Research Assistant in Safety Assurance

Salary: £33,002  to £34,610 per annum, pro rata

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: 22 October 2025

The Role

This is an exciting opportunty, ideal for an early career researcher to be part of an internationally recognised research and innovation team. You will contribute to an innovative international research project on Practical Testing of Formal Requirements (PlaTFoRm), funded jointly by Innotvate UK and the German ZIM initiatives. In this project, two companies – D-Risq Ltd in the UK and Verified Software International (VSI) – are working to link their software tools to help detect errors in safety-critical systems cost-effectively and at an early stage of development. These two companies are being supported in the project by Newcastle University in the UK and fortiss GmbH (Research Institute of the Free State of Bavaria) in Germany, in part using case studies to test and assess the new approach.

You will work primarily on one of these case studies, a medical device prototype, by formalising requirements and building models of the system, and taking these models through the tools developed by D-Risq and VSI through to code generation. You will need to work closely with ourselves and colleagues at our partner institutions to understand the techniques and emerging tools, working to find and fix problems, and give constructive feedback. You will also contribute to writing project deliverables, as well as papers and presentations for external audiences. We are looking for someone who possesses the ability to use creativity and challenge standard ways of thinking in order to overcome problems. Your role will be key to the project by contributing with creativity, communication, and technical skills.

The School of Computing values individual differences and the diversity that this brings and we want to ensure that no-one is at a disadvantage because of who they are. Our values are embedded in our engagement activity and we are therefore looking for someone who has diversity of thought and who embraces equality, diversity and inclusion, ensuring our values are entrenched in our research activity.

We are looking for someone with a ‘can do’ attitude and a flexible and helpful approach. As a key technical researcher, you must be an excellent communicator with demonstrable interpersonal skills and the ability to solve problems.

This is a fixed term, part time position, 18.5 hours for the duration of 21 months.

For more information about the School of Computing, please visit https://www.ncl.ac.uk/computing/.

Prospective candidates are encouraged to informally contact Dr Ken Pierce (kenneth.pierce@ncl.ac.uk) and Dr Leo Freitas (leo.freitas@ncl.ac.uk) via email with any enquiries.

Key Accountabilities

• Work with Dr Ken Pierce and Dr Leo Freitas on the PlaTFoRm project work programme
• Work to deadlines and manage, with support, competing priorities
• Use initiative and creativity to find, analyse, and solve issues with the case studies and emerging project software tool and tool chain
• Liaise and work with our project partners in the UK and Germany, providing constructive feedback and working collaboratively to solve problems
• Contribute to project deliverables and external communications, participate actively in project meetings and workshops, and with other project partners on a regular basis
• Help with supervision of undergraduate projects and provide guest lectures and demonstration of PlaTFoRm technologies and case studies
• Contribute to the delivery of recruitment events run by the School of Computing on PlaTFoRm and your experiences
• Maintain academic standards and freedom, and work in accordance with university policies
• Develop, with advice, an awareness of your own professional development needs and a personal development strategy

The Person

Knowledge, Skills and Experience

• Ability to demonstrate an understanding of computing systems design, with experience or exposure to software systems
• Ability to demonstrate experience with requirements capture and analysis
• Excellent communication skills, including the ability to present detailed or technical information and the ability to work with others to understand technical and user requirements
• Experience of working in a diverse, transdisciplinary team

Desirable

• Experience with modelling software incl. Kapture, System Kapture, ModelWorks 
• Experience with medical device system design and analysis

Attributes And Behaviour

• Ability to work under supervision in a collaborative manner with a team colleagues at all levels
• Ability to prioritise, plan, and execute tasks within a workplan
• Ability to communicate and work with partners in other universities and research institutes, and in industry
• Committed to embedding the values of equality and diversity in all aspects of your work
• Demonstrable interpersonal skills with experience communicating scientific information with clarity and to encourage the commitment of others

Desirable

• Available for local, national and international travel and occasional weekend working 

Qualifications

• You should have achieved, or be about to achieve, a First-Class Honours degree, or equivalent, in Computer Science

Newcastle University is a global University where everyone is treated with dignity and respect.  As a University of Sanctuary, we aim to provide a welcoming place of safety for all, offering opportunities to people fleeing violence and persecution.

We are committed to being a fully inclusive university which actively recruits, supports and retains colleagues from all sectors of society.  We value diversity as well as celebrate, support and thrive on the contributions of all of our employees and the communities they represent.  We are proud to be an equal opportunities employer and encourage applications from individuals who can complement our existing teams, we believe that success is built on having teams whose backgrounds and experiences reflect the diversity of our university and student population.

At Newcastle University we hold a silver Athena Swan award in recognition of our good employment practices for the advancement of gender equality.  We also hold a Race Equality Charter Bronze award in recognition of our work towards tackling race inequality in higher education REC.  We are a Disability Confident employer and will offer an interview to disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria for the role as part of the offer and interview scheme.

In addition, we are a member of the Euraxess initiative supporting researchers in Europe. 

Requisition ID: 28677