King's College London

About us

The Faculty of Natural, Mathematical & Engineering Sciences (NMES) comprises Chemistry, Engineering, Informatics, Mathematics, and Physics – all departments highly rated in research activities and a wide-ranging portfolio of education programmes. 

​Celebrating diversity and supporting staff is important to us and we offer a range of provision including flexible working, caring support (including a Parenting and Carers Fund and the Carer’s Career Development Fund), training, and a variety of diversity and inclusion networks. Staff can apply for flexible working to help them balance the demands of their professional and personal commitments and we offer comprehensive leave policies for parental, adoption, surrogacy, dependant and shared leave. 

​The university is making investment in NMES, and both student and staff numbers are growing. Our staff come from over 45 countries and 56% of our students are from outside the UK. 

Further details available at www.kcl.ac.uk/nms.​ 

About the role

The research group of Dr Micaela Matta is seeking to appoint a highly motivated and experienced postdoctoral research associate in computational materials chemistry.

The position is funded by the EPSRC project “Data-driven design of organic mixed conductors”. 

Mixed ionic/electronic conducting materials are being developed for applications in bioelectronics, biosensing, energy storage and neuromorphic computing.  However, the lack of general structure-property relationships is a bottleneck for systematic material development.  

In this project, the candidate will conduct a high throughput computational screening of novel organic mixed ionic/electronic conductors leveraging AI, quantum chemistry, and molecular dynamics simulations. The candidate will work in close collaboration with experimental groups providing validation/testing of novel mixed conducting materials.

The project has a strong emphasis on software development; the candidate will develop and maintain workflows and datasets related to the project according to FAIR principles, supported by Dr Matta and KCL’s E-Research Team.

This is a full time post (37.5 hours per week), and you will be offered an a fixed term contract for 2 years.

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

1.      Hold a PhD in Chemistry, Materials science, Physics or equivalent.

2.      Demonstrable experience in either atomistic molecular dynamics simulations or quantum chemistry/density functional theory calculations

3.      Demonstrable programming skills

4.      Strong track record (commensurate to experience)

5.      Excellent communication skills and team work attitude

Desirable criteria

1.      Demonstrable experience in materials chemistry, materials discovery and/or organic electronics

2.      Demonstrable experience in applying ML/AI to computational chemistry

3.      Demonstrable experience in developing/applying computational workflows for large datasets

4.      Demonstrable experience in managing, deploying and documenting Python packages

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.

* Please note that this is a PhD level role but candidates who have submitted their thesis and are awaiting award of their PhDs will be considered. In these circumstances the appointment will be made at Grade 5, spine point 30 with the title of Research Assistant. Upon confirmation of the award of the PhD, the job title will become Research Associate and the salary will increase to Grade 6. 

Further Information

At King’s, we believe that the diversity of our community and a culture that is welcoming, open, inclusive and collaborative, are great strengths of the university.

The Equality Act of 2010 protects the rights of our students and staff and provides a framework to fulfil our duties to eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation and in addition, to advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations between those who share a protected characteristic and those who do not. At times, this will include balancing rights and beliefs that can feel in tension.

We are committed to free speech and to academic freedom, believing that our foundational purpose as a university, is to create spaces where a wide range of ideas, including ideas that are controversial, can be discussed and debated, and where members of our community can express lawful views without fear of intimidation, harassment or discrimination.

When engaging in the robust exchange of ideas, we ask that our community is mindful of our Dignity at King’s guidance.

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.