13 Research And Development jobs in Bristol

Product Development Engineer

We are working with an extremely well-known, industry leading organisation on the lookout for a Product Development Engineer to join their team in Somerset. This is an extremely exciting time to join a growing team within a fantastic company.

The Product Development engineer will be responsible for leading the mechanical design and testing of a number of new products and product improvement projects from the initial brief to their launch. Ensuring that all design and test protocols meet relevant British and International standards.

This role requires a wider involvement throughout the product development process; meaning an essential element of the role will be to research and understand industry standards and regulations.

Key Responsibilities :

• Mechanical design of products, using Solidworks, applying DFMA requirements
• Carrying out FMEA studies on designs and prototypes
• Testing and analysis of samples and current products in compliance with all relevant British and European Standards
• Completion of test documentation; including compliance reports; test logs and New Product Development test summaries
• Produce Pre-Production Approval Process (PPAP) documents, to inform the Quality Control (QC) inspection team of the new product specifications
• Input into product development projects throughout their stages; aiding in solving problems that arise
• Collaborate with other members of the engineering team and the project manager, where appropriate
• Assist the Compliance and Approvals Officer in writing the requirements for the instruction leaflets
• Investigate potential product improvements and manage them through to successful completion
• Liaise with other departments over throughout the projects
• Research into relevant standards and legislation that affect product design and specifications
• Undertake any other ad-hoc projects as required

Key Skills:

• Preferred qualifications in: Mechanical Engineering, Product Design or Industrial Design
• Previous experience of Product Design/Product Development
• Experience with Solidworks
• Prepared to learn new skills
• Ability to work independently or as part of a team

By applying for this position, you authorise Auctoro Recruitment to hold your personal details on file for use in finding you a suitable position. Auctoro Recruitment will never transfer your information to a third party without your prior consent.

The Company

This is an exciting opportunity to join a leading food manufacturer producing innovative chilled products for UK customers. Highly ambitious and passionate about great food, they’re now looking for an experienced Product Development Manager to join their dynamic team.

The Role

In this creative role, you’ll lead the development of both new and existing products, managing critical paths from concept through to launch while ensuring technical and quality standards are met.

Working closely with the site’s dedicated Development Chef, you’ll help bring exciting new ideas to life, drawing on current trends and category insights to strengthen the existing range.

You’ll be the key point of contact for retail customers from day one, presenting new concepts, updating them on project progress, and ensuring expectations around budget, innovation, and product quality are consistently delivered.

You’ll also collaborate cross-functionally with technical and operations teams to keep NPD and EPD projects aligned with business standards.

In addition, you'll manage a small team, supporting day-to-day coordination, nurturing their growth, and mapping out development and training plans.

The Person

We’re looking for a hands-on NPD Manager or Senior Product Developer with a degree in food science (or similar) and a strong track record of launching products from concept to shelf in UK food manufacturing.

Experience managing critical paths and working with major UK retailers is essential.

You’ll bring excellent communication and project management skills, a keen eye for emerging trends, and a genuine passion for delicious food.

If you’re a foodie at heart with a flair for innovation and ready for your next challenge, apply today or call Kimia on 0345 2600 737 / 07700 137 110 for a confidential chat.

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Ref: L6880

Due to the large number of applications our opportunities attract, it sometimes takes us time to thoroughly review and consider them all. We endeavour to respond to every application within 5 working days, however if you have not heard from us within this timeframe, we are sorry to say your application for the role has not been successful. To support you in showcasing your best self, we make sure that any necessary accommodations, whether physical or non-physical, are provided to assist you throughout the job application and interview process.

Also, please note that we are only able to accept and respond to applications from candidates with eligibility to work in the UK and those who hold valid work visas.

This NPD Project Manager role with a leading food manufacturer presents an exciting opportunity for a food science professional with strong client-facing skills. You'll play a key role in driving the development and launch of innovative products from a marketing perspective, while directly managing relationships with key accounts. Based in Frome, this position is integral to aligning cross-functional teams within the business!

Client Details

The hiring organisation is a well-established and well-regarded, medium-sized company operating within the Food sector. They are known for their commitment to quality and innovation, doing both private label and own brand. This site producing over 100 SKUs and the NPD Project Manager will be apart of a close and lean team with senior leadership exposure.

