Principal Physicist - New Inventions

Newton Colmore Consulting; Cambridge; On-site; GBP 100,000 - 140,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Mentoring programmes

Job summary

Newton Colmore Consulting in Cambridge is seeking a Principal Physicist - New Inventions to join a leading technology company. You will apply fundamental physics to invent, analyse, model and prototype solutions for challenging defence and security problems, owning the full development arc from initial investigation to transfer to manufacture.

We welcome candidates from academia, industry or government who bring rigour, curiosity and the ability to move from first principles to working

Responsibilities

• Apply fundamental physical principles to invent, analyse, model, and prototype solutions.
• Own the full development arc from initial investigation to prototype realisation and transfer to manufacture.
• Work across diverse physics domains to tackle challenging problems in defence and security.

Job description

Principal Physicist - New Inventions

Newton Colmore is working on a principal physicist role with a leading technology company in Cambridge.

We are looking for an experienced Physicist with the curiosity to tackle problems that genuinely don't have known answers yet, and the skills to find them.

The Scope of the Work

This is applied physics in the truest sense.You will take fundamental physical principles and use them to invent, analyse, model, and prototype solutions to some of the hardest problems in UK defence and security.You'll own the full development arc — from initial investigation and computational modelling through to prototype realisation and transfer to manufacture.

Previous projects have spanned an unusually broad range of physics domains:

• Quantum technologies — sensing, PNT, computing, communications
• Electromagnetics — propagation, penetration, plasma interactions
• Semiconductors — junction behaviour, logic, thermal effects, sensing
• Optics — imaging systems, ultrafast lasers, fibre optics, fluorescence
• Acoustics & sonar — ultrasound, acoustic communications
• Fluid analysis — particle dispersion, microfluidics, flow
• Thermal systems — aviation, maritime, materials processes
• Algorithm design — AI/ML, signal processing, autonomous systems, edge computing

No two projects are the same and no two physicists are the same.What they share is a deep grounding in physical principles and an instinct for finding elegant solutions to complex problems.

What You Can Bring

You will have a demonstrable track record of applying fundamental physics to real-world challenges, coupled with strong academics.We're open to candidates from any sector — academic, industrial, or government — and any physics specialism, experimental or computational.

What matters most is rigour, curiosity, and the ability to move from first principles to working prototype.

What is on Offer

The company offer tailored salaries and packages to attract the best possible candidates.They have carefully curated an environment that allows their people to do great work, combining trust, guidance, autonomy and collaboration.For more junior engineers, mentoring programmes are a key aspect of their business too.