Director, VLEST Core Instrument Facility

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The University offers a competitive benefits package that includes excellent healthcare and tuition benefits for employees and their families, generous retirement benefits, a wide variety of professional development opportunities, supportive work and family benefits, a wealth of health and wellness programs and resources, and much more.

Posted Job Title

Director, VLEST Core Instrument Facility

Job Profile Title

Director B, Research

Job Description Summary

The University of Pennsylvania is seeking a highly qualified, motivated, and customer service-oriented scientist with extensive experience in surface-sensitive spectroscopic and thin-film characterization techniques.

Job Description

Job Description

The University of Pennsylvania is seeking a highly qualified, motivated, and customer service-oriented scientist with extensive experience in surface-sensitive spectroscopic and thin-film characterization techniques. This new position will have primary responsibility for the optimal operation, maintenance, budgeting, user training and support, user community building, and collaborative strategic planning for the surface, thin-film, and soft matter characterization instrumentation located in the Core Instrumentation Facilities of the Vagelos Laboratory for Energy Science and Technology (VLEST). Current instruments for which this position is responsible are a J.A. Woollam IR-VASE Mark II Ellipsometer; TA Instruments Multi-Sample X3 DSC, Discovery TGA 5500+, and ARES-GS Rotational Rheometer (all newly acquired and installed in 2025), and a PHI Genesis Scanning XPS/AES system anticipated to be installed in 2026. Additional instrumentation, supported by the scientist’s initiative, vision, and collaborative proposal writing efforts, is envisioned to be added in the future.

Job Responsibilities

• Ensure optimal operation, maintenance and user support for surface, thin-film and soft matter characterization instrumentation in the VLEST Core Instrumentation Facility. 

• Create, modify, and/or maintain methods and supporting documentation for training and standard operating procedures (SOPs) on instrumentation and site-specific safety protocols. Develop and disseminate new instrumentation methods, independently or collaboratively with the user community.

• Provide on-site user support, troubleshoot and resolve technical issues, including during extended hours outside regular business hours.

• Train and support users on instruments, including hands-on instruction in effective experimental design, software features, and data analysis.

• Liaise with campus partners to build an interactive community of internal and external (including industry) users, collaborators, PIs, and staff to enhance fee-for-service capabilities.

• Proactively keep abreast of new developments and emerging technologies in surface analysis, materials characterization, and related fields. Make recommendations for upgrades and new equipment to support the facility and users’ needs. Participate in proposal-writing efforts to secure funding for acquisitions.

• Participate collaboratively in the submission of research publication