CPI helps make great ideas and inventions a reality. We’re a team of intelligent people using advances in science and technology to solve the biggest global challenges in healthcare and sustainability.
Through our incredible people and innovation infrastructure, we collaborate with our partners in industry, academia, government, and the investment community to accelerate the development and commercialisation of innovative products.
From health technologies and pharmaceuticals to sustainable food and materials innovations, we turn the entrepreneurial spirit and radical thinking of our people and partners into incredible impact that makes our world a better place.
An exciting opportunity has arisen for an experienced Senior Research Scientist – Digital Technologies to join the established Automation and Digital team within the Formulation’s Technology Centre, based at NETPark, Sedgefield.
We are seeking an exceptional candidate who is a recognised technical leader at the intersection of domain science and data science. The successful individual will bring expertise from an applied scientific background (such as physics, chemistry, biology, chemical engineering, materials science) and demonstrate mastery in translating problems from the domain into challenges solved by digital/data science. This experience will be vital to support our business solving complex problems in the formulation industries. You will apply this expertise across our key industries including batteries, sustainability, nanotherapeutics, home and personal care, and food and feed. As a Senior Research Scientist, the candidate will be recognised as a specialist within their field, provide cutting-edge solutions at a technology centre level and contribute to our strategy of digital and data-enabled research. Using your background you will, actively, and successfully, lead initiatives related to business development and collaborative research funding of which prior experience is an imperative. Initial projects could include leadership of programmes supporting the batteries, health or sustainable materials sectors.
The mission of the Automation and Digital team is to employ cutting-edge digital and physical technologies to drive innovation in the formulation sector. Our goal is to enable efficient, high-quality data generation and exploitation through the integration of state-of-the-art modelling, simulation, and analytics. By combining deep domain understanding with data science, laboratory automation, high-throughput experimentation, advanced sensing, and process characterisation, we deliver comprehensive solutions that accelerate innovation across new and existing product lines.
Reporting to the Team Manager, you will provide senior-level technical expertise to deliver projects and generate privately and/or collaboratively funded business. You will be expected to translate domain-specific scientific and engineering problems into effective data-driven solutions, drawing on a broad and practical understanding of data science methodologies. You will support and mentor colleagues, influence technical direction, and provide clear, well-reasoned advice to stakeholders across the organisation, including non-specialists.
The team works with organisations of all sizes, from global multinationals to early-stage start-ups, with project durations ranging from one month to multi-year programmes. You will be exposed to a wide variety of challenges in scale, application area (for example battery materials, pharmaceuticals, FMCG, coatings), and analytical or machine learning techniques. You will be encouraged to explore and introduce new approaches, including techniques new to the organisation and emerging methods from academia, supported by a strong culture of continuous learning through peer collaboration, self-directed study, and formal training.
Some exciting projects the Automation & Digital Team have recently worked on are:
Full-Map: The FULL-MAP project is developing a Materials Acceleration Platform (MAP) for next-generation battery discovery and optimisation. It integrates multi-scale computational modelling with materials synthesis, characterization, and testing, alongside the digitisation of CPI’s battery research infrastructure and the development of closed-loop optimisation of advanced automated systems. This enables rapid development of new innovative battery chemistries.
Narrator (Nanopharma): The application of state-of-the-art digital techniques and automation to explore Lipid Nanoparticle (LNP) manufacture for supporting RNA vaccines and therapeutics. Our digital scientists are helping to chart our way intelligently through libraries of chemical data and make strides in the science of LNP manufacture.
PFAROS: This recently awarded Horizon Europe project exemplifies our involvement in sustainable materials development. The project brings together a large consortium spanning industries that rely on perfluoroalkyl (PFA)–containing materials, including healthcare and manufacturing alongside academia and RTOs. Its goal is to identify alternative materials to replace PFAs, which are highly persistent in the environment and address one of the major sustainability challenges in our time.
Other relevant project technical areas,
Predictive Modelling & Machine Learning: Applying techniques such as model predictive control, PCA, clustering, PLS, and neural networks to optimize formulation development and predict material properties.
Soft Sensors & Real-Time Process Analytics: Developing soft sensors and edge-sensing solutions to monitor particle size, viscosity, and other critical inline measurements for smarter, data-driven manufacturing.
Data Automation, Scripting & Visualization: Leveraging automated data processing, scripting, and interactive visualization to uncover insights, streamline workflows, and support sustainability goals.
Design of Experiments & Bayesian Optimization: Implementing Bayesian and state-of-the-art approaches to maximize experiment efficiency and accelerate material and process development.
Materials Informatics & AI-Assisted Formulation: Using clustering, correlation analysis, and AI to identify best candidates for new materials, predict stability, and guide formulation decisions.
Robotic Lab Automation: Designing intelligent robotic workflows that combine cobot programming with machine vision and data-driven models to automate laboratory actions, enhance process monitoring, and support real-time decision-making.
Knowledge Management & Enterprise Systems: Developing ontologies, knowledge graphs, and robust database/version control systems to support reproducible research and enterprise-scale data integration.
Key tasks
To plan, undertake, and lead digital projects.
To analyse, interpret, and report the results within agreed timescales and quality standards, and in accordance with project / client requirements.
To drive business into CPI using our digital capabilities.
To partner with relevant functions of CPI, the automation team and other formulation teams, to build, advance and make digital capabilities available within the technology centre.
For full details of this position please download the attached job description under Job Details.
The successful candidate will be educated to a minimum of a foundation degree (or equivalent) in a Scientific/Mathematical/Engineering discipline, with industrial/academic experience at a senior level and;
You will possess significant, technical expertise in data science and evidence of complex technical problem-solving where it is necessary to use own initiative and judgement.
You be able to demonstrate using your data science skills on scientific projects from your career to date.
You must hold significant knowledge and experience of coding languages typically used for data science (e.g. python, R, MATLAB).
You will be able to support/generate commercial and collaborative business on behalf the automation and digital team.
You will exhibit professional mastery of principles and practices in data science techniques gained through your career to date in an area of specialism.
Can demonstrate evidence of building knowledge sharing and communicating with non-specialist colleagues and stakeholders.
Can provide examples of actively building cross-team and business unit collaboration to achieve desired results.
It is desirable that you are educated to Masters/PhD with significant and relevant industrial/academic experience and;
Chartered status with a relevant professional institution.
You will demonstrate in-depth technical and theoretical knowledge in mathematics related to data science and is viewed as a specialist in this area by peers.
*Senior Scientist 1 - £37,000-£45,000 / Senior Scientist 2 - £42,000-£51,200
At CPI, we offer a wide range of benefits to our employees, this includes:
Up to 36 days holiday, including bank holidays – Plus a holiday purchasing scheme
Generous pension scheme
Life assurance and accident insurance schemes
Flexible working
Learning and Development Opportunities
Free parking
Find out more about our culture and benefits.