Ace Engineering College

We have an exciting opportunity at the University of Southampton for a Mechanical Maintenance Engineer to work within a highly skilled team, we have our own workshop to carry out on-site repairs, including milling, turning, and welding. One of our strengths is training, to help support your future ambitions, there are always opportunities to broaden your horizons. We work across a range of mechanical plant including HVAC, BMS, Boilers, Chillers, Cooling Towers, Ancillary Systems, and our own CHP District Networks.  We are a research university with a variety of different properties ranging from specialist laboratories and clean rooms, world-renowned cutting-edge research facilities, sports and catering outlets, halls of residence accommodation and office spaces. This spans over a vast estate, this role will play a vital part in supporting the delivery of planned and reactive maintenance of Mechanical systems across the University, to keep our estate operational. You will have excellent technical and communication skills, with the ability to plan and manage your own workload. You will need to be positive with a can do attitude and proactive problem solver to be able to manage a mixture of planned and reactive maintenance to ensure that work is delivered on time and to a high standard. You will be able to work in a team environment. The successful candidate will hold a City and Guilds qualification and/or minimum NVQ Level 3 in Mechanical engineering or equivalent discipline and have successfully completed a Mechanical apprenticeship or similar training programme. You will be familiar with Health & Safety legislation and understand risk assessments, method statements, and how to apply these to planned and reactive maintenance. You will have experience of maintenance in a commercial or similar environment. A full driving license and participation in an out of hours call out rota are required. What we can offer you: We offer some fantastic benefits including generous annual leave (plus University closure days and bank holidays), company pension scheme, discounted private healthcare and dental, company sick pay, cycle to work scheme, learning and development opportunities, options for flexible working, excellent family leave arrangements, employee wellbeing service, a wide variety of on and off-campus arts and culture facilities and access to a range of staff discounts and offers at local shops, restaurants and service providers. Inclusivity:  The University of Southampton is committed to equality, diversity, and inclusion. We believe that we can only truly meet our objectives if we are reflective of society, so we are passionate about creating a diverse environment. Therefore, we particularly encourage applications that will continue to strengthen the diversity of our governing body. We are a Stonewall Diversity Champion and are immensely proud to have been awarded an institutional Athena SWAN silver award, which underpins our pledge to improve equality for women. We are also delighted to have received the Race Equality Charter bronze award from Advance HE, which recognises that we have a solid foundation for eliminating racial inequalities and developing an inclusive culture that values all staff and students. We work with our people to ensure their ideas are always heard, and we invite you to share your background and life experiences with us to help us create a truly unique working environment.

About Us About the Faculty  The Faculty of Life Science & Medicine at King's College London is one of Europe's largest centres for biomedical research and teaching. The School’s academic expertise is globally acclaimed in a wide range of basic and applied sciences, continuing a rich legacy of pioneering King's scientists. Many of the research groups were top rated in the last HEFCE Research Assessment Exercise. The Faculty’s students enjoy unrivalled learning opportunities, supported by strong partnerships with industry and healthcare organisations. At both undergraduate and postgraduate level, students benefit from the School’s first-class facilities and those of its partners, including the world-renowned partner NHS Trusts. As the academic partner of choice for some of the world’s leading businesses the Faculty of Life Science & Medicine is shaping the future of healthcare through its membership of the government’s Global Medical Excellence Cluster and its award-winning spin out companies. The Faculty is based at the Guy’s (London Bridge) and Waterloo Campuses. The two campuses are located in close proximity to each other on the vibrant South Bank. The facilities for teaching and research at the Guy’s and Waterloo Campuses have been greatly enhanced since 1998 through a capital investment programme of approximately £200 million, which has provided state-of-the-art laboratories and a high-quality learning environment. Within the Faculty, research divisions provide the focus for the organisation of research activity while teaching is delivered by discipline-based departments. The Waterloo Campus provides the home for the Institute of Pharmaceutical Science, the Analytical and Environmental Sciences Division, the Diabetes and Nutritional Sciences Division, and the Vascular Biology section of the Cardiovascular Division. Some aspects of the Institute of Pharmaceutical Science activity are located on the Guy’s Campus. Teaching is organised by the Departments of Pharmacy & Forensic Science, Nutrition and Dietetics. Specialist facilities include SRIF-funded Genomics and Mass Spectrometry centres, a radioisotope suite, cell culture facilities, a Biological Services Unit, a metabolic unit for