Field Trials and Experimental Officer (NBIF) - School of Engineering

Position Details

School of Engineering

Location: University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham UK

Full time starting salary is normally in the range £31,406 to £40,927, with potential progression once in post to £43,434.

Grade 7

Full Time, up to July 2025

Closing date: 20th June 2022

Our offer to you

People are at the heart of what we are and do.

The University of Birmingham is proud to have been a part of the City of Birmingham and the wider region for over 100 years, and we are equally proud to be recognised as a leading global university.  We want to attract talented people from across the city and beyond, support them to succeed, and celebrate their success.

We are committed to helping the people who work here to develop through our sector-leading Birmingham Professional programme which provides all professional services staff with development opportunities and the encouragement to reach their full potential.  With almost 5,000 professional services jobs in a wide-range of functions in Edgbaston and in our campus in Dubai, there are plenty of opportunities for you to be able to develop your career at the University.

We believe there is no such thing as a typical member of staff and that diversity is a source of strength that underpins the exchange of ideas, innovation, and debate.  We warmly welcome people from all backgrounds and are committed to fostering an inclusive environment where diversity is at the heart of who and what we are, and how we work.

Supporting our people to achieve a healthy work/life balance is important both to our employees and to the success of the University and, depending on the role, we offer a variety of flexible working arrangements. We therefore welcome discussions on all forms of flexible working.  In addition, you will receive a generous package of benefits including 40 days paid holiday a year, one paid day a year for volunteering, occupational sick pay, and a pension scheme. We also have three high quality subsidised day nurseries.

The University is situated in leafy Edgbaston and there are excellent transport links to our beautiful campus, including main bus routes and a train station on site.  On campus we have a state-of-the-art sports centre with pool, shops, places to eat and drink, our own art gallery, museum and botanical gardens.

Find out more about the benefits of working for the University of Birmingham .

Background

The National Buried Infrastructure Facility (NBIF) is a new £27.2M facility ( https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/research/activity/ukcric/nbif/index.aspx ). NBIF is a national and international facility enabling large-scale research on topics such as buried infrastructure, soil improvements, soil-structure interaction, tunnelling, sensor development and evaluation, leak detection and geotechnical and structural engineering. Experiments can be conducted in the large-scale pit (25m x 10m x 5m), on the strong floor using steel frames or smaller above ground tanks, in a small centrifuge or using our digital capabilities. NBIF is part of the UK Collaboratorium for Research on Infrastructure and Cities (UKCRIC - www.ukcric.com ), which comprises a number of universities working together to deliver joint-up thinking in the area of infrastructure and society by encouraging disparate areas of infrastructure to work collaboratively with each other.

Role Summary

This is a key role to ensure the successful impact of NBIF's research outputs. The post holder will provide direction and professional support for laboratory-based experiments, field trials, working closely with the test hall and facility managers to provide a safe and effective working environment for everyone using the facility.

The post holder will liaise widely with NBIF, School and College-level colleagues to conduct and deliver research commissioned within NBIF and field experiments, especially short-term industry projects; confidentiality/Intellectual Property agreements; and relevant operational elements of NBIF's partner contracts (including office and laboratory usage). The nature of the job requires a large degree of initiative and autonomy. The post holder may also contribute to wider College activities/policy/procedures through close cooperation with other colleagues across a number of disciplines.

Main Duties

This is a key role to ensure the successful impact of NBIF's research outputs. The post holder will provide direction and professional support for laboratory-based experiments, field trials, working closely with the test hall and facility managers to provide a safe and effective working environment for everyone using the facility.

The post holder will liaise widely with NBIF, School and College-level colleagues to conduct and deliver research commissioned within NBIF and field experiments, especially short-term industry projects; confidentiality/Intellectual Property agreements; and relevant operational elements of NBIF's partner contracts (including office and laboratory usage). The nature of the job requires a large degree of initiative and autonomy. The post holder may also contribute to wider College activities/policy/procedures through close cooperation with other colleagues across a number of disciplines

The post holder will be/come familiar with the operations, capabilities and activities carried out in NBIF and fully conversant and up-to-date with legislation, regulations and University/School policies relating to these activities. Typical duties include:

• Plan, design and conduct physical experiments in NBIF and in the field
• Deliver project outputs including any necessary reports
• Liaise with NBIF's Industrial Fellow and the Principal Investigators to deliver the (industry) project outputs on schedule
• Support the commissioning trials in NBIF
• Promote NBIF both internally and externally; this includes conducting NBIF tours
• Publish in academic research journals and conferences
• Work closely with other NBIF staff to propose ideas to ensure the facility meets the needs of ever-changing research requirements, and to implement agreed changes
• Support the academic team with drafting of UKRI grant applications including conducting any background research
• Liaise with the NBIF's Technical Managers to develop risk assessments for experiments and equipment
• Develop guidance documentation for the different equipment in NBIF in conjunction with the technical managers
• Coordinating access for industrial collaborators, liaising with the facility manager to manage scheduling of work and use of equipment within NBIF
• Design, develop and deliver facility and laboratory tours, demonstrations and training covering a broad range of activities (not limited to techniques and equipment)
• Liaise with the NBIF project officer to deliver project finances to budget; develop financial forecasts for projects being cognisant of the funders requirements
• Develop and manage an equipment/facilities booking system for University of Birmingham staff, students, industrial collaborators and secondees to use. This will include the systems/processes which enable appropriate reporting for industrial projects, according to the requirements of the NBIF funding.
• Assisting NBIF staff in choosing and procuring new equipment, as appropriate. This may include arranging for the demonstration of equipment, obtaining quotations and assisting academic members of staff with the procurement process for the purchase of major items of equipment and ensuring the NBIF complies with the University policy on procurement. Ensuring the NBIF achieves the best deal/value for money on all purchases, including consumables. Where relevant, provide advice on installation issues.

Person Specification

• Good honours degree (or have equivalent experience) in geotechnical or civil engineering
• Experience of managing research.
• Experience of working in a role dealing with a wide variety of industrial and academic personnel
• Experience in conducting (large-scale) laboratory and field experiments including the design, construction and delivery of the research
• Experience in using numerical modelling to complement physical experiments
• Good people skills and good team working skills.
• Good communication skills, both written and oral, communicating with and engaging staff at all levels in the organisation.
• Ability to negotiate, mediate and deal effectively with sensitive or difficult issues.
• Experience of working collaboratively as part of a wider team to deliver operational or strategic goals.
• Experience of planning and delivering multiple projects with defined targets and deadlines in the context of a complex organisation with diverse needs.
• Ability to manage a broad ranging workload with challenging and competing deadlines and to deliver to agreed timescales.
• Ability to engage well with external organisations.
• Commitment to own continuous personal development and training.
• Ability to work flexibly and adapt approach for different environments.

Informal enquires to Nicole Metje, email: n.metje@bham.ac.uk