Research Assistant

Unist; Dublin; Hybrid; EUR 32,000 - 42,000; Full time

Job summary

RCSI - Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland seeks a Research Assistant in Anatomy & Regenerative Medicine to support an 11-month project. Reporting to Dr Claire Conway, the role focuses on valve mechanics and replacement device design.

Duties include imaging analysis of cardiac structures, biaxial tissue testing, developing a novel simulator with synthetic valves, and contributing to manuscript preparation. A Masters in Mechanical or Biomedical Engineering and strong English are essential.

Qualifications

• Masters in Mechanical, Biomedical Engineering or related disciplines with electronics experience.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills and a high level of English.

Responsibilities

• Imaging analysis of cardiac structures including CT and DT-MRI segmentation, reconstruction and related analysis.
• Biaxial mechanical characterisation of vascular and valvular tissue.
• Design and develop a novel simulator with synthetic atrioventricular valves and perform computational modelling (FEA).
• Fabricating and testing synthetic atrioventricular valves; analyse bench top data.
• Assist in manuscript preparation for peer‑reviewed publications.
• Provide technical leadership for bringing the simulator concept through design refinement and validation.

Skills

Mechanical Engineering

Biomedical Engineering

Electronics experience

Excellent communication skills

English proficiency

Education

Masters in Mechanical, Biomedical Engineering or related disciplines

Tools

FEA

Job description

RCSI - Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland

Organisation/Company RCSI - Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland Department Human Resources Research Field Technology » Medical technology Researcher Profile First Stage Researcher (R1) Positions Master Positions Application Deadline 19 Oct 2026 - 23:45 (Europe/Dublin) Country Ireland Type of Contract Temporary Job Status Full-time Is the job funded through the EU Research Framework Programme? Not funded by a EU programme Is the Job related to staff position within a Research Infrastructure? No

Offer Description

Job Title: Research Assistant

Department: Anatomy & Regenerative Medicine

Reporting to: Dr Claire Conway

Contract/Duration: 11 months

Closing Date: 19th October 2026

RCSI is a community of academic, research, clinical and professional staff working collaboratively to lead the world to better health. Here, you will thrive in an innovative and inclusive atmosphere and your personal development and wellbeing will be supported. We invite you to join us to help deliver on our exciting mission “To educate, nurture and discover for the benefit of human health”. We seek candidates whose experience to date has prepared them to contribute to our commitment to the “Race Equality Action Plan 2025-2029” at RCSI. Our students come from all walks of life and so do we. We hire great people from a wide variety of backgrounds. This makes our university stronger and ensures we hire the best talent.

Innovating for a Healthier Future 2023-2027 is RCSI’s new five-year strategic plan. Through it, RCSI will enhance human health by meeting the health workforce needs of society, creating the insights and inventions that drive health improvements, and working in partnership with patients and the public in support of better health and well-being for all. The strategy unites the RCSI community in supporting the UN Sustainable Development Goals – with a particular focus on Goal 3, which targets good health and well-being.

For each of the last six years, RCSI has been positioned in the Top 300 of universities worldwide in the Times Higher World University Rankings. We are proud that RCSI ranks first in the world for “Good Health and Well-being” in the Times Higher Education #SDG #SDG Impact Rankings 2025. This reflects our commitment to supporting people of all ages to live healthy lives and our work to promote the concepts of well-being and positive health. In 2024, RCSI was delighted to be named one of the Sunday Times Best Places to Work in Ireland.

At RCSI, our core values of Respect, Collaboration, Scholarship, and Innovation are at the heart of everything we do. We are committed to creating an inclusive and supportive environment where every colleague is valued and empowered to thrive. Our dedication to these values ensures that we foster a culture of mutual respect, open collaboration, continuous learning, and innovative thinking. Join us at RCSI, where your contributions will be recognised, and you will be part of a dynamic team making a real impact on global health.

About Our Research

RCSI recognises that excellence in research is critical to the quality of its educational activities, its credibility, and, overall, to its mission to enhance human health. RCSI’s research strategy aims to build upon its strength in translational biomedical and clinical research to deliver transformational, high impact changes in health care. Targeting both Irish national and EU funding, along with increased collaboration with industry, is a major part of the RCSI research strategy. Forging increased collaboration between RCSI PIs and industry is of critical importance to achieving success in this area. RCSI is also committed to provide its researchers with the supports and developmental opportunities to enable them to continuously grow and support their overall career development.

Summary of Post

Minimally invasive devices for the replacement of diseased valves are a hot topic in the medical device industry. However, with no established large animal model of valvular disease, it remains critical to understand how different valve pathologies impact replacement device performance. This research assistant role will assist in improving the assessment for emerging transcatheter valve replacement devices via in silico and in vitro methods.

RCSI is looking to hire a Research Assistant who will support the team’s work in the area of valve mechanics and replacement device design. This project is funded by Research Ireland through their Frontiers for the Future programme.

Specifically, the duties of the post are:

• Imaging analysis of cardiac structures including CT and DT-MRI segmentation, reconstruction and related analysis.
• Biaxial mechanical characterisation of vascular and valvular tissue.
• Working as a Technical Lead to design and develop a novel simulator with synthetic atrioventricular valves and will also entail computational modelling (FEA – Finite Element Analysis).
• Fabricating and testing synthetic atrioventricular valves; analysing bench top test data and its interpretation to understand influence of valve morphology on mechanics.
• Assisting in preparation of manuscripts for peer-reviewed publications in scientific journals.
• Providing technical leadership for bringing the simulator concept through design refinement, proof of concept and validation phase.
• Engaging in appropriate training and professional development opportunities to develop their own career reputation and career development as outlined, discussed and agreed with PI without adversely affecting the primary research role.
• Reporting directly to the project lead.

Qualifications – (Essential):

• Masters in Mechanical, Biomedical Engineering or related disciplines with electronics experience.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills and a high level of competence in the English language.

Knowledge & Experience – (Essential):

• Strong design and technical ability based on a broad and deep knowledge of fundamental engineering principles.
• Prior experience in designing and development of cardiovascular devices and cardiac models.
• Experience in computational modelling highly preferred, in particular finite element analysis (FEA).
• A capacity to work collaboratively as part of a team as well as independently, in a non-structured environment.
• Project management skills: the ability to ensure that project plans are well communicated and that all timelines are met. Ability to operate flexibly within a busy environment; can shift focus when required.
• Experience in scientific writing, attention to detail and thoroughness in work practices

We are all too aware that imposter syndrome and the confidence gap can sometimes stop fantastic candidates putting themselves forward, so please do submit an application — we’d love to hear from you.

At RCSI, people are at the heart of everything we do. Watch our short video to discover our culture, values, and shared commitment to making a meaningful impact on health worldwide. RCSI: Ensemble - Body Meets Mind.