Research Associate or Research Assistant in Circular Robotic Manufacturing

Job reference REQ260280

Date posted 01/05/2026

Application closing date 01/06/2026

Location Loughborough

Package Specialist and Supporting Academic Research grade 5 from £29,588, or grade 6 from £35,608 per annum. Subject to annual pay award.

Wolfson School of Mechanical, Electrical and Manufacturing Engineering

Full Time, Fixed Term until 31 January 2028

This role is not suitable for remote working and is office based only as it is essential that the post holder has the ability and willingness to travel to national and international partners and undertake visits lasting 1-3 weeks to project partners.

Please note: this role will be recruited to either a Post Doctoral Research Associate (grade 6) or Research Assistant (grade 5) depending on the pool of applicants we receive.

We are looking for a talented and enthusiastic Graduate Research Assistant or Post-Doctoral Research Associate with strong interest in Circular Economy, Robotics, AI and vision systems, sustainability, remanufacturing and recycling to work on an exciting project which aims to develop a whole system circular approach to the design, use and end-of-life management of industrial robots.

The postholder will be based at the Wolfson School of Mechanical, Electrical and Manufacturing Engineering, Loughborough University campus and will lead work on developing a circular economy framework for disassembly, refurbishment, remanufacturing or material recycling of end-of-life industrial robots, supported by AI-based life cycle assessment (LCA) and life cycle costing (LCC) models.

This appointment is fixed term until the current project end date of 31 January 2028. You will have a BSc, MSc or PhD degree or equivalent in mechanical, manufacturing, electronic, robotic control engineering or any relevant discipline. You will have regular interaction and collaborate closely with the project’s team of researchers together with an integrated academic and industrial project team to develop new learning and to disseminate the project findings.

For more information about the Research Assistant (grade 5) please see the Job Description and Person Specification.

For more information about the Post Doctoral Research Associate (grade 6) please see the Job Description and Person Specification.

Informal enquiries should be directed to Professor Shahin Rahimifard (S.Rahimifard@lboro.ac.uk)

Closing Date: 1 June 2026

Interview Date: To be confirmed