Data Management Specialist

University of Manchester
Closing date: 17/ 09/ 2023
Contract Duration: until 31st December 2025
The University of Manchester enjoys a global reputation for its research and its innovative approach to learning, with an on-going £1 billion investment in facilities, staff and buildings. This builds on our tradition of success that stretches back over 180 years. The birth of the modern computer, the splitting of the atom, the founding principles of modern economics, the discovery of graphene, and the birthplace of chemical engineering – these and many more world changing innovations have their roots at our University. We are at the forefront of the search for solutions to some of the world’s most pressing problems, boasting strong collaborative links with industry and public services.

Manchester has the largest student community in the UK, with more than 28000 undergraduates and 11000 postgraduates attracted by the high international standing of the academic staff, by the superb research and teaching facilities, and by the cultural assets both of the university and the city of Manchester itself.

The University of Manchester

The University of Manchester enjoys a global reputation for its research and its innovative approach to learning, with an on-going £1 billion investment in facilities, staff and buildings. This builds on our tradition of success that stretches back over 180 years. The birth of the modern computer, the splitting of the atom, the founding principles of modern economics, the discovery of graphene, and the birthplace of chemical engineering – these and many more world changing innovations have their roots at our University. We are at the forefront of the search for solutions to some of the world’s most pressing problems, boasting strong collaborative links with industry and public services.

Manchester has the largest student community in the UK, with more than 28000 undergraduates and 11000 postgraduates attracted by the high international standing of the academic staff, by the superb research and teaching facilities, and by the cultural assets both of the university and the city of Manchester itself.

Faculty of Science and Engineering

The Faculty of Science and Engineering is one of the largest in the UK with over 10,000 students, 2,000 staff and strategic links with over 300 industrial companies. We are leading research efforts in energy, nuclear science and technology, computer science, atmospheric science, bioscience and biotechnology, photon science and photonic materials, imaging and visualisation, security, and advanced materials, attracting an annual income of over £200 million.

Founded in 1824, we have a history of breaking new ground in science and engineering. Rutherford began his work here on splitting the atom and later received the Nobel prize in 1908 for his work on radioactivity. The ‘Baby’, the world’s first stored-program computer, and Manchester Mark 1 came into being here. It is the birthplace of Chemical Engineering. The 76-m Lovell radio telescope at Jodrell Bank was built here by Bernard Lovell. Since 1906, when former student Joseph Thomson won the Nobel prize for physics, the University has produced more than 20 Nobel Laureates, the most recent of which were Professor Andre Geim and Professor Konstantin Novoselov in 2010 – for their pioneering work with the world’s thinnest material, graphene.

Department of Physics and Astronomy

The Department of Physics and Astronomy is one of five Departments in the School of Natural Sciences which is in the Faculty of Science and Engineering. There are 95 academic staff in the Department with expertise in areas such as condensed matter physics (which includes Prof. Andre Geim and Prof. Konstantin Novoselov who won the 2010 Nobel Prize in Physics for their work on graphene), atomic physics, liquid crystal physics, biological physics, accelerator physics, nuclear physics, particle physics, astrophysics, astronomy, cosmology, complexity and theoretical physics. Jodrell Bank Observatory (part of Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics) also forms part of our Department. We have approximately 150 research staff, 250 PGR students and 1200 UG/ PG students.

The Department has ranked in the top fifteen in the Academic Ranking of World Universities for Physics since 2011. In the Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2014 the Department was in the top three institutions for its proportion of “world-leading” components and was first for non-academic impact.

The Department values teaching highly and scored 90% in the 2019 National Student Survey. The Department has the largest undergraduate intake of any Physics department in the UK. Student cohorts are around 1120 and 100 for undergraduate and postgraduate taught programmes respectively. Taught postgraduate courses include Masters programmes in Photon Science, Nuclear Science and Technology, and Radio Imaging and Sensing.