Description

• Manage 2-3 key customer accounts, delivering regular presentations and supporting sales teams in client pitches and meetings.
• Lead end-to-end execution of new product development (NPD) projects-from initial concept through to full-scale production, and beyond.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to ensure product designs align with manufacturing capabilities, including support for plant trials and scale-up activities.
• Analyse market trends and consumer insights, incorporating findings into product development strategies in partnership with Marketing and Sales.
• Work closely with the Technical team to ensure all products comply with industry regulations and internal quality standards.
• Create and maintain comprehensive project documentation, timelines, and reporting tools (e.g., stage gate processes).
• Identify and implement process improvements to enhance operational efficiency and reduce production costs.
• Manage project budgets to ensure cost-effective delivery within financial targets.
• Provide hands-on technical support to troubleshoot and resolve production-related issues.
• Assess and evaluate supplier components and raw materials for quality, suitability, and consistency.

Profile

A successful candidate for this NPD Project Manager role should demonstrate:

• 1-5 years of proven experience in product development within the food, beverage, or nutraceutical manufacturing sectors.
• A strong background in project management, including road mapping and leading projects from concept through to commercial launch.
• Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to anticipate and mitigate potential bottlenecks.
• Confidence and competence in delivering high-impact presentations-comfortable presenting 20+ slides to major clients on a regular basis.
• Proactive, detail-oriented, and highly organized with a hands-on approach.
• Strong multitasking abilities and experience managing multiple projects simultaneously within a lean team environment.
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills across all levels and functions.
• Solid numeracy skills essential for data analysis, costings, and reporting.
• A flexible, adaptable mindset with the ability to wear multiple hats and handle shifting priorities.
• Familiarity with technical documentation, regulatory compliance, and project management tools.
• Experience supporting or conducting plant trials (preferred but not essential).
• A commercially minded perspective with the ability to see the broader business impact of product development decisions.

Job Offer

• Competitive salary.
• Holiday allowance of 25 days plus bank holidays.
• Company pension scheme with 6% employer contribution.
• Life assurance cover at four times your salary.
• Wellbeing initiatives, including free eye tests, etc.
• Permanent position based in Frome.
• The ability to grow within a mid-large size company.

This is a fantastic opportunity to advance your career in the Food Project management industry. If you are ready to make an impact, apply today!

This NPD Project Manager role with a leading food manufacturer presents an exciting opportunity for a food science professional with strong client-facing skills. You'll play a key role in driving the development and launch of innovative products from a marketing perspective, while directly managing relationships with key accounts. Based in Frome, this position is integral to aligning cross-functional teams within the business!

Client Details

The hiring organisation is a well-established and well-regarded, medium-sized company operating within the Food sector. They are known for their commitment to quality and innovation, doing both private label and own brand. This site producing over 100 SKUs and the NPD Project Manager will be apart of a close and lean team with senior leadership exposure.

Description

• Manage 2-3 key customer accounts, delivering regular presentations and supporting sales teams in client pitches and meetings.
• Lead end-to-end execution of new product development (NPD) projects-from initial concept through to full-scale production, and beyond.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to ensure product designs align with manufacturing capabilities, including support for plant trials and scale-up activities.
• Analyse market trends and consumer insights, incorporating findings into product development strategies in partnership with Marketing and Sales.
• Work closely with the Technical team to ensure all products comply with industry regulations and internal quality standards.
• Create and maintain comprehensive project documentation, timelines, and reporting tools (e.g., stage gate processes).
• Identify and implement process improvements to enhance operational efficiency and reduce production costs.
• Manage project budgets to ensure cost-effective delivery within financial targets.
• Provide hands-on technical support to troubleshoot and resolve production-related issues.
• Assess and evaluate supplier components and raw materials for quality, suitability, and consistency.

Profile

A successful candidate for this NPD Project Manager role should demonstrate:

• 1-5 years of proven experience in product development within the food, beverage, or nutraceutical manufacturing sectors.
• A strong background in project management, including road mapping and leading projects from concept through to commercial launch.
• Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to anticipate and mitigate potential bottlenecks.
• Confidence and competence in delivering high-impact presentations-comfortable presenting 20+ slides to major clients on a regular basis.
• Proactive, detail-oriented, and highly organized with a hands-on approach.
• Strong multitasking abilities and experience managing multiple projects simultaneously within a lean team environment.
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills across all levels and functions.
• Solid numeracy skills essential for data analysis, costings, and reporting.
• A flexible, adaptable mindset with the ability to wear multiple hats and handle shifting priorities.
• Familiarity with technical documentation, regulatory compliance, and project management tools.
• Experience supporting or conducting plant trials (preferred but not essential).
• A commercially minded perspective with the ability to see the broader business impact of product development decisions.

