Senior Scientist - Time & Frequency

Our world-leading Time & Frequency department seeks an experienced and practicing Senior Scientist / Engineer.

This is an exceptional opportunity to join the global authority in precision timing at a defining moment for UK digital infrastructure.

Backed by a government investment of £180 million in the National Timing Centre (NTC) programme, we are developing a world first resilient time distribution capability that will provide industry with a robust complement to satellite systems (such as GPS) - which are increasingly vulnerable to disruption from solar storms, jamming and spoofing. This will underpin essential services, including

• Telecommunications
• Online banking
• Emergency response
• Transport networks
• Wider digital and data driven operations

Together, these services form the backbone of modern society - and your leadership will help ensure they remain secure, reliable and robust even if global navigation satellite systems fail.

You'll be joining a renowned team of Scientists and Engineers to develop novel Time and Frequency systems within the UK.

• Leading a team of Scientists and Engineers to deliver high quality project outputs on time, to quality and cost targets.
• Design and implementation of hardware / software for state of the art Time and Frequency measurement systems including atomic clocks.
• Collaborating with subject matter experts worldwide to develop novel solutions.
• Liaising with internal / external stakeholders to determine needs and tailor expert solutions.
• Attendance of international conferences to keep abreast of the latest developments.

This role offers exciting scope to contribute toward other timing related projects (e.g. with the European Space Agency).

Reporting to a Principal Scientist, you'll design UK Digital Infrastructure that pushes the boundaries of measurement accuracy for the UK's new resilient Time Scale.

• Experience in Time and Frequency measurement / Time scales.
• A postgraduate degree or equivalent experience in physics, astronomy or a relevant field of engineering; such as satellite navigation systems (GNSS), SATCOM, communications or systems engineering.
• Software experience in scientific / engineering application (e.g. Python, LabVIEW or MATLAB).
• Team management experience.

• Postgraduate experience in software development (e.g. Python, LabVIEW or MATLAB).
• Professional experience within an R&D or engineering environment.
• Familiarity with using and interfacing electronic equipment with computers, and an interest in lab work.
• Knowledge and experience of SATCOM, optical fibre, and GNSS based systems.
• Experience in atmospheric propagation of radio / microwave signals or Space Science systems.

We actively recruit citizens of all backgrounds. However, the nature of our work in specific departments means that nationality, residency and security requirements can be more tightly defined than others. To work at NPL, you will need to obtain BPSS security clearance. However, to work in this role in the Time & Frequency department, you must have an SC clearance with no restrictions, or you must have the ability to obtain an SC clearance.