraduate taught and research programmes. Research and teaching is led by 42 academic members of staff with support from more than 80 postdoctoral and other technical staff. The School has an annual turnover of approximately £7million per year and prides itself on its strong and growing industrial partnerships, as well as on its outreach activities to encourage young people to pursue scientific careers.

About the School’s Administrative and Technical Support Services

The School's administrative and technical support services provide the general, technical and specialist professional infrastructure required to enable the School to fulfill its strategic priorities and contribute fully to the University’s mission to create and share knowledge and to educate for the benefit of all. The services are led by the School Manager, who oversees approximately 35 FTE managerial, administrative and technical staff, organised around four core teams: Education and Students, Research and Innovation, Technical Services and the Head of School’s Office. 

For further information about the School, please visit our website: www.cardiff.ac.uk/chemy

The post will be associated with the Cardiff Catalysis Institute (CCI):

The Cardiff Catalysis Institute (CCI), in the School of Chemistry is a world leader in this important field. The application of catalysis is crucial to the development of economically and environmentally sustainable manufacturing processes. Components generated through catalysis are used at some stage in the production of most materials and finished products, impacting on the manufacture of everything from fertilizers to medicines.

The University has recognised the central importance of catalysis and established the CCI as a University Research Institute within the University.  The CCI continues to receive substantial University investment to ensure that new lines of research can be grown rapidly.

The CCI was established under the Directorship of Professor Graham Hutchings FRS in 2008. The CCI has team of more than 90 personnel, it has strong industrial links in such areas as low carbon processes and new uses for waste products as well as the use of catalysis in non traditional areas. The research strength has been recognised with a number of international awards, including Professor Hutchings’ Fellowship of the Royal Society for his transformation of gold’s role as a catalyst in such uses as chemicals manufacture. This Fellowship will aim to underpin the growth of a new area of research in the CCI that complement the fields of excellence for which the CCI is known.

http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/research/cardiff-catalysis-institute