Job Offer

• Competitive salary.
• Holiday allowance of 25 days plus bank holidays.
• Company pension scheme with 6% employer contribution.
• Life assurance cover at four times your salary.
• Wellbeing initiatives, including free eye tests, etc.
• Permanent position based in Frome.
• The ability to grow within a mid-large size company.

This is a fantastic opportunity to advance your career in the Food Project management industry. If you are ready to make an impact, apply today!

Applications are invited for a Research Associate position at the Department of Psychology, University of Bath, working under the leadership of Professor Laura Smith.

About the role

This is an exciting opportunity to work at the Department of Psychology, University of Bath, with a cross-institution team on the ESRC project: Influence, Manipulation and Information Threats as Adversarial Techniques: Events, Evolution and Effects (IMITATE³ ). 

This project is led by Cardiff University, and is a collaboration between the Universities of Bath, Cardiff, and Coventry. 

The Bath-led part of the project will focus on the factors that create susceptibility and resilience to being influenced by adversarial online information operations (i.e., disinformation). 

More information about the project and the Bath work package can be found here: .

The successful applicant will be working under the supervision of Bath PI Professor Laura Smith, in the Department of Psychology, University of Bath, and will join the Digital Lives research group ( ).  

In this role, you will contribute to designing and running research studies, as well as synthesising and disseminating outputs from relevant work as part of a wider programme of research for use by policymakers and practitioners. 

You may also have the opportunity to work with distinguished scholars throughout our academic community at Bath and at our partner organisations.

There is a strong expectation you will actively contribute to the strong profile of digital security work at Bath and its interdisciplinary ethos through participation in the development and publication of research results in major international conferences and journals. 

To facilitate this, you will also join our supportive and lively community of likeminded scholars at the Institute for Digital Security and Behaviour ( ). 

The Institute places understanding people, groups, and organisations at the heart of digital security. 

The purpose of the Institute is to solve global security challenges through world-leading, interdisciplinary, socio-technical research that co-creates inclusive security solutions by adopting a “whole of society” approach. 

The Institute aims to make the UK a more innovative, secure, and resilient digital society, helping develop the next generation of experts in digital security and behaviour, and advancing the UK as a global leader in digital security.

About you

The ideal postholder will have a background in Psychology or Behavioural Science, Data Science, Computational Social Science, or related discipline. A PhD in these or a related discipline is a requirement. 

The ideal applicant will be familiar with a variety of programming/scripting languages, and using R or Python. They should also be comfortable working with large data sets, such as social media data and/or longitudinal survey data. 

Additional information

The post is full-time for two years, to start on or soon after 1st October 2025. 

Informal enquiries can be made to Professor Laura Smith ( ).

A lower grade offer may be made (Grade 6) with comparable reduction in responsibilities and amendment in job title to Research Assistant, if a suitable applicant cannot be found to fill the Grade 7 position. Applicants will need to be within six months of their course completion date and will be promoted to Research Associate once their PhD has been awarded. 

We consider ourselves to be a university where difference is celebrated, respected and encouraged. We have an excellent international reputation with staff from over 60 different nations and have made a positive commitment towards gender equality and intersectionality receiving a Silver Athena SWAN award. We truly believe that diversity of experience, perspectives, and backgrounds will lead to a better environment for our employees and students and encourage applications from all genders, backgrounds, and communities, particularly from under-represented groups, and value the positive impact that will have on the university. We are committed to maintaining a safe and secure environment for our students, staff, and community by reinforcing our Safer Recruitment commitment.

We're very proud to be a signatory of the Armed Forces Covenant. an accredited Disability Confident Leader ; autism friendly university , committed to building disability confidence and supporting disabled staff . 

As a member of Research Staff at the University of Bath, you will be encouraged to take up a minimum of 10 days professional development pro rata per year.

