PhD Graduate - Fluids and Thermal Engineering

PostDoc or Industry?

Finishing a Doctorate is a big deal. For many a route into academia through a PostDoc position is a well-trodden path but for those looking to apply their newly acquired skills in an industrial context, and gain some commercial acumen in parallel, then Frazer-Nash could be the answer for you!

Valuing Your Doctorate

As a high-tech engineering consultancy Frazer-Nash values the additional skills and experience that Doctorate graduates bring to our business. For us the value you bring comes through a combination of specialist knowledge, a robust understanding of engineering fundamentals from undergraduate teaching, experience of presenting at conferences, and ability to engage with a range of stakeholders to solve problems. Within our Energy Technology area, over 25% of your potential colleagues and line managers have themselves completed PhDs, DPhils or EngDs. Therefore, your like-minded colleagues are readily equipped to help you to make the most of your experience and skills and tailor a career development plan for you.

Flexible Approach to Starting Work

We also recognise that finishing your doctorate is a stressful time, often bringing with it the ending of academic funding, the challenges of writing up a thesis, and thinking about what next. It is always easiest to submit your thesis then start your future career; however, often life doesn’t always pan out that way. Hence, should you wish to commence work before submission we are happy to discuss flexible methods of working to help you maintaining a healthy work-life balance. This gives you the comfort of commencing a new career, financial stability and importantly the bandwidth to enable you to finish your write up.

Role Overview

Working within one of our dedicated Fluid and Thermal teams you will design and analyse the next generation of flow and process systems in support of major clients across a variety of industries. Using a range of methods from hand calculations to complex Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and Finite Element Analysis (FEA), you will help our customers solve their operational problems, optimise the design of new systems, support our clients’ decarbonisation drive towards Net Zero and provide the evidence that underpins plant safety cases for high hazard industries.

As an Energy Technology Engineer you will be responsible for:

Technical:

• Delivering high quality technical analysis of components or systems and evaluating designs on this basis.
• Analysing and understanding challenges with existing equipment and proposing solutions to overcome these challenges.
• Performing heat transfer and fluid dynamics calculations to help the client understand problems with their plant.
• Understanding uncertainty around analysis, being able to quantify this uncertainty and what it means for results.

Project management:

• Managing projects in accordance with our ISO-9001 accredited processes and acting as technical lead.
• Working with colleagues within and outside your disciplines to deliver multidisciplinary projects.
• Authoring and verifying technical deliverables.

Consultancy:

• Helping shape our service development plans and strategies to maximise the value we provide to the global market.
• Developing new business by representing Frazer-Nash at conferences, seminars and prospective client meetings.
• Responding to enquiries and writing bids.

Our projects are very diverse and can last from a few weeks to many years of sustained support. You will typically be involved with multiple projects at any one time. You will meet and communicate with customers to understand their requirements and develop your project plan to deliver the desired outcomes and insights. Frazer-Nash empowers its staff to manage the delivery of the project themselves at an early stage in their careers. Reporting to your Group Leader, you will be accountable for your own work, but also help support others in the team.

Requirements

The successful applicant will meet the following minimum requirements:

• Specialist knowledge in the area of fluid mechanics or heat transfer gained through a PhD, DPhil or EngD.
• Aptitude for communicating methods and results to specialists and non-specialists through writing high quality reports and presenting technical papers at conferences.
• Have an interest in working with our clients to apply methods (from state-of-the-art computational methods to targeted and astute hand calculations) to help understand the flow of fluids and heat in plant, assure designs and solve operational issues.
• Be a strong team player but with the ability to work under minimal supervision.

It is to your advantage if you meet any or all the following additional requirements:

• Experience in the application of fluid dynamics software such as flow network solvers, Computational Fluid Dynamics tools and/or Finite Element Analysis.
• Previous experience in the design and/or analysis of fluid systems.
• Experience in writing proposals, client liaison and business development
• Be working towards Chartered Engineer status

Due to the nature of the work that Frazer-­Nash Consultancy undertake, candidates will be required to undergo pre-employment screening and must be able to satisfy clearance criteria for UK National Security Vetting.

Personal and professional development

We recognise the importance of your personal and professional development and are committed to investing in your learning.

As you build your career with Frazer-Nash we want to help you realise your full potential encouraging you to grow as your role develops. That is why we believe that a comprehensive programme of training and development is critical to your personal and professional growth whatever the area of the business you work in. We achieve this in a variety of ways:

• Company induction : a programme where you will have the opportunity to visit our various offices and meet a range of our people, helping you to familiarise yourself with all aspects of our business.
• Foundation day : a day off-site run by our directors to supplement your induction programme and to help you to gain a greater understanding of our business.
• Career development : a programme tailored to meet the needs of your role and to ensure your continuous development.
• Performance reviews and personal development planning : to help you set, work towards and achieve personal and professional development goals tailored to your role.
• Targeted professional development: an ongoing activity to ensure your technical knowledge stays up to date.
• Mentoring: providing you with ongoing guidance and support.
• Accredited training : if you have not yet achieved Chartered status we will support you. We offer accredited schemes with:
  • The Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE)
  • The Royal Aeronautical Society
  • The Institution of Engineering and Technology
  • Royal Institution of Naval Architects
  • Institute of Physics

As part of your benefits package, Frazer-Nash reimburses your membership fees to a professional institution.