Senior Research Associate in Autonomous Underwater Glider

Salary: 48,337 per annum

Newcastle University is a great place to work, with excellent benefits. We have a generous holiday package; plus the opportunity to buy more, great pension schemes and a number of health and wellbeing initiatives to support you.

Closing Date: 19 October 2026

The Role The successful candidates will join a collaborative team, ABMHydro (), engaged in a range of research projects in particular for developing an autonomous underwater glider.

Please note, this is a full-time on-site role, with work taking place in the research office and laboratory. Home/remote working is not permitted in this role.

The University of Newcastle upon Tyne was founded in 1871 for the teaching of physical sciences and engineering. Teaching and research are delivered in 24 academic schools and 40 research institutes and research centres, spread across three Faculties: the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences; the Faculty of Medical Sciences; and the Faculty of Science, Agriculture and Engineering. The School of Engineering was formed in 2017 bringing together long-established engineering research and teaching groups in chemical, civil, electrical & electronic, geomatics, marine and mechanical.

In , 46% of the research outcomes in Engineering research have been ranked with 4
* as world leading research with 69% increase in research power from 2014.Marine, Offshore and Subsea Technology (MOST) group is an internationally recognised discipline in Newcastle with a successful track record delivering research projects powered by world leading research facilities, including the Emerson Cavitation Tunnel, the Princess Royal research vessel, the fully turbulent flow channel, the towing tank and the combined wind, wave and current tank.

We are recruiting a new Senior Research Associate to join our research team. Talented, skilled and hard-working individuals are sought to carry out high-quality R&D work in developing our ECHO glider centralised at our newly established Newcastle Marine Autonomous Vehicle Lab and also in our Blyth Marine Station. ECHO glider is an EPSRC funded project aiming to develop an Endurant, Cognitive and High-speed Ocean Glider for Acoustic Environmental Monitoring around Offshore Wind Farms.

You are expected to lead and conduct mechanical, electrical and hydraulic design, analysis and testing for ECHO glider.

Suitable candidates will have a prior background in mechanical and/or electrical engineering with experience in developing underwater vehicles. You should be already familiar with buoyancy engine, underwater vehicle design and operation, control and drive.

Prior research and hands-on experience in underwater glider are highly desirable. Please note this is not a role for simulation skills. It is essential that you are proficient in CAD, engineering, hand-on skills and programming in industrial automation and control.

You will be a highly enthusiastic, self-motivated and diligent individual with an inquiring mind and a particular interest in marine autonomous vehicles to drive forward our understanding and capabilities in this area. You will be eager to learn and enhance your own competencies. You need to clearly demonstrate your potential in scientific research by an excellent track record of research outputs and have an ability to work both independently and collaboratively.

Excellent written and verbal communication skills, interpersonal skills, planning and time management skills, and problem-solving skills are also essential. You must be capable of maintaining current knowledge of the literature and generating new research ideas.

As part of our commitment to career development for research colleagues, the University has developed 3 levels of Research Innovation Role…