Current Opportunities

As a young, dynamic and growing company, PowerPhotonic offers staff a challenging and rewarding career opportunity. Its engineering ethos is embedded in the culture of the organisation and the ability to work at the cutting edge of technology will be enough for many to consider PowerPhotonic a natural choice to further their career.

Headquartered in Dalgety Bay near Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, PowerPhotonic is situated in modern spacious offices with excellent facilities. The company offers a breadth of opportunity that few others can offer in Europe. Working in the heart of the company really does make a difference. If you have a significant contribution to make, we’ll make sure it is significant for your success and the success of the company. But for many, the opportunity to move to Scotland will be a key attraction. Scotland is a great place to live and work. The countryside and beaches, rivers and glens are world renowned and all within easy reach of the city centres. There is a wide choice of places to live, with lively towns and cities for those who are young or young at heart and rural communities for those who want a quieter life away from work.

We are a world-class company with the ambition to reach a global audience. No matter whether you are a graduate or an experienced engineer, an expert in optics or operations, if you want to be part of a growing company, give us a call. We are always on the lookout for dynamic talent that wants to make a difference.

If you are interested in joining a dynamic and growing company, send your c.v. and a covering letter to HR@powerphotonic.com

Current Opportunities - March 2021

Software Development Engineer

The Company

PowerPhotonic is a global leader in the design and manufacture of precision micro-optics for laser applications in materials processing, medical systems, and optical communications as well as the scientific and defence sector.

Our business was founded with the objective of providing unsurpassed excellence in all aspects of micro-optics product realization for laser applications. Our world-class design skills are supported by an innovative and flexible manufacturing process that allows the company to design both a broad range of state-of-the art industry standard laser micro-optics products and, uniquely, to offer a low cost rapid fabrication service for creating completely freeform optical surfaces.

Our world-leading position is founded on our deployment of laser-based manufacturing of micro-optics and advanced optical metrology. We design and build our laser-based fabrication capability in-house, along with the associated metrology and inspection systems.

As part of our continued growth, we are looking for a Software Development Engineer to join our ambitious team. This is an exciting opportunity for a highly motivated self-starter to join PowerPhotonic at a key period in the company’s growth.

The Role

As part of the Technology Acquisition department, PowerPhotonic’s Digital Team is responsible for setting out the strategic vision of the company’s information and data ecosystem; for delivering innovative and dependable information services and systems; for establishing quality standards in software, coding, and data; and for upholding Cyber Security standards.

The Software Development Engineer takes a pivotal role in building expertise within the Digital Team and the wider business. They take ownership of the development and deployment of in-house-designed software solutions, contribute to the successful specification and integration of both internal and external systems, and establish and manage common software development standards throughout all business functions.

Job Duties and Responsibilities

Key areas of responsibility will include:

Delivery of the company’s inter-functional software development needs
- Identify solutions – from small tools to major software projects – that effectively address needs arising throughout the business, and take ownership of their development and implementation.
- Leverage company information to its fullest. Give our engineers and developers the assistance and toolset they need to make the most of manufacturing, process and design data.
- Ensure that externally developed software seamlessly links into our digital ecosystem. Accountable for delivery of modifications carried out on commercial tools and systems.
Establish good software development practice
- Apply prior experience of software development tools and methodologies (code management, development lifecycle planning, continuous integration) to our target of making our digital development efforts controlled, collaborative and dependable.
- Take ownership of software development practices and procedures, considering competing business needs (appropriate documentation levels, quick/low overhead development, Information Security).
- Inform and educate engineers in the company on software development practises. Provide hands-on support for development, systems and process engineers’ own coding efforts.
Contribute to the company’s Digital Roadmap
- Understand and execute the company’s Digital Strategic goals, as expressed in our short- and long-term strategic roadmaps.
- Assist in the gathering of systems requirements emerging throughout the business and take responsibility for effectively addressing them. Maintain a close feedback loop with stakeholders and sponsors during the development life cycle.

Required qualifications and experience

Essential requirements:

Computer Science or related degree
Software Development experience in a commercially oriented environment, employing concepts like code control, versioning, continuous integration; willingness to apply this skill set in an engineering-focused, high-tech manufacturing environment
Excellent oral and written communication skills

Desirable requirements:

Industry/commercial experience, understanding of business requirements in high-tech manufacturing (e.g. optics, semiconductors)

Demonstrable experience in one or more of the following:

MATLAB (highly desired, or willingness to learn), C#/MSVS, LabView
SVN, Git, Jenkins; DevOps
Code based interaction with relational databases; object-relational mapping (ORM)
Administering/leveraging SQL Server environments; driving data centralisation
Developing within/integrating into Dynamics NAV; Dynamics 365; SharePoint; Power Platform
Software deployment in cloud platforms / Azure
Numerical and statistical techniques in data analysis and preparation

Preferred skills

PowerPhotonic’s core values of Innovation, Collaboration, Transparency and Excellence are the foundation for the company’s growth and success. The company is looking for candidates who share these values and can demonstrate the following:

Business awareness - we don't (regularly) sell our software: our digital output makes the business more resilient and efficient, and builds functionality. A successful candidate contributes to our goals by supporting and expanding our Digital capabilities, and requires an innate understanding of the value this adds to the business.
Excellent communication skills - be comfortable advocating the importance of a quickly growing aspect of the business to peers and stakeholders; need to confidently engage and interact with external IT and development resources.
Ability to work effectively both independently and as part of a team – this role will develop a wide range of digital tools and as such there will be a requirement for independent working, along with collaborative, cross-functional team working.
Innovation mindset – this role will be operating in a relatively new area within the business, where you will be expected to establish yourself as an innovator.
Ability to plan and organise workload – being part of a growing business function whilst being an internal service provider will require strong prioritisation skills. You will be expected to use your business awareness to plan and organise your workload to add value to the company.

This is a full-time position.

Occasional travel may be required in order to attend training courses, customer visits and industrial events.

The successful applicant must have the right to work in the UK.

To apply, please send your CV and a cover letter to hr@powerphotonic.com.

Supply Chain and Contracts Leader

Job Advert – March 2021

The Role

The Supply Chain and Contracts Leader will lead PowerPhotonic’s supply chain activities supporting the satisfaction and realisation of products and services in a timely manner. Ensure PowerPhotonic has sourced goods and services, for all aspects of the organisational operation, which are robust in supply and efficient in cost.

Job Duties and Responsibilities

Key areas of responsibility comprise:

Manage key supplier relationships ensuring excellent communication channels, timely response to query, quotation and procurement acknowledgement. Oversee the purchasing process
Routinely identify and mitigate risk within the supply chain where supply, timeliness or cost could be adversely impacted.
Where strategically important and/or to minimize cost and lead time, establish supply agreements
Define and implement a supply chain development roadmap which supports the business growth and clearly details current and future capabilities
Enhance the supplier approval and qualification processes
Establish control and routine monitoring for the different type of suppliers utilized by PowerPhotonic.
Collate and publish supplier score cards highlighting S.W.O.T. within the supply chain
Manage supplier corrective action requests ensuring effective implementation of action. Garner technical support from within PowerPhotonic.
Supplier Audit and, if necessary, timely corrective action, assuring continued product or service quality and timely delivery
Ensure the company values are always upheld when performing this role