Specialist Technical Officer (931417KR-R)

How good a soldier’s hearing is can mean the difference between life and death. Soldiers are more likely to have hearing loss than the standard population due to the high levels of sounds they can be exposed to as part of their job. Pure-tone audiometry is routinely used as to help determine whether an individual’s hearing is adequate for safe and effective performance of their role, or whether they need to be moved to a different role or retired.

This two-year project is funded by the Royal Centre for Defence Medicine to improve occupational hearing assessment for infantry personnel. The project consists of two parallel studies. The first is an independent clinical audit of pure-tone audiometry undertaken in the military with an emphasis of working together towards continual improvement in quality. The second is a research study to refine our alternative candidate fitness-for-duty test and to compare it to pure-tone audiometry in a military population. 

Your role will be to work closely with Drs Hannah Semeraro and Daniel Rowan to coordinate, carry-out, analyse and disseminate the audit and research study, and in collaboration with Dr Adrian Allsopp of the Institute of Naval Medicine.

You must have a BSc (Hons) in Audiology or other relevant field, or have an equivalent skill level; be registered or be eligible for registration as a health professional in audiology in the UK; have a high level of competence with pure-tone audiometry according to British Society of Audiology standards; and have strong communication and project management skills. You must be willing to travel to many military audiometric test centres across the UK with research equipment; a full UK driving licence is desirable. Experience of clinical audit and change management is also desirable although training can be provided.

We also aim to provide you with outstanding opportunities to develop yourself as a future leader of clinical practice and to pursue a career in research such as via a PhD.

Informal enquiries are welcomed and should be directed to Dr Daniel Rowan: dr@isvr.soton.ac.uk or Dr Hannah Semeraro H.D.Semeraro@soton.ac.uk.

About The University

You will join the world-renowned Institute of Sound and Vibration Research, which has a strong legacy of improving health and wellbeing internationally. We are within a faculty of Engineering and the Environment, which was rated number one for research power in general engineering in REF2014 and has an excellent record of collaborative research with industry and government institutions.

Application Procedure: 

You should submit your completed online application form at www.jobs.soton.ac.uk. The application deadline will be midnight on the closing date stated above. If you need any assistance, please call Matt Saxby (Recruitment Team) on +44 (0) 23 8059 3462. Please quote reference 931417KR-R on all correspondence.

We were awarded an Athena SWAN silver award in 2016 in recognition of our continued commitment to improving equality for women in science and engineering. We also have the Platinum EcoAward, committing all of our staff and students to take responsibility for managing their activities to minimise harm to the environment.

Closing Date: 14 Jun 2018
Post Type: Technical & Experimental