Job Description
Grade UE07: £41,064 - £48,822 per annum
College of Science and Engineering / School of Informatics / Centre for AI in Assistive Autonomy
Full-time: 35 hours per week
Fixed-term: until 30 September 2029
The Opportunity
The Centre for AI for Assistive Autonomy is a mission-driven research centre at the University of Edinburgh, dedicated to advancing interactive AI to enable new assistive technologies for mobility and healthcare.
The primary purpose of this role is to develop, deploy, and maintain software stacks related to the Centre’s research and commercialisation activities. This involves working closely with internal research teams and external partners at times.
This involves all aspects of application-level software associated with robotic systems such as autonomous vehicles and robotic manipulation platforms. This includes sensor processing and controller interfacing to higher level modules for perception, planning and control, human-machine interfacing, testing and data visualisation.
The post holder will take ownership of operational aspects of implementing and re-factoring software stacks, including deployment in field experiments and maintenance, and will work together with the research team on the development of new features. Working under broad direction from Principal Investigator(s) and associated research teams (including taught students undertaking research projects), the post holder will also contribute to new data collection campaigns as well as development and deployment of autonomous system features, including integration with novel sensors and edge computing, and human-machine interface technologies.
Please Include The Following Documents In Your Application
Your Skills And Attributes For Success
- Demonstrable hands-on experience of working with full stack autonomous robotic systems (Autoware), including design and conduct of full system experiments.
- Track record of high-quality research publications in robotics and/or autonomous vehicles technologies.
- Experience working in an industrial or research environment, gaining in-depth expertise in deploying software associated with robotics or vehicle operations.
- Experience managing the work of oneself, and possible others, in a research laboratory environment.
- Software development experience with large systems involving many modules, including open-source libraries (ROS2), cloud computing, complex repository management, drivers and electronic systems integration.
- Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, including the ability to interpret and apply policies and procedures.
- Experience of adhering to and implementing safe working practices in a high-risk laboratory, or similar setting.
- Excellent communication skills, with ability to communicate clearly at all levels to non-specialist and senior audiences.
- Flexible approach to work and motivated to develop new relevant technical knowledge and skills.
Contact details for enquiries: David Richardson, Chief Operating Officer, [email protected]
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As a valued member of our team you can expect:
- A competitive salary.
- An exciting, positive, creative, challenging and rewarding place to work.
- To be part of a diverse and vibrant international community.
- Comprehensive Staff Benefits, such as a generous holiday entitlement, a defined benefits pension scheme, staff discounts, family-friendly initiatives, and flexible work options. Check out the full list on our staff benefits page (opens in a new tab) and use our reward calculator to discover the total value of your pay and benefits.
Championing equality, diversity and inclusion
The University of Edinburgh holds a Silver Athena SWAN award in recognition of our commitment to advance gender equality in higher education. We are members of the Race Equality Charter and we are also Stonewall Scotland Diversity Champions, actively promoting LGBT equality.
Prior to any employment commencing with the University you will be required to evidence your right to work in the UK. Further information is available on our right to work webpages (opens new browser tab).
The University may be able to sponsor the employment of international workers in this role. This will depend on a number of factors specific to the successful applicant.
Key dates to note
The closing date for applications is
4th August 2025.
Unless stated otherwise the closing time for applications is 11:59pm GMT. If you are applying outside the UK the closing time on our adverts automatically adjusts to your browsers local time zone.
Feedback is only provided to interviewed candidates.
About Us
As a world-leading research-intensive University, we are here to address tomorrow’s greatest challenges. Between now and 2030 we will do that with a values-led approach to teaching, research and innovation, and through the strength of our relationships, both locally and globally.
About The Team
Informatics is the study of how natural and artificial systems store, process and communicate information. Research in Informatics promises to take information technology to a new level, and to place information at the heart of 21st century science, technology and society. The School enjoys collaborations across many disciplines in the University, spanning all three College, and also participates as a strategic partner in the Alan Turing Institute and, with Heriot-Watt University, in the Edinburgh Centre for Robotics.
The School provides a fertile environment for a wide range of studies focused on understanding computation in both artificial and natural systems. It attracts students around the world to study in our undergraduate and postgraduate programmes, and currently has approximately 1000 undergraduate students, 320 MSc students and 350 PhD students. Informatics is one of seven schools in the College of Science and Engineering, at the University of Edinburgh. It is recognised for the employability of its graduates (demand exceeds supply), its contributions to entrepreneurship, and the excellence of its research. Since the first Research Assessment Exercise in 1986, Informatics at Edinburgh has consistently been assessed to have more internationally excellent and world-class research than any other submission in Computer Science and Informatics. The latest REF 2014 results have again confirmed that ours is the largest concentration of internationally excellent research in the UK. This contributes to our ranking in the top 15 CS departments world-wide according to the latest Times Higher Education ranking.
We aim to ensure that our culture and systems support flexible and family-friendly working and recognise and value diversity across all our staff and students. The School has an active programme offering support and professional development for all staff; providing mentoring, training, and networking opportunities.
