Midweek job roll: 19th Jan

Fairly slim pickings from the jobsites so far this week – but here are a couple of the highlights:

Commission a power station! Energy company seeks a chemist for an 18-month contract on a negotiable salary – in a number of locations. Duties to include looking after the water treatment plant, checking chemical-related paperwork, and detecting chemical risks. Just have to fight off all the other competition from those with experience in the construction, commission and operation of power stations.

Parallels are often drawn between cooking and chemistry – here’s an opportunity to make the switch. A food company in Berkshire is looking for a permanent associate principal scientist to carry out process research to improve capacity and capability. Sounds like a good six sigma opportunity. £42-50k.

Three businesses are advertising for multiple positions. Biopharmaceuticals company Vernalis are looking for medicinal chemists with 1 years experience (can include industrial placement) to be based in Cambridge (£22k). Quotient BioResearch in Cardiff recently acquired Amersham Radiolabelling Services from GE Healthcare – and are recruiting 3 permanent chemists to carry out radiolabelled synthesis. Finally, a paints and coatings specialist in the Northeast are seeking chemists with some lab experience to develop new coatings and identify new technology platforms. Opportunities to develop in a technical or commercial role.

Weekly Stats Round-up: 16th Jan 2011

All UK chemistry-related jobs added to the main sites in the last 7 days:

NewScientistJobs
“chemist”=33*, “chemistry”=94, Chemistry section= 92
Monster
“chemist”=23, “chemistry”= 79
Reed
“chemist”=53, “chemistry”= 219
ChemistyWorldJobs (RSC)
all jobs=7
Jobs.ac.uk
all academic chemistry positions=29
Jobisjob.co.uk
“chemist”=128, “chemistry”=628

*10 of which are the same advert from one agency for an “awesome” opportunity

Weekend job roll: 16th Jan

Catalysts giant Johnson Matthey have been advertising a couple of positions for a few months now. They’re still looking for a Research Chemist to design and evaluate chemo- and bio-catalytic processes in their Catalysis and Chiral Technologies research team in Cambridge. Experience requirements aren’t particularly restrictive.

In what sounds like an office-based role, Syngenta are seeking a chemical indexing officer in Berkshire (£22-32k). The role will require registering of new chemicals, compound sourcing, ensuring quality of data in company resources and developing new processes. An understanding of relational databases appears to be the only non-standard prerequisite.

Experienced graduates or fresh PhDs are sought for a research chemist position at Norbrook Laboratories in N Ireland to carry out R&D on APIs and NCEs with minimal supervision - £25-40k.

A graduate position has opened up in Weybridge, Surrey for a regulatory affairs officer. Perfect opportunity to escape the lab and get into a career with a future (there’s always going to be regulation, and in LM’s opinion it’s likely to stay in the West) - £21k with occasional travel. For those with substantial experience in the area already , a senior regulatory affairs associate is advertised in the southeast for £32-42k.

Two scientists - one permanent, one 10-month contract – sought to discover, develop and characterise new monomers and polymers for pOLEDs in Cambridge. Must be prepared to understand physics and device chemistry; PhD or appropriate industrial experience required. £27-32k.

Midweek job roll: 12th Jan

Big Pharma are recruiting! Albeit in a senior and somewhat specific role. GSK are looking for a senior development scientist in Weybridge in the New Product Development group - a formulation/analytical role with technology development. If you pass the 350-word essential and desired qualifications bill – including already being an NPD expert - then apply by 22^nd Jan.

Emigrate! Earn the Aussie equivalent of £50-70k for developing and carrying out research on uranium leaching at the Australian Minerals Research Centre (AMRC) in Perth. If you have a PhD, research background in uranium and preferably uranium processing, you have 1 month to change your life.

Big it up! An overly keen recruitment agency wants this job to be seen. Apparently there’s an Awesome, European, Chief Chemist, Management position available in Surrey, UK. One hopes the finder’s fee commission on this £35-40k job more than pays for the 6 near-identical adverts placed for it.

Pyrotechnics! Hope for graduates in the form of this entry-level position as a development chemist for a cool-sounding “High tech manufacturer of defence countermeasures”. First class degree or 2:1, some industrial placement experience probably preferred.

Finally, if you’ve spent 3 years studying for your BSc, have already had a job with experience in GLP and tech transfer to manufacturing, and still don’t mind earning £21-23k, there’s a permanent R&D chemist role available in the northeast.

Focus on: Waste Management

There are a few job titles that I gloss over when scrolling through results pages. “Teacher” and “Recruitment Consultant” top the list – but “Waste Management” is also up there.

While it’s probably a dirty job and someone has to do it, I’m fairly certain that someone isn’t me. In the interest of research – and because there seemed a relatively high number of vacancies posted this week – I delved a bit deeper.

The majority of jobs advertised focussed on analytical chemistry roles – testing and validating incoming or outgoing waste – and determining waste treatment methods. Some expanded this role to include wider responsibilities such as waste movement and running treatment plants. Related jobs included technical sales and work in the oil & gas sector.

Industrial experience generally wasn’t essential, and academic entry requirements were fairly basic. Understandably, employers were more interested in high levels of health and safety, and attention to detail.

Most positions were advertised as temporary, but on the job training could be comprehensive and transferable – including waste legislation, health and safety, environmental and quality management systems.

Waste management could potentially give good experience for, or lead to opportunities in: analyst roles, site/operations management, logistics, health and safety, environmental testing, technical sales

Further information on a career as a hazardous waste management chemist can be found at the ACS website.

Some recently advertised positions in the UK:

chemistry graduate waste management in Milton Keynes £18k (contract)

operations chemist in Yorks&Humber £16-16.5k (4m contract)

industrial chemist in Bedfordshire £16-18k (9m contract)

reception chemist in Scotland £20-25k

reception chemist in Liverpool £20-23k (permanent)

waste chemist in Manchester £18-23k (contract)

technical sales haz-waste in the Home Counties £25k + car