Higher Research Technologist

Salary: The starting salary is £63,409, which includes allowances totalling £3,009. The salary is broken down as £60,400 basic salary, which will increase annually until you reach the top of the scale £65,886. Plus, a location allowance of £2,009 and a non‑pensionable allowance of £1,000.

Location: Southwark

Overview: Seeing is believing – and that’s the only way you’ll really get to know about our sophisticated technologies and how we’re using them to fight crime in the capital. We don’t say much, for obvious reasons, but suffice to say that we’re leading advancements in emerging technologies to deliver bespoke electronic, mechanical and IT solutions in specialist areas to make London safer. This is an outstanding opportunity to work in an exciting engineering and science environment offering excellent employee benefits and to work with some of the UK’s top academics to deliver operational technology solutions. The Technology, Research and Innovation (TRI) team strives to keep the Met at the cutting‑edge of tech. Its work is highly innovative; no two projects are ever the same. Some initiatives involve undertaking research with academia or exploring new off the shelf technologies. Others involve modifying commercially available products or creating a whole new solution from scratch. Delivery of these solutions involves the complete lifecycle from developing requirements with customers, producing design solutions and turning these designs into a fully functional product or system for operational use.

Responsibilities: As a Higher Research Technologist, you’ll be taking the very best of emerging technologies within UK academia and helping to turn these into new operational capabilities. This is a unique and exciting role for you to work at the forefront of police technology. Fundamental to this role is the ability to find solutions to complex operational problems in an innovative way. You will draw upon a wide range of science and engineering related disciplines to address the needs of frontline officers and staff. You will take their operational requirements, identify academic and industry partners to collaborate with and be the technical lead responsible for the development and delivery of research projects. You will be working with a wide range of stakeholders and will need to assess and adapt to each type of audience. You will be someone who can readily engage and win support of others. You will be working with some of the UK’s prominent academics and industry partners, so you will need to be able to communicate at their technical level. Close partnership working with our operational teams means you will need to maintain momentum when delivering research projects. This enables us to deliver elements of the operational solution quickly to maximise beneficial outcomes for policing and the public.

A Typical Week:

• Identifying potential technology research opportunities suitable for policing and TRI.
• Identifying relevant technology specialisms within UK academia and industry and creating and maintaining professional and positive working relationships with academics and industrial partners.
• Managing and working with academics, research institutes, external innovators, TRI staff and other colleagues in the MPS and sometimes nationally to deliver technology research projects for TRI.
• Being responsible for the entire lifecycle of research projects, including technically leading and project management.
• Organising handover of prototypes for operational design and delivery.
• Supporting TRI staff and projects in technical areas of the role holder’s expertise and line management.
• Developing test strategies.
• Conducting rigorous testing necessary for validating external testing results and determining the viability of transitioning research outputs at TRL 4-5 into operational solutions at TRL 6-7.
• Performing scientific comparative studies on potential technology solutions at TRL 6-8.
• Conducting in-house research for smaller research projects at TRL 4-5.
• Assessing the feasibility of research proposals including technical and non‑technical factors, e.g. human factors which may impact upon the success of a research project.
• Managing stakeholders, gathering customer requirements and documenting both technical and non‑technical factors.
• Gathering, presenting and articulating information to a diverse audience both internally and externally.
• Co‑ordinating and managing the procurement process for technology research projects ensuring the MPS is getting value for money from a technical and delivery perspective.
• Attending trade shows, conferences and government events relating to policing or relevant technology themes.

Employee Benefits: 28 days holiday, rising to 33 at 5 years, plus bank holidays. Contributory Civil Service Pension. Long service rewards, paid overtime available, and eligible for Blue Light Card. Sponsored membership to a professional body.

Vetting: This post requires access to the most sensitive intelligence material on a daily basis. Applicants must hold or be prepared to undergo National Security Vetting (NSV) Security Check (enhanced) (SC(e)) level before taking up the post.

Qualifications: Honours Degree in an engineering or scientific related discipline with extensive industry/academic experience OR a postgraduate qualification (MSc or PhD) in an engineering or scientific related discipline with relevant industry/academic experience. Good all‑round technical acumen and a proven ability to test, challenge and solve technical problems when conducting technology research. Proven experience in designing and undertaking rigorous, engineering and scientific evaluations and delivery of technology solutions. Ability to develop robust test strategies necessary for carrying out the appropriate level of testing to provide evidence for technology outputs and operational suitability. Proven ability to manage projects and where necessary identify where projects will not deliver the desired outcomes. Excellent written, oral and communication skills to gather, present and articulate information to a diverse audience both internally and externally.

Desired Skills: Working with/in academia to deliver technology research projects. Effective experience of assessing the feasibility of research proposals including technical and non‑technical factors, e.g. human, safety, legal or ethical factors. Experience of successfully managing the entire lifecycle of research projects. Experience of line or technically managing staff to deliver technology solutions. Experience of effectively managing stakeholders and gathering customer requirements and documenting both technical and non‑technical factors.

Additional Technology Skills: Mechatronics and systems, e.g. drones, robots, LiDAR. Communications and RF technology. General electronic based systems including sensor technology. AI and Machine learning algorithms. IT and software engineering. Audio, Video and CCTV based systems.

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: The Met is committed to being an equitable (fair and impartial) and inclusive employer for disabled people, striving to have a diverse and representative workforce at all levels. We encourage applications from people from the widest possible range of backgrounds, cultures and experiences. We particularly welcome applications from people with disabilities and long‑term conditions, ethnic minority groups and women. As a Disability Confident Leader, the Met has committed to making disability equality part of our everyday practice. We ensure that people with disabilities and those with long term conditions have the opportunities to fulfil their potential and realise their aspirations. The Met is committed to making reasonable adjustments to the recruitment process to ensure disabled applicants can perform at their best. If you need any reasonable adjustments or changes to the application and recruitment process, we ask that you include this information within your application form. All matters will be treated in strict confidence.