Jobs in Sheffield

We are looking for a postgraduate with experience in materials science and a passion for scientific communication to join us for a short-term industry placement.

With your specialist knowledge and knack for writing, you will help improve access to scientific information by creating compelling and informative content for our website while gaining experience working with a fast-growing, high growth commercial enterprise. The exact scope of the content you will write will be decided between you and our team, leaving plenty of room for you to be creative and influence what you write about in the context of your research field.

This is a great opportunity for you to showcase your scientific expertise while strengthening your writing ability. You will gain valuable experience writing easy-to-digest content for the web, learn about search engine optimisation (SEO) and content marketing, and build strong links to industry. This will be incredibly useful for both an academic or industrial career. You will also get writing credit on our website on each page you contribute to.

We welcome applications from PhD candidates, recent or current PhD or research masters students, postdoctoral researchers, and other experienced research scientists.

The Role

As part of our aim to accelerate scientific discovery, we publish an extensive collection of resources about the materials and equipment that we sell. Working with our in-house teams, you will have the opportunity to contribute a wide range of content to our growing library of free information, including:

• Detailed background resources
• Short informational pages
• How-to-guides and videos
• Product descriptions and category pages
• Troubleshooting and experimental guides for our materials and equipment

This placement will take the form of a short secondment with the aim of producing a series of resources about your area of expertise. Working on-site in our open plan office and manufacturing space, you will gain valuable industry experience at a fast-growing, high growth commercial enterprise. You will also have access to our full range of equipment and materials, our expert team of scientists and writers, and our fully equipped laboratory.

We are also looking to build a directory of freelance writers for ad-hoc writing work. Please refer to www.ossila.com/pages/write-for-us for more information.

About You

We are looking for someone who is undergoing, or has already completed, a research masters or PhD in a relevant material science field. A skilled scientific communicator, you will have strong writing skills and the ability to clearly express complex ideas.

In particular, we are looking for somebody with experimental experience in one of the following:

• Synthesis and characterisation of organic electronics
• OPVs, OLEDs, organic lasing, or perovskite solar cells
• Spectroscopy for organic or optoelectronic materials
• Applications and development of 2D materials

However, if you extensively use any of our equipment or materials, and are interested in collaborating with us, we encourage you to apply.

More generally, you should feel comfortable writing content that meets the following criteria:

• Concise, readable, and easily understood by an undergraduate student
• Contains considerable detail and insight into your area of interest
• Does not contain grammar, punctuation or spelling errors
• Follows styling that is consistent with other copy on the Ossila website

The successful candidate will be someone who has excellent attention to detail, is able to respond to feedback, highly organised and self-motivated, and able to effectively plan work schedules.

About Ossila

Ossila is a fast-growing, high-tech business looking to continue our rapid expansion over the next few years. Originally formed by academics from the University of Sheffield we have now moved off-campus and currently employ around 40 people between our Sheffield site and our European centre in the Netherlands. Our aim is to build a world-class company of significant size and stature over the next five years that helps to accelerate the pace of scientific discovery by providing standardised materials and equipment with improved performance, lower cost and great customer support.

The majority of our sales are exported to over 3000 institutions in more than 90 countries, we have many of the world leading research institutions as customers and have won both Institute of Physics awards for innovation and a Queens Award for export.

Apply Now

To apply, send a CV and cover letter to recruitment@ossila.com. If you are currently studying, please indicate your likely availability to work both during and outside of term time. Applications without a covering letter will be automatically rejected.

Please note that all applicants must have the right to work in the UK for the duration of the position, including UK or Irish citizens, EU citizens already enrolled in the EU Settlement Scheme or current work permit holders. No agencies please.