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.  

Principally located on the Strand Campus in the heart of central London, further details available at www.kcl.ac.uk/nms.   

Physics:

The study of Physics at King's dates back to the foundation of the College in 1829. The Department is currently undergoing significant growth with substantial investment in new appointments. Further information may be found at: http://www.kcl.ac.uk/physics 

About the role

Ariel Space Telescope was selected as the fourth medium class mission in ESA’s Cosmic Vision programme to be launched in 2031. During its 4-year mission, Ariel will study what exoplanets are made of, how they are formed, and how they evolve, by surveying a diverse sample of about 1000 extrasolar planets simultaneously in visible and infrared wavelengths. It Is the first mission dedicated to measuring the chemical composition and thermal structures of hundreds of transiting exoplanets, enabling planetary science far beyond the boundaries of the Solar System. The Ariel Space Telescope is being built by and international consortium of 600+ scientists and engineers.

The successful candidate will be working closely with Professor Giovanna Tinetti and Dr. Gordon Yip in the Department of Physics at King’s College London.

We are looking for an applicant with experience in front-end development to work on the Ariel Exoplanet Database and websites. The applicant will assist in the design and development of databases with the information about observable targets and other data provided by the Ariel consortium. The candidate will also write unit tests as part of the development process and handle deployment of the site and polishing various aspects of the website and databases. The candidate will administer, maintain and provide user support for the Ariel databases and websites.

This is a full time (35 hours per week) post, offered on a fixed term contract until 31st March 2027.

About you

To be successful in this role, we are looking for candidates to have the following skills and experience:

Essential criteria

1.      Master’s Degree in Computer Science or related subject

2.      Excellent working knowledge of JavaScript ES6, Full stack development, React + Next.js, Python, FastAPI framework, Typescript, SQL (Postgres) and SCRUM/Agile

3.      Relevant experience of database and website development and maintenance

4.      Previous experience working in a Higher Education environment

5.      Proven experience of website design and structuring

6.      Notable experience of working collaboratively in a complex organisation

7.      Strong organisational skills, time management and project management skills, including the ability to work effectively on numerous group and individual projects simultaneously

8.      Willingness and ability to undertake training and adapt to new systems quickly

Desirable criteria

1.      Good verbal and written communication skills

2.      Previous experience working in the Space sector

3.      Experience with the Ariel consortium

4.      Experience with the Ariel Ground Segment Activities

5.      Experience with ExoDB and Ariel-Rad tools

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

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.

We reserve the right to close adverts early due to the volume of applications we receive. While the closing date may change, all adverts will close at 23:59 to allow sufficient time for applications to be submitted on that day.

We encourage you to apply at the earliest opportunity to avoid disappointment as once we have closed a vacancy you will be unable to submit your application.

To find out how our managers will review your application, please take a look at our ‘How we Recruit’ pages.