We're continually expanding our benefits package to better support you and enhance your experience with us and the below is just an example of some of the many great benefits we offer:

• Free counselling services through Health Assured
• Cycle to work scheme
• Electric vehicle salary sacrifice scheme
• Staff discount at Team Bath gym
• Staff discounts on postgraduate tuition fees
• Staff discount on language courses
• Generous employer contributory pension schemes
• Generous annual leave allowance with an additional 5 discretionary days so that you can enjoy a positive work life balance
• A wide range of personal and professional development opportunities including Apprenticeships, LinkedIn Learning and more
• Free entry to the Holburne Museum in Bath
• Local discounts and more
• A family-friendly workplace  
• An excellent reward package that recognises the talents of our diverse workforce
• Relocation allowance
• Visa reimbursement and Interest-Free Loan to help with the cost of some immigration expenses

Find out more about our benefits and watch the video to hear from our staff about what makes the University of Bath a great place to work as well as following us X and LinkedIn .

Closing Date: 13 Aug 2025

Department: Education & Research

Salary: The salary range for Research Assistant is £30,505 to £6,924 per annum. The salary range for Research Associate is 7,999 to 5,163 per annum.

The University of Bath is seeking a suitable postdoctoral researcher to work on an exciting new project developing and user testing very brief digital interventions (‘microinterventions’) for reducing eating disorder risk among adolescents in schools. 

The project will explore digital technologies for mental health prevention, adopt person-centred intervention design principles, and work together with young people and school staff to co-design a flexible digital toolkit suitable for schools. The project is funded by the Medical Research Foundation, and supported by the newly developed Disorders of Eating and Body Image research group within the Department of Psychology at the University of Bath.

The project has three main objectives/work packages: 

1. Establish what secondary school students, teachers, and eating disorder prevention researchers agree are priority intervention targets, strategies, and delivery options.
2. Iteratively co-design a package of digital microinterventions and associated guidance with students and teachers so that it is relevant, credible, and engaging.
3. Assess whether this digital microintervention package is feasible to deliver in UK schools, and address key uncertainties related to implementation and evaluation.

The successful applicant will take a lead in managing all three work packages and be involved in the entire research cycle, involving quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods research, stakeholder management, and reporting and dissemination activities. 

Particular responsibilities will include, but are not restricted to:

• Managing advisory panel of stakeholders (i.e., students, school staff, lived experience expert) and guiding integration of perspectives throughout 
• Collaborating with research team to adapt existing evidence-based intervention strategies into brief interactive digital tools
• Developing the digital platform and technological features with support from technical experts
• Preparation of research materials and ethics applications
• Leading participant recruitment and management across studies, including a multistakeholder survey (Delphi) study, co-design workshops and think-aloud interviews with young people and school staff, and a feasibility trial in secondary schools
• Facilitating co-design workshops and think-aloud interviews, and guiding iterative refinement of the intervention package
• Conducting quantitative and qualitative analyses
• Contributing to academic publications and future funding applications
• Presenting research at national and international conferences
• Developing suitable materials for disseminating findings to non-academic audiences

We wish to recruit someone with enthusiasm and interest in young people’s mental health, and eating disorders in particular. 

Previous experience of research in these areas is desirable, but not essential, as we are primarily looking for candidates with relevant research skills. 

The appointed candidate will ideally have a background in Psychology and/or Human Computer Interaction to guide the design and evaluation of the digital intervention. 

We are looking to recruit someone enjoys working as part of a team, values person-centred design principles, and can engage with diverse stakeholders. Ideally, you will have:

• A PhD in Psychology or background relevant to the project (essential)
• Experience with quantitative and qualitative research methods (essential)
• Previous experience with developing digital health interventions and/or participatory research methods (desirable)
• Experience of conducting multi-stakeholder projects (desirable)

Additional information

This role is offered on a part-time basis (0.5FTE) for 21 months.

As a member of Research Staff at the University of Bath, you will be encouraged to take up a minimum of 10 days professional development pro rata per year

A lower grade offer may be made (Grade 6) with comparable reduction in responsibilities and amendment in job title to Research Assistant, if a suitable applicant cannot be found to fill the Grade 7 position. Applicants will need to be within six months of their course completion date and will be promoted to Research Associate once their PhD has been awarded.

For an informal discussion about the role, please contact Melissa Atkinson ( ).