human feeding studies and high-quality library and IT provision. There are excellent analytical facilities including ultracentrifuge, NMR spectroscopy, HPLC, GC, GC/NIMS, GC/EIMS, GC/MS-MS, LC/MS-MS, ICP-OES and ICP-mass spectrometry equipment (see also http://www.kcl.ac.uk/ms-facility). About the Institute of Pharmaceutical Science From molecules to medicine The Institute of Pharmaceutical Science (IPS) is concerned with gaining a detailed understanding of the human pathological state and employing this knowledge to discover, design, develop and deliver drugs to the patient with a view to managing disease. It provides the multidisciplinary approach required to contribute to the overall development of pharmacologically active compounds from their earliest stages of conception at the bench through their presentation as medicines, to the analysis of their use within the community. IPS is one of the largest divisions in the health schools and is currently organised in five groups: Pharmaceutical Biophysics, Chemical Biology, Drug Delivery, Pharmacology and Therapeutics, and Clinical Practice and Medication Use. There is a vibrant PhD programme with more than 100 students, and a comprehensive suite of postgraduate taught programmes. In the Research Excellence Framework 2014, based on ‘power’, a factor taking into account the quality of the research output and the number of researchers assessed, King’s College London was ranked first in the UK out of the 83 universities that made returns in Unit of Assessment 3, to which IPS contributed. The Institute of Pharmaceutical Science has strong links with many of the other research divisions at King’s College London and consequently has developed a critically important central role in the total research effort of the College. Staff have a substantial number of collaborations at a local, national and international level. Following the accreditation of King’s Health Partners, our Academic Health Sciences Centre, IPS joined three NHS trust pharmacy departments (Guy's and St Thomas', King's College Hospital and South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trusts) and the Guys Drugs Research Unit to form the Pharmaceutical Sciences Clinical Academic Group. The aim is to cement the collaboration between staff in the Institute and the NHS Trusts and achieve excellence in service provision, research, and in education and training. About The Role The post-holder is expected to carry out pioneering laboratory work in engineering extracellular vesicles (EVs) to create novel delivery systems for oral delivery of mRNA. Experience in isolation and characterisation of EVs, together with intestinal epithelial cell culture is mandatory for the role. Furthermore, the candidate is expected to have strong skills and experience in nanomaterial characterisation and biological assays such as cytotoxicity testing and measurement of cell uptake of materials. The post holder is expected to participate in regular individual and group research meetings to communicate their research and receive feedback, in addition to attending external scientific meetings/conferences. Additionally, the post holder will be expected to engage in disseminating their research via publications and as such, they are expected to prepare manuscripts for publication. Finally, the post holder may be required to supervise undergraduate project students and will be expected to participate in regular lab management activities. This is a full-time role and you will be offered a fixed term contract until 31/12/2026. Research staff at King’s are entitled to at least 10 days per year (pro-rata) for professional development. This entitlement, from the Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers, applies to Postdocs, Research Assistants, Research and Teaching Technicians, Teaching Fellows and AEP equivalent up to and including grade 7. Visit the Centre for Research Staff Development for more information. About You To be successful in this role, we are looking for candidates to have the following skills and experience: Essential criteria Degree in Pharmacy, Pharmaceutical Science, Biological Science, Chemical/Materials Science or similar Research experience in Extracellular Vesicles Research experience in nanomaterial characterisation Research experience in intestinal epithelial cell culture Excellent communication skills Desirable criteria Research experience in nucleic acid delivery Research experience in milk-derived EVs Supervision of undergraduate students in research projects Downloading a copy of our Job Description Full details of the role and the skills, knowledge and experience required can be found in the Job Description document, provided at the bottom of the page. This document will provide information of what criteria will be assessed at each stage of the recruitment process. Further Information We pride ourselves on being inclusive and welcoming. We embrace diversity and want everyone to feel that they belong and are connected to others in our community. We are committed to working with our staff and unions on these and other issues, to continue to support our people and to develop a diverse and inclusive culture at King's. As part of this commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion and through this appointment process, it is our aim to develop candidate pools that include applicants from all backgrounds and communities. We ask all candidates to submit a copy of their CV, and a supporting statement, detailing how they meet the essential criteria listed in the person specification section of the job description. If we receive a strong field of candidates, we may use the desirable criteria to choose our final shortlist, so please include your evidence against these where possible. To find out how our managers will review your application, please take a look at our ‘How we Recruit’ pages. Interviews are due to be held in January/February 2026. Grade and Salary: £43,909 per annum inclusive of London Weighting Allowance Job ID: 134265 Close Date: 04-Jan-2026 Contact Person: Driton Vllasaliu Contact Details: Driton.vllasaliu@kcl.ac.uk