P&A research is based in four topical divisions: Accelerator, Nuclear and Particle Physics; Condensed Matter; Theoretical Physics; and Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics. The Department operates the world-renowned Jodrell Bank Observatory (JBO). The Jodrell Bank site also provides the permanent home for the international headquarters of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) Organisation, and the UK’s National Radio Astronomy Facility, e-MERLIN. The Department is deeply involved in the £61 million National Graphene Institute (NGI), opened in 2015. The NGI building has 7350 m2 research space over five floors and includes 1500m2 of cleanrooms, lab facilities, office space and seminar rooms.

The Department of Physics and Astronomy is committed to promoting Equality, Diversity, Inclusion and Access through contributing to the University’s social responsibility agenda, demonstrating a commitment to its policies, activities and delivery of initiatives including the Athena SWAN charter for promoting women’s careers in STEMM subjects (science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine) in higher education. The Department has held JUNO Champion status since 2016 for its commitment to achieving gender equality which positively promotes inclusivity for all.

Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics

Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics (JBCA) is one of the largest academic astronomy research groups in Europe, studying a very broad range of astrophysical research, in particular Cosmology, Galaxy formation and evolution, AGN and Star-formation, Galactic Astronomy, Time-domain astrophysics (including Pulsars, Masers and Exoplanets) and Solar Physics. Research staff are located in the Alan Turing Building on the main Manchester campus, and comprises around 30 academic staff, 50 postdoctoral researchers, and 60 post-graduate students. The Group publishes in excess of 400 refereed papers per year with many appearing in the highest impact journals. Academic staff are involved in many international collaborations with colleagues in Europe and North America but increasingly involves developing countries in Africa, Asia and South America. JBCA operates the 76-metre Lovell Telescope, and the UK’s National Radio Astronomy Facility, e-MERLIN/ VLBI, and host’s the UK’s ALMA Regional Centre Node. JBCA’s telescope facilities are located at Jodrell Bank Observatory, which also hosts the Headquarters of the SKAO. JBCA and SKA staff have close links, with several SKA staff enjoying honorary university appointments. Several large compute facilities are operated by the group both on campus and at the observatory.

The SKAO and SKA Regional Centres

The SKA will be the largest and therefore the most sensitive radio telescope ever built and will play a major role in answering key questions in modern astrophysics and cosmology. It will be one of a small number of cornerstone observatories observing the electromagnetic spectrum that will transform our view of the Universe. The SKA Observatory (SKAO) comprises two telescope facilities; one located in South Africa, SKA-MID, to observe mid-band frequencies between 350MHz and 15.4GHz, and one located in Australia, SKA-LOW, to observe lower band frequencies between 50MHz and 350MHz. The SKAO’s Global Headquarters, is hosted at The University of Manchester’s Jodrell Bank Observatory.

In order to process and analyse the vast amounts of data produced by the SKAO, there is now an international effort to design and prototype SKA Regional Centres (SRCs) in which astronomers will be able to interact with the data. The network of SRCs will provide infrastructure, services and expert support that will enable a global capability to distribute, process, analyse and curate the data from the telescopes.

The UK’s Square Kilometre Array Regional Centre project (UKSRC, 8 partners, £7.2M operations plus £6M capital and development ), will work with an international network to develop infrastructure that will enable astronomers to transform our understanding of the universe, and provide the main interface for UK astronomers to access SKAO data and extract science from the SKAO. The UKSRC will provide e-infrastructure resources, services, and end-to-end expert science support and training to exploit the SKAO and SKA pathfinder and precursor data and science.

Together with colleagues at Cambridge, Durham, Edinburgh, RAL and UCL, The University of Manchester are co-developing a UKSRC facility. The UKSRC will be working within the SRCNet and contributing to the international SRCNet design programme. Areas of work include: data logistics; cloud computing; stewardship, archiving and data stack; science analysis platform; science support; training and outreach.
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