30th Jan Jobroll

A selection of jobs for graduates and postdocs:

A synthetic chemistry technician (£23.5-26.5k) is sought by the University of Bristol to provide technical support with chemical synthesis and support analytical instrumentation for the School of Chemistry. Sounds like a good position to potentially gain a wide variety of additional skills, including hydrogenation, EHS, vendor collaboration, procurement and supervision. BSc and GC, LCMS experience required.

The Royal Society of Chemistry is advertising their graduate training scheme– presumably getting exposure and training across a range of functions, including publishing, education, science policy and promoting chemistry. Location not specified, but would imagine it’ll be Cambridge and/or London – sounds like a great opportunity.

Johnson & Johnson appear not to like direct linking to their job adverts, so to find the next one, navigate to their career site, and search on Experienced Professional > EMEA > UK > English – somewhere there should be the science & engineering graduate programme based in Inverness (ID-1101075). This is a two-year rotational programme working in various groups across R&D functional and support areas.

Astra Zeneca has two 2-year postdoc positions available in Cheshire. The first is for a synthetic organic chemist at their Alderley Park site to work on drug discovery programmes in a medicinal chemistry role. The second is for an organic chemist at the Macclesfield site , investigating C-H insertion techniques to develop novel aromatic fluorination processes.

27th Jan Jobroll

A smattering of more traditional chemist roles to end the week:

Medicinal chemist (up to £31k) at the University of Dundee’s Drug Discovery Unit, designing and synthesising pharmaceutical candidates. PhD with experience in biotech/pharma/CRO; academic drug discovery experience an advantage.

Medicinal chemist (£19-29k) working in the Discovery Alliances business group at a pharmaceutical company in Oxfordshire. Perform R&D chemistry experiments as part of a team, to develop novel small molecule drugs. Degree with industrial experience of small organic molecule synthesis.

Synthetic organic chemist at Peakdale Molecular in Kent. Posts continue to be available for temporary and permanent synthetic and medicinal chemists at the recently rebranded Discovery Park in Sandwich. This covers the drug lifecycle from medchem to developing a commercial process. A variety of experience levels are being considered.

Organic chemist (£24-35k) in Cambridgeshire for a technology development company. Working in the science and technology group, analyse and characterise chemicals and materials for new technologies. Requires Masters and/or PhD; preferably with experience in the areas of medical/commercial/FMCG, and knowledge of polymer materials, formulation, process or materials.

Development chemist (£40k) for a developer/manufacturer of “environmentally aware” printing inks in Yorkshire. Liase with sales colleagues and develop and test new products. Requires experience of conducting polymer based lab tests and managing suppliers.

Chemist (£20-30k) for a company specialising in precious metal recovery. Synthesis and application of novel materials to achieve this aim. PhD or equivalent industry experience required; synthetic organic chemistry, organometallics or solid-phase materials experience highly desired.

23rd Jan Jobroll

If any jobs were designed to get students interested in chemistry, it would be these.

Flammability engineer - Co Down in N Ireland - working in the aerospace industry for a parts manufacturer and supplier to markets including the military. Research and develop state-of-the-art composite materials and see if they burn. Chemistry/Materials/Engineering degree; material development experience advantageous.

Chemist (£25k) – Worcestershire – for an engineering company that designs, develops and manufactures rocket motors for the missile sector (missiles have their own sector?!?!). QC testing of raws, intermediates and final products. Suit recently qualified graduate “seeking to develop their career in laboratory testing or rocketry.”

Process safety consultant (£30-80k) – Manchester – joining a team of risk management consultants at HFL Risk Services. Degree required with experience within a major hazard industry – either working in risk management or process/manufacturing/design environments. This may or may not have included heating things up in sealed glass TSU vessels to see when they explode.

Meat scientist (EUR32-56k) – Dublin, Ireland – for the Agriculture and Food Development Authority Teagasc. 18 month contract working on project “Meat Matrix” - turn away now if you want to avoid disappointment - developing statistical models for the future development of meat products. Degree essential, Food Science qualification advantageous.

19th Jan Jobroll

A continuation of Monday’s Jobroll - industries and roles available to analysts (part 2 of 2)

Testing Labs

Analytical chemist (£26-35k) for an independent analytical company in London. Analyse samples from pharma, environmental, food/drink and chemical companies. Supervise staff with responsibility for routine analysis, method development/validation; and work with clients. BSc, experience in a contract testing lab and previous management responsibilities required.

Eqpt suppliers (applications development)

Applications chemist (£35k) for a company in the North West. Develop analytical methods in food/environment/oil/fine chemical samples matrices using LCMS and GCMS. Write reports for journals/presentations and partner with clients to establish a network. BSc and method development experience required.

Eqpt suppliers (new product development)

Research scientist for manufacturer and supplier of chromatography consumables in the North West. Execute synthetic activities and testing for the development of new and improved product portfolio. Keep up to date with HPLC, GC and MS technology. Requires PhD in analytical chemistry, knowledge of organic and coating science, and ISO9000 quality procedures.

Environment

6-month minimum contract for an environmental analyst (£23k) in E Mids. Routine analysis using inorganic techniques such as ICP, AAS, pH, turbidity, and chromatography. BSc and industrial experience required.

Twitter Tuesday

A new occasional feature covering items of interest from the Twittersphere:

@MonsterCareers shares 51 job search tactics. Worth reviewing to see if there are one or two new ones to try. A key couple for active job seekers include “Prepare and practice your elevator speech” and read articles about best resume practice – chances are your CV format used 5-10 years ago is no longer appropriate!

@stephaniekays links to a Washington Post article examining the unemployment rates of US college graduates. It contains a nice graphic breaking this down by both subject and age group. Recent college graduates (aged 22-26) in “science-life/physical” subjects had a close-to-median unemployment rate of 7-8%. This drops to 2-2.5% for graduate degree holders (age 30-54) – relatively low compared to their peers. Interesting to compare this data with that from the UK Prospects figures, visualised here – similar trends are observed, but IT and engineering graduates appear to have relatively better employment prospects in the US when compared to other subjects.

@chemjobber covers the Wall Street Journal’s neat visualisation of recent data released by the Bureau of Labor in the US... which shows an almost doubling of the chemist and material scientist unemployment rate to 6.1% in 2011. Ouch.

@hecsu comments on the recently published High Fliers report into graduate vacancies and starting salaries at the Times Top 100 Graduate Employers. The stats for chemist employers are woeful, but more details on this to come...

@Sulfur_Blue – Not job-related, but a really nice compilation of periodic table designs to brighten your day