Are you experienced in Human Factors and Ergonomics Research and its applications in physical product development?

Would you like the opportunity to work with global multinationals, SMEs and start-ups across numerous industries? Would you like to collaborate with world class academics and researchers at a leading Irish university, a world leading product design agency and a global leader in advanced manufacturing research? Then perhaps this opportunity is for you.

HFE-Remote – Developing robust human factors and ergonomics systems for physical product development in a remote living world.

Candidate

We are looking for a talented postdoctoral engineer/designer to jointly apply to the Enterprise Ireland Career Fit-plus program. The successful postdoctoral engineer/designer will work jointly with Dolmen Design and Innovation , Biodesign Europe at Dublin City University and the Irish Manufacturing Research Centre where they will be involved in the development of a robust system for human factors and ergonomics research and assessment that can be leveraged by the Dolmen team to respond to the tight timelines and remote access challenges of COVID/agency life.

The applicant must have the following qualifications:

• A PhD or minimum 4 years recognised industrial research experience in the area of Human Factors and Ergonomics.
• The PhD or 4 years equivalent industrial research must be completed before the deadline of Career FIT PLUS (31^st Dec 2020).
• The candidate must not have been working in Ireland for more than 12 months of the previous 3 years.
• The candidate must be demonstrably fluent in English, both written and oral.
• If not a national of an EU member state, candidate must satisfy the Irish regulations on immigration and have the support of their host institutions with respect to these regulations and requirements.
• The fellow must demonstrate their immigration status qualification as part of their application.

The applicant would ideally have the following experience/ knowledge:

• Worked with private companies in the development of physical products.
• A knowledge of CREO/Solidworks.
• An understanding of ISO13485.
• Practical experience with ISO62366.
• Experience working in fast paced environments.

Candidates should apply with the following (See attachment of the template at the bottom of the page):

• A 1 page ‘expression of interest’ that includes at least 1 paragraph on your research background and experience and why it is relevant.
• A 2 page CV
• A LinkedIn Profile link
• An Orcid/Google Scholar link to your publications
• Proof of qualification for the role (see 6 points required for qualification in earlier section)

If you are interested please apply directly to Prof Nicholas Dunne of Dublin City University and Director of Biodesign Europe (a transatlantic partnership with the Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University) (nicholas.dunne@dcu.ie) with a completed EoI form (See Appendix 1). Deadline 14^th October for submission.

Background

Human Factors and Ergonomics are key elements of new product development, especially in the area of physical product development and specifically in the area of medical technology and healthcare. In fact, the reason the FDA rejected and removed from the market almost 60% of products in the last two years was due to problems with human factors and ergonomics. HFE is core to the delivery of products that work at the interface of product and human.

Dolmen has 30 years’ experience in new product development work for multinationals, SMEs and start-ups from all over the world. To develop more robust methods to deliver fast paced contract work for our clients we need to ensure that we develop a world class and future focussed system to deliver HFE project work for our clients and that this system is embedded across all our work and developed for use by all of our team. The project is further impacted by recent COVID19 restrictions on work practices. We want to ensure that our new system will dynamically respond to any or all external challenges thrown at us and continue to deliver regardless of remote access challenges.

We would expect that the candidate will be exposed to multiple projects across multiple clients and multiple sectors in order to understand how work is currently done and how it might be optimised (our clients include Boston Scientific, Diageo, Hollister Inc, Henkel, BD etc). We would aim to ensure that the candidate learns as much as possible about professional agency life and in turn would expect that the Dolmen team would benefit from the experience and knowledge of the candidate. Our desire is that we develop a long term relationship with the candidate to build out our R&D capabilities, should the project be successful.

Partner Information:

IMR is a not for profit RTO (Research & Technology Organisation) focused on working with industry to adopt and develop cutting edge technologies. To date IMR have been active in various technical fields, such as Additive Manufacturing, and have been engaging with partners from across the world through various collaboration mechanisms, such as H2020.

Across the two sites in Ireland (Mullingar & Rathcoole), IMR have 70+ working daily on technical challenges and leveraging the state of the art technology available on site. A key area of importance to IMR is the leveraging of design techniques, such as Biomimicry, to combine with the advanced manufacturing techniques now available.

Comprehensive information on Biodesign Europe can be found here: https://www.dcu.ie/commsteam/biodesign-europe

Comprehensive information on DCU can be found here: https://www.dcu.ie/research

Application form (1.33 MB)