Job reference: SAE-030069
Salary: £32,080 to £36,636 per annum, depending on relevant experience
Faculty/Organisational Unit: Science and Engineering
Location: Oxford Road
Employment type: Fixed Term
Division/Team: FSE Technical Services
Hours Per Week: 35 hours per week
Closing date (DD/MM/YYYY): 04/01/2026
Contract Duration: 36 months
School/Directorate: Faculty Office - Science and Engineering

Job Description

We are seeking an enthusiastic and proactive Senior Technician to join our dynamic technical operations team, which strives to provide a sector leading technical support for FSE and the wider University. With a commitment to customer service excellence and a passion for science and engineering, this Senior Technician role will provide an agile technical support service to staff and students to support teaching, research and professional services. FSE’s research and teaching quality is recognised globally; this is an exciting opportunity to join us in Manchester and contribute to the provision of a sector leading technical service.

This role is based in the Royce Hub Building, a £105m investment containing £200m of equipment. Part of Royce’s mission is to provide access to the latest facilities to the UK Materials Science community and to catalyse industrial collaboration and exploitation of materials research, so, alongside supporting internal access to the equipment from within the University of Manchester, the role holder will also be working on external projects for both industrial and academic partners.

The Polymer Characterisation, Processing and Synthesis Core Facility builds upon the innovative, creative, practical, and research capabilities of our enterprising technical staff. The facility aims to accelerate interdisciplinary research and teaching by recognising the intrinsic synergies within the experimental workflows of Natural Sciences and Engineering, while also supporting the Royce Chemical Materials Discovery theme.

We are seeking a Senior Technician who will be primarily responsible for the operation and maintenance of instrumentation for physical characterisation techniques e.g. Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC), Rheology, Mechanical testing and Dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA). The role will also involve supporting the core facility team in delivering spectroscopic capabilities, such as FTIR, fluorimetry and Ellipsometry.

The role also involves proactively engaging with the Henry Royce Research and Facility Manager to support both internal and external stakeholders, fostering positive relationships to drive successful outcomes; and providing training, advice, and support to facility users, ensuring effective use of a wide range of scientific equipment and accurate interpretation of acquired data.

What you will get in return:

  • Fantastic market leading Pension scheme
  • Excellent employee health and wellbeing services including an Employee Assistance Programme
  • Exceptional starting annual leave entitlement, plus bank holidays
  • Additional paid closure over the Christmas period
  • Local and national discounts at a range of major retailers

As an equal opportunities employer we welcome applicants from all sections of the community regardless of age, sex, gender (or gender identity), ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation and transgender status. All appointments are made on merit.

Our University is positive about flexible working – you can find out more here

Given the in-person requirements of this role, hybrid working is not feasible

Please be aware that due to the number of applications we unfortunately may not able to provide individual feedback on your application.

Please note that we are unable to respond to enquiries, accept CVs or applications from Recruitment Agencies.

Any recruitment enquiries from recruitment agencies should be directed to People.Recruitment@manchester.ac.uk.

Any CV’s submitted by a recruitment agency will be considered a gift.

Enquiries about the vacancy, shortlisting and interviews:

Name: Dr. Nicola Jones, Senior Technical Specialist, Core Facility Lead (Polymer Characterisation, Processing and Synthesis)

Email: Nicola.jones-4@manchester.ac.uk

General enquiries:

Email: People.recruitment@manchester.ac.uk

Technical support:

0161 850 2004 https://jobseekersupport.jobtrain.co.uk/support/home

This vacancy will close for applications at midnight on the closing date.

Please see the link below for the Further Particulars document which contains the person specification criteria.

Take a look around the company https://www.manchester.ac.uk/