Job Description

Staff - Non Union

Job Category M&P - AAPS

Job Profile AAPS Salaried - Scientific Eng., Level C

Job Title Project Engineer-Electrical (Fusion)

Department Research | Berlinguette Lab | Department of Chemistry | Faculty of Science

Compensation Range $5,906.25 - $8,508.42 CAD Monthly

The Compensation Range is the span between the minimum and maximum base salary for a position. The midpoint of the range is approximately halfway between the minimum and the maximum and represents an employee that possesses full job knowledge, qualifications and experience for the position. In the normal course, employees will be hired, transferred or promoted between the minimum and midpoint of the salary range for a job.

Posting End Date August 25, 2023

Note: Applications will be accepted until 11:59 PM on the day prior to the Posting End Date above.

Job End Date Aug 31, 2024

At UBC, we believe that attracting and sustaining a diverse workforce is key to the successful pursuit of excellence in research, innovation, and learning for all faculty, staff and students. Our commitment to employment equity helps achieve inclusion and fairness, brings rich diversity to UBC as a workplace, and creates the necessary conditions for a rewarding career.

Job Summary

This position leads engineering activities for a project focused on studying lattice confinement fusion in solid-state materials, and will enable nuclear fusion research/studies by designing, constructing, installing, and maintaining scientific research equipment of a complex and technical nature.

This role will involve working in close collaboration with a team of scientists, engineers, and software developers at UBC (and potentially with industrial partner(s)) to generate solutions that meet all respective design criteria for various components of the project and will lead project planning, high-level communications with stakeholders, and technical mentorship of other team members for engineering-related aspects of the project.

The project builds upon foundational work summarized in a 2019 Nature Perspective article entitled \xe2\x80\x9cRevisiting the Cold Case of Cold Fusion\xe2\x80\x9d (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-019-1256-6#Ack1).

Organizational Status

(UBC Chemistry Department; UBC Chemical & Biological Engineering Department; Stewart Blusson Quantum Matter Institute) leads an interdisciplinary team of
40 scientists and engineers that design and build advanced electrochemical reactors to power the planet. This position is part of a sub-team within the Berlinguette Group that studies nuclear fusion in solid-state materials. This sub-team specializes in developing materials of interest for such studies, as well as the development of a novel benchtop plasma fusion reactor that allows for expansive studies in underexplored energy regimes for nuclear fusion.

This position reports directly to Prof. Berlinguette. On a daily basis, this position will interact directly with postdoctoral researchers, students, and other technical team members at UBC. The candidate will also liaise with technical staff both internal and external to the university in order to efficiently conduct their work.

Work Performed

Create electrical engineering for the diverse hardware and firmware requirements for the project, e.g.:
1. Provide electrical engineering leadership and expertise to other Berlinguette Group members;
2. Determine engineering needs for the project, create milestones to measure progress, and direct the execution of engineering-related activities/tasks;
3. Lead instrument design and integration of custom and semi-custom scientific equipment into plasma discharge apparatus. Examples of equipment to be developed may include:
a. Custom geometry plasma discharge electrodes;
b. Custom high voltage power sources;
c. Custom ultra-high vacuum system components;
d. Neutron detector development and integration with the existing system;
4. Lead project documentation with professional reports containing design details, drawings, and supporting information;
5. Generate design concepts and review the requirements of design concepts to downselect the most promising concepts;
6. Design and program FPGA/ASIC devices to implement complex and customized logical operations, enhancing system functionality and performance;
7. Manage the manufacturing/procurement of custom components and assemblies needed for the project by collaborating with campus technical services, outside machine shops, and other vendors;
8. Create and organize CAD files, schematics, and other documentation to support manufacturing/procurement and to facilitate deployment of plasma discharge systems in other academic and industrial laboratories;
9. Fabricate and/or modify electrical and mechanical components using manual and/or automated machine tools to support rapid prototyping and commissioning of components and assemblies;
10. Assembling, commissioning, and testing of equipment in collaboration with the project team;
11. Develop electrical and mechanical models in Simulink to predict and analyze systems behavior;
12. Gather and understand the functional requirements for each subsystem to be developed, and communicate this to other team members;
13. Oversee the procurement and/or fabrication of all necessary electrical components (from vendors, internal/external machine shops etc.);
14. Contribute to our system automation efforts;
15. Use and test COMSOL simulations to optimize plasma performance.

Consequence of Error/Judgement
Work is expected to be of professional quality to prevent delays to research. Consequences of error include increased project costs due to time wasted and potential risks to the personal health and safety of colleagues. Work will be reviewed at a high level by Prof. Berlinguette in addition to workplace safety teams.

Supervision Received
Works independently within project objectives under general supervision of Prof. Berlinguette.

Supervision Given
This position will provide supervision, guidance, and/or direction to project team members (e.g., postdoctoral fellows, technical staff, graduate students, co-op students) who are performing electrical-engineering-related tasks.

Minimum Qualifications

• Undergraduate degree in electrical engineering or physics; and a minimum of 5 years of related experience, or the equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Extensive, demonstrable experience with high voltage and pulsed power systems;
• Expertise with Solidworks, COMSOL, and/or similar CAD software;
• Familiarity with electrical and high vacuum manufacturing processes;
• Ability to communicate electrical and high vacuum designs and requirements effectively to fabricators in order to facilitate rapid delivery of functional assemblies;
• Experience with hands-on electrical engineering and high vacuum systems
• Experience with at least one programming language (e.g. python, MATLAB, C++ etc.);
• Exceptional communication and collaboration skills; and
• Demonstrable ability to work toward milestones and manage deadlines.

Preferred Qualifications

• Master\xe2\x80\x99s degree in electrical engineering or physics;
• Experience working on a plasma fusion project would be an asset;
• Experience with plasma systems or high energy particle physics;
• Familiarity with high vacuum systems, CNC machines, microcontrollers or other computer-controlled equipment;
• Familiarity analyzing data from analytical instruments or other types of sensors; and
• Familiarity with complex signal processing.

The ideal candidate will thrive in an environment of collaboration, creativity, and responsibility.

University of British Columbia