Theoretical Physicist in Aldermaston

What if you could work with remarkable people on extraordinary things? What if the end result was something a little bit special? What if your role was mission critical?

For nearly 70 years, AWE has been at the forefront of nuclear weapons research and development. We have a critical mission: to provide the warheads for the UK s ultimate deterrent - Trident. We also use our unique skills to provide wider UK government with counter-terrorism and nuclear threat reduction solutions.

It takes a special sort of person to work at AWE. What if that person was you?

Location: Aldermaston, West Berkshire . We are located between Reading and Basingstoke, with onsite parking.

The role will support flexible working with an expectation that the candidate will spend some time working at AWE main site each week and that the place of work is driven by the needs of the programme.

Package:

• Junior Physicists (recent graduates): £31,000 - £35,000 (depending on your suitability,qualifications, and level of experience)
  

• Experienced Physicists (PHD or graduates with post-graduate experience): £38,000 - £46,000 (depending on your suitability,qualifications, and level of experience)
  

Closing Date: 18th July 2024

The Role:

AWE has an exciting Theoretical Scientist role to support our deterrence programmes as we expand our mission space. This role will develop the right candidate with their scientific career, offering exciting opportunities to develop our radiation detection and uncertainty quantification capabilities.

The Radiation Science Group is tasked with supporting the hardness and vulnerability aspects of our deterrence mission space, identifying, assessing, and understanding threats to the deterrent and looking to the future and the next generation of systems.

The group uses a model-based engineering approach to support core missions, with the models being underpinned by science lead activities, i.e., developing and validating new models and codes, verifying them through experiments and assessing the certainty associated with the methods. The role therefore encompass skills from experimental, theoretical and computation branches of physics and is a great opportunity for the right candidate with a passion for physics.

This role would support the whole group by independently assessing the experimental and modelling activities undertaken and seeking to increase our confidence in our overarching assessments.

The expectation is the right candidate would be trained and grow into this role, developing knowledge in statistical analysis and coding/modelling languages (e.g. Python, C, C++, Matlab, MCNP, Geant4).

Broad understanding of various physics concepts including material properties, radiation field analysis, electronic systems, electromagnetic phenomena and a strong mathematics or statistics background preferred but not essential.

Whilst not to be considered a check list, candidates should be able to demonstrate some of the following:

• Essential - Degree level knowledge in Physics (2:1 or above), Mathematics or statistics
  
• Desirable - Post-graduate qualifications connected with working on radiation detection and/or statistical methods.
  
• Strong communication skills, verbal and written, excellent team working ability, proactive, and highly organised.
  
• Willing to travel and work at other UK and overseas sites as required.
  

Key Responsibilities

• Owning the development of the areas and expanding the capabilities in accordance with programme needs.
  
• Using appropriate software and data capture tools to record data and suitable analyses.
  
• Providing suggestions for improvements for team workflows with a view to being able to expand this to all workflows within the group.
  
• Optimising experimental and trial designs and supporting (potentially leading) the delivery teams.
  
• Working safely, securely, and cleanly to the appropriate quality standards.
  
• Analysing scientific data to assess confidence and uncertainties in the data and the methods used to obtain the data.
  

What will you get from us?

As part of our People Promise, AWE has a range of benefits to suit you. These include:

• 9-day working fortnight - every other Friday off work.
  
• Time to recharge your batteries with 270 hours of annual leave (including Bank Holidays).
  
• A market leading contributory pension scheme (we will pay between 9% and 13% of your pensionable pay depending on your own contribution).
  
• Life Assurance.
  
• Family friendly policies: Maternity Leave - 39 Weeks Full Pay and Paternity Leave - 4 Weeks Full Pay.
  
• Opportunities for Professional Career Development that include funding for the annual membership of a relevant professional body, access to mentors and training.
  
• Employee Assistance Programme and Occupational Health Services.
  
• Discounts - access to savings on a wide range of everyday spending savings.
  
• Special Leave Policy including paid time off for volunteering, public service (including reserve forces) and caring for your family
  

Important things you need to know:

• You must be a British citizen who has been resident in the UK for the past 10 years.
  
• Interviews will be 90 minutes in length and will be held over Microsoft Teams. You will be required to prepare a 10-minute presentation in advance.
  
• Candidates must be willing and able to obtain and maintain the necessary security clearance for the role. This will be funded by AWE.
  

Agencies: Please note that we do not out-source our recruitment

Please note that you must be a British Citizen to apply for a role with us.

Our ambition is to create workplaces where we recognise and celebrate differences, encourage diverse contributions and our employees feel able to be themselves at work. We strive to create a genuine culture of openness and inclusion and encourage diverse applicants. Any inclusion information you provide us will be used to encourage and support you through the application process and will be held only for this purpose in accordance with GDPR.