Senior Laboratory Engineer

London

Competitive Salary

Our client is an ambitious start-up looking to utilise AI within the field of Materials Science to help advance cutting-edge technology in this area. This is a one-of-a-kind opportunity to join their small dynamic team in the early stages as they set-up and develop their research laboratory in London.

You'll work closely with material scientists, computational and AI teams, ensuring that experimental throughput and data quality can keep pace with requirements. This is a hands-on, senior role with real ownership.

You will be joining a small, highly ambitious team of world-renowned engineers, AI researchers, and materials scientists. We move fast and value people who are energised by that.

Key areas:

Own lab throughput and operational reliability across synthesis, sample preparation, characterisation and data capture workflows; identify bottlenecks, reduce downtime, improve instrument utilisation, and increase the number of high-quality experiments the lab can run per week.

Develop and maintain preventive maintenance schedules, SOPs, and risk assessments for all equipment.

Diagnose and resolve complex equipment failures (vacuum leaks, electronic faults, mechanical misalignment), minimising downtime.

Design and run synthesis and characterisation experiments in collaboration with materials scientists, ensuring reproducibility and data integrity.

Onboard and mentor junior lab staff on instrument operation, maintenance practices, and safety.

Evaluate, procure, and commission new equipment and consumables as our lab capabilities expand.

Liaise with vendors and service engineers on repairs, calibrations, and upgrades.

Support the integration of experimental outputs into automated data pipelines feeding the AI platform.

Support the automation of lab equipment to ensure experimental throughput and data quality can keep pace with requirements.

Candidate:

Relevant educational background in materials science, physics, engineering or related.

Substantial hands-on experience maintaining and troubleshooting research-grade laboratory equipment in a professional setting.

Experience improving throughput, uptime, turnaround time or reliability in an instrument heavy lab, pilot line, semiconductor fab, analytical testing facility, manufacturing environment or similar setting.

Practical expertise across our instrument suite or a closely related set:

• High-vacuum equipment.
• Scanning electron microscopy (SEM).
• Optical characterisation.
• X-ray diffraction (XRD).
• High-field magnets.
• High-temperature metallurgical synthesis.
• Strong vacuum systems knowledge: pump maintenance, leak detection, RGA, bakeout procedures.

Ability to perform component-level diagnostics and repairs, vacuum, electronic, and mechanical, without waiting for factory service representatives.

Familiarity with ionising radiation safety regulations and relevant local licensing requirements.

Rigorous approach to documentation: SOPs, maintenance logs and data provenance.

Some CAD experience for fixture design and lab modifications.

Nice to Have!

Experience integrating instruments with automated data capture or laboratory management systems.

Python or scripting experience for instrument control, automation or data processing.