Materials and Analytical Scientist

Materials and Analytical Scientist

Location: RG7 4PR, located between Reading and Basingstoke, with free onsite parking.

Package: £29,490 - £31,000 (depending on your suitability, qualifications, and level of experience)

Working pattern: AWE operates a 9-day working fortnight. We will consider flexible working requests so that your work may fit in with your lifestyle. Just let us know your preferred working pattern on your application.

Let us introduce the role

AWE is currently recruiting for Materials and Analytical Scientists within Conventional Materials Science Group supporting their Organic Materials Development Team. The team focuses on the development and testing of polymeric materials for adhesives, potting's, resins, encapsulants, and inks for Direct-Ink-Write Additive Manufacturing.

This role is ideally suited to a Polymer Chemist or Materials Scientist who enjoys hands-on chemistry experiments and has an interest in the design of experiments and analysis of results.

Working within the Conventional Materials Science Group the successful candidate will be required to work with stakeholders and customers across the business to develop and test materials that meet their requirements. Furthermore, this role will allow you to work with many of our external partners across the UK and US, and occasionally, you will be required to travel to these sites to meet our stakeholders.

Although the role is predominantly lab based and on site, where possible, you will also be allowed to work from home to carry out training, data analysis, and writing up of reports and presentations.

Who are we looking for?

We would be interested in hearing from candidates who can demonstrate knowledge or experience in some of the following:

Degree (or equivalent) chemistry, materials science, natural science or similar
Knowledge of general organic and polymer materials science, or organic chemistry
Working knowledge of UK REACH
Basic laboratory experience
Knowledge of techniques such as rheology, thermal analysis and mechanical testing, etc
Knowledge of safety paperwork including COSHH, risk and manual handling assessments
Good standard of report writing

Successful candidates will typically be responsible for the following:

Prepare, analyse, characterise and assess samples using agreed procedures and processes
Produce documentation to communicate projects
Develop knowledge in a particular scientific or product field and share best practice.
Assistance with COSHH Assessor; Risk Assessor; Manual Handling Assessor
Lead technical programmes (dependent on prior experience)

You'll need to have the ability to work calmly and constructively in a priority changing environment and be able to manage your own workload. You will also have initiative, enthusiasm, a flexible approach, and ability to work to tight deadlines.

Please note that the interviews will take place during the week commencing 2nd of June 2025. If you are unavailable on these dates, please inform us, and we will do our best to accommodate alternative arrangements where feasible.

Some reasons we think you'll love it here:

AWE has wide range of benefits to suit you. These include:

9-day working fortnight - meaning you get every other Friday off work, in addition to 270 hours of annual leave.
Market leading contributory pension scheme (we will pay between 9% and 13% of your pensionable pay depending on your contributions).
Family friendly policies: Maternity Leave - 39 Weeks Full Pay and Paternity Leave - 4 Weeks Full Pay.
Opportunities for Professional Career Development including funding for annual membership of a relevant professional body.
Employee Assistance Programme and Occupational Health Services.
Life Assurance (4 x annual salary).
Discounts - access to savings on a wide range of everyday spending.
Special Leave Policy including paid time off for volunteering, public service (including reserve forces) and caring.

The 'Working at AWE' page on our website is where you can find full details in the 'AWE Benefits Guide'.

Due to the classified nature of the work involved, there are limited opportunities to work from home in this role. It is anticipated that the successful candidate will spend the majority of their time working on site at AWE Aldermaston.

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