We consider ourselves to be a university where difference is celebrated, respected and encouraged. We have an excellent international reputation with staff from over 60 different nations and have made a positive commitment towards gender equality and intersectionality receiving a Silver Athena SWAN award. We truly believe that diversity of experience, perspectives, and backgrounds will lead to a better environment for our employees and students and encourage applications from all genders, backgrounds, and communities, particularly from under-represented groups, and value the positive impact that will have on the university. We are committed to maintaining a safe and secure environment for our students, staff, and community by reinforcing our Safer Recruitment commitment.

We're very proud to be a signatory of the Armed Forces Covenant. an accredited Disability Confident Leader ; autism friendly university , committed to building disability confidence and supporting disabled staff . 

We're continually expanding our benefits package to better support you and enhance your experience with us and the below is just an example of some of the many great benefits we offer:

• Free counselling services through Health Assured
• Cycle to work scheme
• Electric vehicle salary sacrifice scheme
• Staff discount at Team Bath gym
• Staff discounts on postgraduate tuition fees
• Staff discount on language courses
• Generous employer contributory pension schemes
• Generous annual leave allowance with an additional 5 discretionary days so that you can enjoy a positive work life balance
• A wide range of personal and professional development opportunities including Apprenticeships, LinkedIn Learning and more
• Free entry to the Holburne Museum in Bath
• Local discounts and more
• A family-friendly workplace  
• An excellent reward package that recognises the talents of our diverse workforce
• Relocation allowance
• Visa reimbursement and Interest-Free Loan to help with the cost of some immigration expenses

Find out more about our benefits and watch the video to hear from our staff about what makes the University of Bath a great place to work as well as following us X and LinkedIn .

Closing Date: 07 Sep 2025

Department: Education & Research

Salary: The salary range for Research Assistant is £31,236 to £7,694 per annum. The salary range for Research Associate is 8,784 to 6,049 per annum.

The Department of Psychology is seeking a skilled and highly motivated Post-Doctoral Research Associate to join the NIHR Bath Mental Health Research Group (MHRG). 

The MHRG is a 5-year project aimed at conducting applied research to improve the health and wellbeing of young people aged 12-25 in the local region. 

About the role

The Research Associate will join the project, “Harnessing the power of electronic health records to understand and improve access and outcomes in community mental health services for neurodivergent youth”, led by Dr Katherine Button.   

There is a huge gap in mental health provision for young people with neurodiversity. 

Needs and outcome reporting in young people's mental health services is highly variable, making it difficult to get a complete picture of the current service provision and identify opportunities for intervention. 

It is therefore unclear how well these services are catering to neurodivergent youth. 

This project aims to understand what electronic health data are currently being collected, to identify where improvements can be made, and to use these data to improve access and outcomes for young people, especially those with neurodiversity. 

The Research Associate will work in partnership with digital tech company Mayden , the Data Science Team at NIHR ARC West and community mental health services, to produce publications and outputs:

• Scoping how and where neurodiversity is captured in current electronic health records for mental health services for children and young people and identifying areas for research and improvement.  
• Using electronic health data to describe how neurodiversity and externalising problems are currently recorded in these settings, what treatments these individuals currently receive, and whether they are associated with differential access and outcomes. 
• Engaging with key stakeholders (e.g., ICBs, NHS services, clinicians, young people) to understand use of data systems and co-producing a standardised set of screening and outcome measures for neurodiversity for use in electronic health records. 
• Working towards the implementation of these measures in practice and contribute to national best-practice guidance. 

Through the Mental Health Research Group, the post holder will be encouraged and well supported in pursuing career development opportunities. 

They will join a thriving community of Early Career Researchers and there will be ample opportunities to work with world-leading clinicians and academics, including researchers at our partner institutions (Universities of Bristol and Exeter). 

We welcome applications from candidates who have: 

• A PhD in psychology, psychiatry, epidemiology, statistics, data science or related discipline, with a strong quantitative research element. 
• Knowledge and experience of mental health research, ideally with children and young people.  
• Experience of working with administrative data, electronic health records and/or big data is desirable but not essential 
• Experience with advanced quantitative data analysis and data code (preferably using R or Stata) and a commitment to research integrity, reproducibility, and open research.   
• Excellent team working, communication, and time management skills.  

Additional information

One position is available on a full time (36.5 hours per week) fixed-term basis for an initial period of 3 years.  

Informal enquiries about this role should be directed to Dr Katherine Button ( ). 

