Overview
Senior Research Fellow in Digital Twins and IoT for Sustainable Energy Systems – Salford
Research Associate in Digital Twins and IoT for Sustainable Energy Systems
Opportunity:
This is an exciting opportunity for a motivated researcher or developer to contribute to the design and delivery of IoT-enabled digital twin solutions for sustainable energy applications. The role will focus on creating demonstrator platforms that combine sensing, data integration, analytics, and visualisation to support better understanding and management of energy use, flexibility, and operational performance across a range of applications. These may include smart buildings, energy monitoring, demand management, EV charging, and wider community or business-focused energy use cases. The postholder will have the opportunity to help shape both real-world deployments and simulation-based demonstrators, showing how digital twins and IoT can support more intelligent, responsive, and sustainable systems. The role is well suited to someone who enjoys combining technical development with applied innovation, and who is interested in longer-term innovation and commercialisation.
The role:
The Research Associate will support the design and implementation of IoT-enabled digital twin platforms that monitor, visualise, and analyse energy and environmental data in real time. The role will involve deploying selected sensor-based monitoring solutions, establishing data pipelines and data management structures, and developing interactive dashboards that demonstrate system performance and operational insights.
In addition to real-world deployments, the postholder will design simulated dashboards and model-based demonstrations that illustrate potential future applications of digital energy systems where real data may not yet be available. These demonstrations will support research communication, stakeholder engagement, and exploration of innovative concepts such as community-oriented energy management and fairness-oriented market mechanisms.
The successful candidate will work closely with colleagues across the project to develop analytical methods, algorithms, and visualisation tools that connect IoT monitoring with broader energy system analysis. The role will also contribute to the preparation of academic publications, collaborative funding proposals, and engagement activities with external partners including industry, local authorities, and energy stakeholders.
We hope you will bring:
- Proven skill and experience with IoT technologies, sensor integration, or real-time monitoring systems
- Skills in data processing, analytics, and software development, ideally using tools such as Python or similar platforms
- Experience developing dashboards or visualisation platforms (e.g. Grafana, Power BI, or web-based frameworks)
- An interest in applying digital technologies to sustainability, energy systems, or smart infrastructure challenges
- The ability to work collaboratively within a multidisciplinary research environment
- Strong communication skills, with the ability to translate technical work into clear insights for academic and non-academic audiences
What’s in it for you?
- Competitive Salary and excellent pension scheme.
- An impressive 32 days leave, plus bank holidays, additional time off at winter break, and the opportunity to buy even more!
- Flexible Working – we support a culture of flexible and agile working, to help you find the right balance.
Please note this opportunity may close early depending on applicant volume.
IMPORTANT: Before applying for this role, please make sure you have the right to work in the country where the role is based. Unless it clearly stipulates within in the job advert above that the hiring company is looking to or able to sponsor applicants it is deemed that the hiring employer will only consider applications from those able to comply with and work in the country where the role is based.
