Driving the Product Forward
Product Management anyone?
I have a new role in Product Management for all Marketing people in the healthcare, medical device and FMCG industry.
5-6 years experience in a Product Management/ Marketing role would be a distinct advantage.
This is a permanent Product Manager job based in Dublin
Let us know if you are interested so we can send you more information!
Facebook V Google?
Facebook or Google.. which do you use most in a day?
New figures have been released in the USA to say that Facebook was the most visited site, hitting the number 1 spot last Christmas. Share prices have even increased in both, giving Facebook the upperhand with 186pc compared to Google’s 9pc.
With all this in mind it comes to question the phenomenon that is Social Networking.
You cannot put Facebook and Google in a direct comparison as they both do completely different things for you, as are both are an invaluable tool for your internet usage. It does beg to differ, however, how we do business these days.
Where I personally am a Facebook user, I find Linkedin to be Facebook’s business counterpart from a connections point of view. In the recruitment world and in addition to our own website, Social Networking is also a key part of our advertising…. we are on Linkedin, Twitter and Facebook giving out Job Alerts!
When you see reports and figures published like these it really is proof that this year, Facebook and Google are the ones to go with!
215,000 NEW Science Jobs by 2020. This is the ambitious plan conceived in a report authored by the Innovation Taskforce.
Laser Research has multiple applications-including telecoms and Internet V.2
An element of which will involves a comprehensive and revised broadband roll out, a review of Taxation and Intellectual Property and a strategic review of investment into various domestic and FDI R&D projects incorporating Irish National Technological universities which aims ultimately at turning Ireland into an international innovation hub.
The reports authors who include such luminaries such as Cisco, KPMG, and various high profile software entrepenurs as well as representitives from Enterprise Ireland have given 24 recommendations which will provide a road map for Irelands technological future.
Key of these recommendations is a change in attitude towards failure and entrepenureship which it is hopped will provide a spur to Irish innovation and thus Job creation.
Myscience jobs wishes all success to Irish Entrepeneurs wishing to extend the boundaries of science and technology, and looks forward to the creation of the next generation of science jobs that can only add to Irelands reputation and future prosperity.
Validation Engineer Validating Medical Device Equipment
Validating Quality Control is essential for products being manufactured under extremely highly tolerances and to demanding Quality standards such as those found with medical device and pharmaceutical manufacture.
Validation is a quality control process that measures and tests against requirements that a system, product or service is achieving what it is required to do. For instance in manufacturing it is a process of zeroing equipment or plant to the exact parameters it must operate to, to produce product to an exact standard inorder to achieve a stated and fixed end result within fixed specifications outside of which it is not acceptable.
In essence it is the process of fitness of purpose testing with the end user or other stake holders.
In many circumstances in manufacturing it can involve either computers, (hardware and software), equipment or an entire operating process or facility.
Validation in short can be explained by the question, “are you building the right thing?” and often requires reference to the Users Requirement Specifications or URS and the validation process can require a set of stringent protocols to achive completion referred to by the following terminology, IQ (Installation Qualification/OQ(Operational Qualification/Performance Qualification
Opportunities in Science jobs in Ireland today include positions for Validation Engineers, Validation Managers and Validation Document Control for a variety of industries and are readily found in high spec environments such as Biopharma, Pharmaceuticals, Semiconductors and Medical Device Manufacturing and are amongst some of the most highly paid science and engineering occupations availlable despite the current economic conditions.
Science Officer/ Pharmacist at work
Drug Safety Officer or Chief Science Officer personnel work within pharmacovigilence and are responsible for the monitoring of developed and post marketed products.The role can involve writing of periodic safety update reports (PSUR) and also ensuring the accuracy of these reports written by colleagues in the same department.
PSUR’s are sometimes issued not only internally but for general distribution to offices internationally and these updates are tracked on Databases allowing for close monitoring of Adverse Event Reports (AER’s) to a wider technical community to enhance the safety awareness of drugs in use in the pharmacist community here and abroad.
Drug Safety Officers are usually pharmacists with Phamacy degrees who have worked in hospitals in the UK or Ireland for the HSE or NHS. The current demand for Drug safety officers is on the increase given wider ranges of products currently being developed for customers worldwide which has led to a corresponding increase in science jobs openings for science and pharma graduates. Given the current employment market it is a healthy option for candidates keen to look for a job less ordinary.
