Research Associate in Self-Maintaining AI Smart Manufacturing

Job Title: Research Associate in Self‑Maintaining AI for Smart Manufacturing

School: Computing, Engineering and Intelligent Systems

Campus: Derry~Londonderry

Salary: £33,020 - £36,654 per annum

(Fixed term, full‑time for 18 months up to the maximum 30 November 2027)

Closing Date: 1 March 2026

Reference Number: 040907

We are a university with a national and international reputation for excellence, innovation and regional engagement, making a major contribution to the economic, social and cultural development of Northern Ireland.

Our core business activities are teaching and learning, widening access to education, research and innovation and technology and knowledge transfer.

The post holder will work within the Smart Nano manufacturing Northern Ireland (Smart Nano NI) consortium. Smart Nano NI is a £40M UKRI Strength in Places Fund (SIPF) multi‑partner project, collaborating to develop game‑changing advanced prototyping and smart manufacturing methods to deliver new intelligent technologies and facilitate fabrication of Smart Nano products. The project involves extensive collaboration with Seagate Technology and aims to address smart manufacturing challenges associated with, for example, process optimisation, routing and scheduling to reduce product development cycle times, predictive analytics for tool matching and understanding tool health, extracting and classifying information from complex unstructured datasets and robotic automation.

Hold a Degree in Computing Science, Mathematics, Electronic Engineering, Physics or a closely related discipline.

Hold a PhD (or near completion with thesis submitted) in Computer Science or a closely related discipline.

Please find our employee benefits on our website.

The School of Computing, Engineering and Intelligent Systems holds a Bronze Athena SWAN award in recognition of our commitment to advancing Gender equality in higher education. You can read more about what this means on our University website. The University has a range of initiatives to support a family‑friendly working environment, including flexible working.

The University is an equal opportunities employer and welcomes applicants from all sections of the community, particularly from those with disabilities. Appointment will be made on merit.