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Technician (Clean Room Facility) - Engineering - 59899 - Grade 7

Employer
University of Birmingham
Location
Birmingham, United Kingdom
Salary
£30,942.00 - £42,792.00
Closing date
May 6, 2021

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Position Details

School of Engineering

Location: University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham UK

Full time starting salary is normally in the range £30,942 to £40,322, with potential progression once in post to £41,526.

Grade 7

Full Time and permanent

Closing date 6 May 2021

Job Summary

The clean room is a multimillion pound facility used in specialist research which requires ultra clean conditions. The room is sealed, the air filtered and the temperature and humidity are strictly controlled. The room requires experienced leadership and managerial oversight for continued, safe operation for users. There is a range of specialist equipment in the clean room used in research, some of the individual machines cost many hundred of thousands of pounds when new and require specialist knowledge and training for safe operation and maintenance. The total count of pieces of equipment in the clean room and supporting the room is about 70. All require specialist knowledge. The equipment in the room allows fabrication of complex electronic circuits which require many process steps using a range of the equipment. The researchers using the room and equipment optimise these steps to produce the required new, novel devices. Note below we use the term clean room but this also includes supporting our process room and plant room which both support the clean room.

The job is leading the management of the room and equipment, safely supporting and training the researchers. It is also to develop and manage the fabrication processes in collaboration with users. The post holder is required to work under minimal academic supervision and have financial authority in purchase and maintenance of equipment. The users are from both the university and external.

Main Duties

This is a complex situation, below is a list of duties, but may not be exhaustive. The main duty is to ensure the safe running of the clean room and its facilities for all users whatever this may entail. That is have complete control over all aspect of the management of the clean room with minimal academic oversight.
  • Provide leadership for the clean room facility through including chairing the users committee and having full knowledge and control of all users. Reporting to the academic member of staff responsible if required.
  • Organising all aspects of safety including liaising with the university safety unit, researching safety procedures and writing and maintaining clean room safety documents. Training all users on safety and monitoring their effeteness in this area. This includes for maintaining a safe working environment including COSHH, risk assessments and electrical safety testing. Writing procedures for the safe use of techniques and equipment used in the clean room.
  • Responsible for ensuring the cleanliness and good order of all working areas and having the authority to ensure that others follow this code. Maintaining a record of the cleanliness and act as appropriate if it deteriorates.
  • Training, instructing and supervising staff (academic, research and technical) and students in the correct use of the facilities and processes. This will include writing operating procedures for the safe use of the equipment. Ensuring best use of the equipment through a booking system; liaising with users to ensure they are informed of breakdowns, maintenance procedures etc. that may disrupt their work; logging usage of equipment to enable the charging of users. Help providing the content and help in delivering a short course in clean room design and operations for internal and external users.
  • Use the range of specialist equipment (e.g. ion beam miller, sputtering machines, lithography equipment, vacuum systems, cryogenic equipment) available to produce custom devices for staff, students research and industrial services.
  • Responsible for the security, maintenance and repair of the cleanroom and the associated scientific equipment either by the post-holder, in-house services or the equipment manufacturer, as appropriate
  • Leadership the new equipment purchase strategy, and following purchase lead in the installation and commissioning of new equipment as well as developing existing equipment to provide additional functions where necessary.
  • Working with researchers on new fabrication processes, keeping records on processes developed in the room, including the precise procedures to reproduce the process. Web page development of this paperwork if appropriate. Independently provide a service for mature fabrication processes for users.
  • Maintain adequate supplies of consumable items, associated equipment and spare parts in the facility and dedicated store area.
  • Liaising with other clean rooms in university and industry helping them to develop their fabrication processes in a similar way to that described for local users above
  • Leading the financial aspects of the clean room, including costing the facilities for external users and working with the university finance department on these and other aspects. In addition, help in generating funds from industry and taking a lead role in working with academics for funding


Person Specification

Knowledge

The post holder is required to have an in-depth knowledge of clean rooms, clean room operation and the equipment used within the clean room. The knowledge is wide ranging from day to day operation, use and maintenance of specialist equipment and how the equipment can be used to create the electronic circuits. The post holder must be able to understand the use of various pieces of equipment to help and train researcher as well as developing new solutions and processes generating the electronic circuits. This includes suggesting new methodologies for circuit production.

Skills and experience

The post holder is expected to have many years' experience in clean rom technology. The skill level is that typical of running a small manufacturing business but with the added complexity of the clean environment and specialist knowledge. The post holder requires conceptual understanding of the requirements of the users in order to provide the help and support required at all levels. This requires an authoritative figure in the area who has observed the changing needs of clean room user over the years. Working with users the post holder should be able to predict needs of the future and suggest new process or equipment for the future. As this is a university environment the electronic devices required are quite diverse and the post holder must have the skill and experience to understand the requirements and suggest production process for new, novel circuits.

Qualifications

The qualifications are less important that the experience. However, there are numerous specialist training courses for clean room operation and courses on the use of individual pieces of equipment. The expectation is that the post holder has attended a number of these courses. In fact it may be the case that the university puts on course for internal and external clean room personal and the post holder should be experienced to contribute to the practical aspects of this.

We value diversity at The University of Birmingham and welcome applications from all sections of the community'

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