We consider ourselves to be a university where difference is celebrated, respected and encouraged. We have an excellent international reputation with staff from over 60 different nations and have made a positive commitment towards gender equality and intersectionality receiving a Silver Athena SWAN award. We truly believe that diversity of experience, perspectives, and backgrounds will lead to a better environment for our employees and students and encourage applications from all genders, backgrounds, and communities, particularly from under-represented groups, and value the positive impact that will have on the university. We are committed to maintaining a safe and secure environment for our students, staff, and community by reinforcing our Safer Recruitment commitment.

We're very proud to be a signatory of the Armed Forces Covenant. an accredited Disability Confident Leader ; autism friendly university , committed to building disability confidence and supporting disabled staff . 

We're continually expanding our benefits package to better support you and enhance your experience with us and the below is just an example of some of the many great benefits we offer:

• Free counselling services through Health Assured
• Cycle to work scheme
• Electric vehicle salary sacrifice scheme
• Staff discount at Team Bath gym
• Staff discounts on postgraduate tuition fees
• Staff discount on language courses
• Generous employer contributory pension schemes
• Generous annual leave allowance with an additional 5 discretionary days so that you can enjoy a positive work life balance
• A wide range of personal and professional development opportunities including Apprenticeships, LinkedIn Learning and more
• Free entry to the Holburne Museum in Bath
• Local discounts and more
• A family-friendly workplace  
• An excellent reward package that recognises the talents of our diverse workforce
• Relocation allowance
• Visa reimbursement and Interest-Free Loan to help with the cost of some immigration expenses

Find out more about our benefits and watch the video to hear from our staff about what makes the University of Bath a great place to work as well as following us X and LinkedIn .

Closing Date: 14 Aug 2025

Department: Education & Research

Salary: £38,249 to £45,413

We have an exciting research opportunity to join the Centre for Nutrition, Exercise and Metabolism (CNEM ) in the Department for Health at the University of Bath, UK. 

CNEM is thriving part of the University, comprising ~50 staff and research students across Health and Life Sciences. 

We are looking for a Research Associate with a background in human physiology, biosciences, nutrition, or metabolism to work on a new project grant supported by BBSRC and industry. 

The purpose of this post is to lead and co-ordinate a human randomised controlled trial that will investigate the metabolic impact of synbiotic supplementation on cardiometabolic health. 

This highly collaborative project will be based at Bath under the supervision of Professor Dylan Thompson, Professor Javier Gonzalez, Dr Francoise Koumanov and Dr Jean-Philippe Walhin. 

It involves collaborators in Leeds (Professor Kieran Tuohy) and scientists working for the industrial partner.

This is a fixed-term position, expected until 31 August 2028. 

About you

The successful candidate will have experience of conducting studies with human volunteers, including the handling of blood and/or tissue samples and either short or longer-term interventions (e.g., dietary interventions). 

Other relevant experience would be valuable, such as prior experience of working with stable isotopes and/or the analysis of human samples using advanced techniques (e.g., mass spectrometry). 

This position is an excellent opportunity to develop skills in state-of-the-art techniques, and to be part of an academic-industry collaborative project.

We consider ourselves to be a university where difference is celebrated, respected and encouraged. We have an excellent international reputation with staff from over 60 different nations and have made a positive commitment towards gender equality and intersectionality receiving a Silver Athena SWAN award . We truly believe that diversity of experience, perspectives, and backgrounds will lead to a better environment for our employees and students, so we encourage applications from all genders, backgrounds, and communities, particularly from under-represented groups, and value the positive impact that will have on the university. We are committed to maintaining a safe and secure environment for our students, staff, and community by reinforcing our  Safer Recruitment  commitment.

We are very proud to be an autism friendly university and are an accredited Disability Confident Leader ; committed to building disability confidence and supporting disabled staff .

• Free counselling services through Health Assured
• Cycle to work scheme
• Electric vehicle salary sacrifice scheme
• Staff discount at Team Bath gym
• Staff discounts on postgraduate tuition fees
• Staff discount on language courses
• Generous employer contributory pension schemes
• Generous annual leave allowance with an additional 5 discretionary days so that you can enjoy a positive work life balance
• A wide range of personal and professional development opportunities including Apprenticeships, LinkedIn Learning and more
• Free entry to the Holburne Museum in Bath
• Local discounts and more
• A family-friendly workplace  
• An excellent reward package that recognises the talents of our diverse workforce
• Relocation allowance
• Visa reimbursement and Interest-Free Loan to help with the cost of some immigration expenses

We are committed to continually expanding our benefits to better support you and enhance your experience with us. Find out more about our benefits .

