Senior Photonics Engineer

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Senior Photonics Engineer

On-site, Stirling, UK

iGii is looking for a Senior Photonics Engineer to join our Advanced Engineering group, as we begin to grow the team over 2025.

This is a critical role within the wider Engineering and Manufacturing team at iGii. The team works alongside R&D taking our novel production process to the next stage of development.

Your purpose in the Role:

You will focus on developing fundamental technologies for Gii manufacture and for evolving existing technologies. You will work at the interface of photonics and materials science and be involved with research at the forefront of photonics technology. You will combine your skills with a group of specialist engineers and physicists to deliver advances in our understanding of our production process as well as investigate and develop new solutions.

What you will do:

The production process technology used for Gii is truly novel. As we scale up, we are building a multi-disciplinary engineering team that can help drive our growth. Our goal is to manufacture Gii at speed on an ever-expanding range of substrates which means variety and challenge at every step of the way.

To achieve this goal, you will lead or contribute to the development of future production process technologies; this will include the following responsibilities:

• Continuous improvement - continue to improve our bespoke existing equipment, ensuring lessons learned are transferred into future solutions.
• Troubleshooting and problem-solving - with an appreciation of how maintenance and adjustment impacts the operation of production lines.
• In the future, train service engineers to fulfil remedial or preventative maintenance tasks.
• There will be an opportunity for you to take technical ownership of projects or technology development tasks in addition to sourcing and managing suppliers and contributing to Capex planning.

To succeed in the role, you will be able to demonstrate the following skills:

• Autonomous, adaptable and communicative.
• A contributor and initiator of actions.
• Ability to work effectively in multi-disciplinary teams to achieve project goals
  • You develop and invest in working relationships across multiple disciplines and show interest in how you can impact others to achieve shared goals.
  • You welcome feedback and ideas from others.
• Commitment to personal and professional growth, you have a growth mindset:
  • You will be familiar with the latest relevant photonics technologies; eager to develop and innovate.
  • You are pursuing accreditation or chartership.

Education and Experience:

• Master's or Ph.D. in Physics, Photonics, Optical Engineering.
• Experience with Gas and Fiber based lasers.
• Experience in building and designing laser-based systems is highly advantageous.
• A good understanding of laser material processing demonstrating that you have understood and improved the process.
• Your background is in or related to high-speed laser marking applications, developing new solutions, or working in a similar field within the industry.
• You have worked in industry - typically around 5 years - during which time you have
  • Worked without a playbook (you likely contributed to the playbook!) and can demonstrate experience in an industry setting using knowledge for fundamental research.
  • Worked 'under the hood' of photonics systems giving you a solid understanding of the various components within a photonic system.
  • Experience in scaling up processes from lab to commercial operations and troubleshooting technical challenges.
  • Become proficient in selecting and using optical engineering tools and measurement equipment, for example, power meters, beam profilers, polarimeters.
  • You have worked with beam propagation software e.g. Ansys Zemax OpticStudio.
  • Worked with CAD software e.g. OnShape, AutoDesk, Solidworks.
  • Experience with experimental design (e.g., DoEs) and developing analytical methods and procedures.

Desirable Experience and Skills:

• Have a basic electrical engineering background and experience with control panels.
• Experience with PLCs and programming.

What we offer:

This role is offered as a full-time position, working hours are 37.5 hours per week. Please talk to us about alternative working arrangements. We welcome applicants from all backgrounds and communities; sponsorship visa is available and relocation package.

In addition to a competitive salary, 33 days annual leave (statutory days included), we offer group life insurance, income protection, access to mental wellbeing resources, training and development opportunities, and flexible working hours. We take great pride in being social: we meet regularly as a Company and with our teams, sharing ideas over breakfast or lunch and recognise milestones at a team and individual level.

We are scaling up rapidly and value our culture; you will shape the company's future innovation capabilities through your ideas and skillset.

What happens next?

If this sounds like the role and company for you, apply by following the link. The team is expanding over the coming months and as such we welcome applications if you are interested in the role but find yourself at a different stage of your career than what is listed above.

Positive Action: We have a range of customers from a variety of backgrounds, industries, and locations. Therefore, we are searching for a diverse group of talented individuals who are passionate about what they do to collaborate and produce the best possible work for our consumers.

If you are successfully selected for interview, this is broken down into two stages:

Stage 1: An introductory remote discussion with the hiring managers, typically lasting forty-five minutes. An opportunity to find out more about the role and tell the team a bit about your background and experience.

Stage 2: If successful in the first stage interview, we will invite you to attend a stage two interview within our office space in Stirling. This will include problem-solving and critical thinking alongside competency-based and values-based interview questions.

We are happy to make any reasonable adjustments required to the interview process; please let us know upon application any requirements.

We will close the application link to the role once we have received an ample talent pool full of superstar applicants. Don't worry though, if you like the look of the role but need a little longer to perfect your application, just get in touch at people@igii.uk and we will do our best to accommodate your requirements.

The Company

iGii are a world-class team of technologists, scientists, engineers, and product developers. We produce Gii, our pure, porous, 3D carbon nanostructure with extraordinary properties.

Gii offers a highly sensitive, sustainable material for sensors and is being used in point-of-care diagnostics. The novel properties of Gii allow it to be incorporated into devices across a range of sectors, from automotive to electronics. We've previously used Gii as a component in heating elements, thermocouples, electrodes, and EMI shields.

Where we are

We are based in Stirling in central Scotland, a city with rich historical significance. As well as being historic, Stirling is in a great position for quick access to Edinburgh and Glasgow by public transport. It also has easy access to the Highlands and rural Scotland.