Hitachi
,
London, Greater London
Senior Maintenance Research Engineer
Overview
Job Description
Role Overview Within Hitachi's Global Research & Development group we have an exciting new opportunity for a Senior Research Engineer who will be involved with maintenance research and innovation activities across several industry sectors. The successful candidate will be highly motivated with a strong interest in the design and application of digital solutions for improvement of maintenance approaches. In return, this role will offer the opportunity to be involved in a variety of different areas covering industries from railways to industrial manufacturing and energy systems. Company and Business Group Overview Hitachi is a Company that contributes to society through the development of technology and products that are both superior and original. Hitachi's Founding Concepts of harmony, trust, honesty, integrity and pioneering spirit have guided Hitachi's growth into a flourishing, technologically diverse and innovative Company. The Transportation, Energy & Environment Laboratory (TEEL), is part of the European R&D Centre, located in central London. The TEEL team has a mission to create and validate innovation, primarily in the Rail and Energy sectors, leveraging Hitachi's technologies and customer co-creation and is also supporting other sectors such as manufacturing. As part of Hitachi's Global R&D Group, the TEEL team also work and co-create with other European laboratories covering Automotive, Industry, Big Data and Service Design; Hitachi's other global research centres around the world; and several Technology Innovation research laboratories in Japan. Main Tasks & Responsibilities * Report to Laboratory Manager : Head of R&D for Rail and Energy * Make collaborative decisions with Laboratory Manager, General Manager, planning office staff and team managers regarding resource allocation. Work independently, under the general guidance of the LM, plan and organise the workload of a small team of maintenance researchers. * Monitor market trends and engage in longer term R&D strategy development and planning. * Design solutions, the use cases and the business cases that can address the business opportunities or threats and identify the technical issues to be resolved in creating solutions that are feasible in terms of functionality and performance. * Provide business led technical solutions based on AI & data analytics. * Engage with Hitachi Rail business unit managers and the front-line maintenance staff to gain understanding of business issues, to identify and shape R&D group involvement and to collaborative overcome the internal barriers to implementation of digital solutions. * When requested, work with Hitachi Social Innovation Business for concept development and demonstrations with new customers and emerging business opportunities related to maintenance and digital solutions. * Continue the development and future support to existing TEEL maintenance solutions for rail and industry sectors. Other Responsibilities * Preparing and submitting patents on the technical solutions to provide competitive advantage and protect Hitachi's IP; and, after obtaining appropriate protection, publishing technical results. Stimulate the Team members to patenting. * Present the results of the research activities within Hitachi R&D as well as in conference and journal publications. * Build and maintain strong connections with colleagues of Hitachi R&D in Japan, including traveling to Japan when required. * Follow and evaluate opportunities to participate in EU research activities and consortia, * Share and discuss the EU trends with Hitachi R&D centres in Japan. Skills & Experience The following skills and experience are required: * Strong academic background, Master's degree in Mechanical or Electrical Engineering or in a related field (such as Physics) is essential. A PhD would be preferred. * A minimum of 5 years' of experience in a maintenance environment is essential and to be supported by experience of asset management policies and maintenance management systems is desirable. * An understanding of digital technology (IT and OT) and approaches to developing digital solutions to support maintenance strategies in one or more industries is essential. * Proven experience and capability in designing and setting up rapid demonstrators, as well as analysing, reporting and discussing the results and conclusions is essential. * Experience of working in consortiums and partnerships with other companies and customers is desirable. * Experience across IoT, digital twins, data analytics is desirable. * Strong cultural awareness with the ability to lead small teams and to work and interact with people from various continents and cultural backgrounds is preferred. * Good communication skills, written and presentations are essential, and a second spoken language, preferably Japanese, would be desirable. * Capability and interest in data analysis and algorithm development, programming, database and web-based hosting (Python, Grafana,