Find out from our staff what makes the University of Bath a great place to work. Follow us @UniofBath and @UniofBathJobs on X for more information.

Closing Date: 20 Aug 2025

Department: Education & Research

Salary: £38,784 to £46,049

About the role

We are seeking a postdoctoral researcher to study the design, fabrication and applications of novel optical fibres.

• The research is part of a 6-year EPSRC Research and Partnership Hub called MicroTex , where we are collaborating with researchers in physics, chemistry, engineering, robotics, AI, biology and clinical medicine at Edinburgh and Heriot Watt universities.
• The goal of the Hub is to accelerate the discovery of treatments for infections by "intra-target micro-dosing", where tiny amounts of candidate drugs are precisely delivered to suitable sites inside the body and their effects remotely monitored. This requires fibre-optic techniques for multiple functions such as navigating the delivery instrument, imaging the test site, and optically monitoring tissue response.
• Your role will be to conceive, design, make and test a new generation of optical fibres to perform these functions, using the state-of-the-art fibre fabrication facilities at Bath. You will also build experimental optical devices using these fibres, working with our collaborator institutions throughout.
• It is an exciting opportunity to see fundamental research in the physics of optical fibres have a real impact on one of the biggest challenges in medicine.

The ideal candidate has

• A PhD in optics/photonics (or closely allied discipline) or equivalent professional experience;
• extensive practical experience in the fabrication of innovative optical fibres from fused silica glass, including the development of fabrication techniques;
• a sustained record of publishing optics/photonics research in high-quality peer-reviewed journals;
• a demonstrated ability to solve research problems on their own and as a team member;
• excellent oral, interpersonal and written communication skills in English.

Further information

This is a fixed-term role until 31 March 2028 in the first instance, with a possibility to extend the total duration to 4 years.

For any informal enquiries about the role please contact Prof Tim Birks ( ) or Dr Kristina Rusimova ( ). However, please ensure that all applications are submitted via the University website.

As a member of Research Staff at the University of Bath, you will be encouraged to take up a minimum of 10 days professional development pro rata per year

A lower grade offer may be made (Grade 6) with comparable reduction in responsibilities and amendment in job title to Research Assistant, if a suitable applicant cannot be found to fill the Grade 7 position. Applicants will need to be within six months of their course completion date and will be promoted to Research Associate once their PhD has been awarded.

We consider ourselves to be a university where difference is celebrated, respected and encouraged. We have an excellent international reputation with staff from over 60 different nations and have made a positive commitment towards gender equality and intersectionality receiving a Silver Athena SWAN award. We truly believe that diversity of experience, perspectives, and backgrounds will lead to a better environment for our employees and students and encourage applications from all genders, backgrounds, and communities, particularly from under-represented groups, and value the positive impact that will have on the university. We are committed to maintaining a safe and secure environment for our students, staff, and community by reinforcing our Safer Recruitment commitment.

We're very proud to be a signatory of the Armed Forces Covenant. an accredited Disability Confident Leader ; autism friendly university , committed to building disability confidence and supporting disabled staff . 

We're continually expanding our benefits package to better support you and enhance your experience with us and the below is just an example of some of the many great benefits we offer:

• Free counselling services through Health Assured
• Cycle to work scheme
• Electric vehicle salary sacrifice scheme
• Staff discount at Team Bath gym
• Staff discounts on postgraduate tuition fees
• Staff discount on language courses
• Generous employer contributory pension schemes
• Generous annual leave allowance with an additional 5 discretionary days so that you can enjoy a positive work life balance
• A wide range of personal and professional development opportunities including Apprenticeships, LinkedIn Learning and more
• Free entry to the Holburne Museum in Bath
• Local discounts and more
• A family-friendly workplace  
• An excellent reward package that recognises the talents of our diverse workforce
• Relocation allowance
• Visa reimbursement and Interest-Free Loan to help with the cost of some immigration expenses

Find out more about our benefits and watch the video to hear from our staff about what makes the University of Bath a great place to work as well as following us X and LinkedIn .

Closing Date: 26 Aug 2025

Department: Education & Research

Salary: £38,784 to £46,049