Research Associate in High Energy Physics

Imperial College London invites applications for two Research Associate positions to work on the CMS experiment at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider.

Duties and responsibilities

You will focus on the analysis of CMS data, with the opportunity to also contribute to the Group’s ongoing activities on the detector, software and future upgrades of the experiment. We expect you to take a leading role in CMS data analysis in the search for physics beyond the standard model. In particular, you will make significant contributions in this mission through precision measurements of the Higgs boson or direct searches for long-lived particles and, where appropriate, the associated phenomenology.

Essential requirements

You will hold a PhD* in a relevant area or have an equivalent level of professional qualifications and experience.

You must also be able to demonstrate the following essential criteria:

• A strong track record with clearly defined individual contributions
• Experience of data analysis techniques and algorithms in experimental particle physics
• Evidence of ability to identify new research opportunities or develop new techniques
• Experience in taking initiative and/or developing own ideas independently
• Proficiency in programming and computing within high energy physics
• Experience of leadership or evidence of future leadership potential
• Experience of working in an international collaborative environment

In addition, it would be desirable if you had:

• Experience with machine learning techniques
• Experience with Monte Carlo simulation techniques and tools
• Experience of Grid computing in High Energy Physics
• Evidence of ability to write high quality research papers

Further information

This is a full-time position available immediately for up to 2.5 years in the first instance.

The position will be based in the UK but will require regular travel to CERN. Other UK and foreign travel is likely to be required.

• Candidates who have not yet been officially awarded their PhD will be appointed as Research Assistant within the salary range £38,194 - £41,388 per annum.

The Imperial College High Energy Physics Group has a strong ongoing experimental programme encompassing the T2K, Super-Kamiokande and future Hyper-Kamiokande experiments in Japan; the future neutrino oscillation experiment DUNE at Fermilab and SURF in the USA; the search for sterile neutrinos with SoLid in Belgium; the search for charged lepton flavour violation with COMET in Japan; the CMS and LHCb experiments at the LHC; the search for dark matter with the LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) experiment in the USA; the development of nuSTORM; the Atom Interferometer Observatory and Network (AION) project in the UK and the USA; SHiP and SuperNEMO activities and the development of future experiments and impact through the application of HEP technologies. There are also significant accelerator, phenomenology and Grid computing programmes. The Group is the host of two Imperial College Centres of Excellence: Centre for Clinical Application of Particles and Centre for High-Throughout Digital Electronics and Machine Learning.

More information about the Department of Physics and the High Energy Physics Groupcan be found on our webpages.

The Department of Physics is an IoP JUNO Practitioner and an Athena Silver SWAN Award winner reflecting our commitment to building a supportive, inclusive and highly motivated community. See our EDI webpage for more Information. We strongly encourage applications from all backgrounds, especially those historically underrepresented in Physics.

Further details about the positions are available from Prof. Alex Tapper (a.tapper@imperial.ac.uk) and Dr. Nick Wardle (n.wardle09@imperial.ac.uk).

Should you have any queries about the application process please contact Paula Brown, Section Administrator, paula.brown@imperial.ac.uk.

• Job Description - NAT01380.pdf