About Us The Institute of Pharmaceutical Science (IPS) at KCL supports world class fundamental and applied research across the full spectrum of pharmaceutical science, from drug discovery through biophysical and biological characterization, pharmacology, formulation, drug delivery and use of medicines, with a strong culture of multi-disciplinary collaboration and links to clinical colleagues evidenced by awards of major grants from organisations such as MRC, BBSRC and NC3Rs. The medicinal chemistry laboratory of IPS has been recently refurbished and modernized with new equipment and facilities, and the selected candidate will be based at the medicinal chemistry laboratory at Franklin Wilkins Building. About The Role Inflammation drives the pathogenesis of many respiratory disorders. Established anti-inflammatory medications (e.g. glucocorticosteriods or PDE4 inhibitors) have questionable efficacy in the majority of COPD patients. Patients often suffer side effects (eg increased pneumonia risk in patients administered glucocorticosteroids; dose limiting gastrointestinal side effects with PDE4 inhibitors). Furthermore, current drugs are delivered via the inhaled route, and cannot address the issue of systemic inflammation in COPD patients that increases the likelihood of disease exacerbations, or inflammation-driven co-morbidities (e.g. cardiovascular disease) that are also life threatening. Research into the inflammasome; and inflammatory resolving pathways are novel competing strategies, however these retain a risk of immunosuppression. Our approach is advantageous because: 1, systemic platelet activation during inflammation is a critical process that does not carry operational redundancy; 2, targeting biased P2Y1 signalling associated with inflammation eliminates side effects associated with haemostasis eg unwanted bleeding; 3, rapid anti-inflammatory effects are induced by targeting platelet activation; 4, regular platelet turnover means drug effects can be ‘washed out’ if needs be; 5, we have proven local (lung) efficacy via systemic administration of our tool compounds. The project will provide data to allow comparisons between chemical scaffolds (involve synthesis of novel structures chosen from understanding of initial series of compounds and their performance from MRC grant MR/T015845/1) in terms of measurements of efficacy using a validated in vivo model of respiratory disease (COPD), therapeutic dosing strategy to determine duration of action, (in house); pharmacokinetic (PK) data, and early safety profiles (maximum tolerated dose MTD) outsourced to Eurofins. This is a 0.5 FTE post, you will be offered an a fixed term contract until 30/09/2026. About You To be successful in this role, we are looking for candidates to have the following skills and experience: Essential criteria MSc in Medicinal Chemistry, Pharmaceutical Chemistry or Pharmacy. Practical experience of C-C, N-C and amide coupling reactions, protection-deprotection chemistry and multi-step synthesis Knowledge of small-molecule characterization using NMR, IR, UV, Mass and HPLC techniques Knowledge of software packages, including Word, Excel and chemical structure drawing and bibliographic programmes Knowledge of analytical and preparative LC_MS techniques Track record of published research in peer-reviewed journals of international standing Research experience in Synthetic and Medicinal Chemistry Desirable criteria Experience in chemistry laboratory management including electronic inventory maintenance Record of presenting scientific research at national/international conferences Experience in operating LC-MS system Excellent interpersonal skills Downloading a copy of our Job Description Full details of the role and the skills, knowledge and experience required can be found in the Job Description document, provided at the bottom of the page. This document will provide information of what criteria will be assessed at each stage of the recruitment process. Further Information We pride ourselves on being inclusive and welcoming. We embrace diversity and want everyone to feel that they belong and are connected to others in our community. We are committed to working with our staff and unions on these and other issues, to continue to support our people and to develop a diverse and inclusive culture at King's. As part of this commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion and through this appointment process, it is our aim to develop candidate pools that include applicants from all backgrounds and communities. We ask all candidates to submit a copy of their CV, and a supporting statement, detailing how they meet the essential criteria listed in the advert. If we receive a strong field of candidates, we may use the desirable criteria to choose our final shortlist, so please include your evidence against these where possible. To find out how our managers will review your application, please take a look at our ‘How we Recruit’ pages. Interviews are due to be held in January/February. Grade and Salary: £39,735 per annum inclusive of London Weighting Allowance Job ID: 134225 Close Date: 04-Jan-2026 Contact Person: Professor Miraz Rahman Contact Details: k.miraz.rahman@kcl.ac.uk