Semiconductor Wafer Fabrication Technician
Intels next generation is here. The Atom range of chips sets will power the next generation of note books and entry level PC’s and hopefuly for Intel steal a march on its major competitors- notable AMD. Original Engineering Manufacturers have already indicated their commitment to using the new processors in their systems within weeks, the NM450 and NM10 are already lined up for the Notebooks and the entry level PC’s are expected to utilise either the D410 or D510 processors.
All of this is good news for the Intel Ireland facility based at Leixlip which has seen major investment in the FAB 24 and FAB 24-2 wafer fabrication facilities which will undoutedly be ramping up to take account of increased demand in the coming months.
Leixlip has several Wafer FABbrication facilties the newest of which opened only 2 years ago and which will newly see the opening of an advanced R&D facility.
Currently Intel is upgrading and retrofitting both the FAB 10 and FAB 14 facilities which will add increased manufacturing capacity to a plant which is already operating at peak demand.
NanoDevice Micromesh
Nanodevice Medical Devices Make Big News in Ireland. As previously mentioned on this blog, Medical devices continue to be a major center of growth and activity both in R&D and job creation for the Irish economy. But allied to this power house another developing science is begining to make itself felt. Nanoscience is rapidly converging and combining with the BioPharma and Medical device sectors which were once seen as distinct and completely sepperate branches of science and are now adding incredible synergies. Medical devices and biopharma products are now being enhanced and expanded far beyond their existing or previously envisioned applications into new and advanced medical or clinical applications. They have also opened up completly new research vistas undreamt of less than five years ago.
Nanoscience adds a different dimension or perhaps microdimension to products such as medical devices that allows them to operate at the subatomic level. For instance, as we see with most medical devices at present they operate as simple tools treating the symptoms of ailments whereas we are already witnessing the application of nanoscience to medical devices that will very soon actually allow them to actively cure an illness.
Specifically we can envisage the usage of nano robots that can heal tears in arteries unreachable by contemporary surgery techniques. Additionally early research is already being undertaken with the development of gold plated nano drugs capable of functioning as effectively as a smart bio weapon, guided precisely and unerringly to the point of infection such as cancerous tumours doing away with debilitating chemo or radiation therapy.
Added together, medical devices, ICT and Biopharma employ over 130,000 people emphasising their importance to the nation as a significant economic driver. Given the global market for nanoscience products is over €3 Trillion Dollars, or to localise this figure, last year Ireland exported over €150 Billion in goods and services, of this 10% were nanoscience enabled or related products or €15 Billion. By 2015 this figure could be as much as €30 Billion.
Small wonder then that as this sector continues to grow in importance, it will continue to be a beacon of hope in a time of unprecedented economic gloom.
A Greener Nuclear Future?
Ireland Going Nuclear may not be such a remote possibility that such Green luminaries as John O’Gorman might like to think.
Given current energy considerations such as peak oil and the fact that Ireland is at the end of a very long Gas distribution pipeline network that for all intents and purposes Russia controls at will.
As has already been seen in the recent past, Russia often uses this facility (conveniently during winter) to let Europe know who controls the tap, especially when you dont like vocal comments or criticism being made about invading neighbour states.
Given these considerations and that Green house gasses are still rising Natural Gas can no longer be seen as a green or safe supply alternative.
Oil and Coal are much less of a green option given the high carbon content of coal and the rising costs of Oil- which as previously mentioned is at (depending on your viewpoint), or already past peak which inevitably means higher cost which will eventually diminish in supply to the point of being a non viable fuel alternative in a strategic or national energy supply sense
What about wind turbines?
Yes Wind turbines do help but we have too few and they do not as yet supply in either quantity or reliable amounts the energy that Ireland needs. Alternatives are being explored including wave power, but these will take time to come on stream-so to speak.
This brings us back to Nuclear- how moral is the argument for not using Nuclear electricity generated directly in Ireland if you are prepared to accept it being imported from Britain which is now building ten new nuclear power plants-seven of which will be located on the Western Irish Sea Cost of Britain.
We may not like Nuclear Power but in the cold dark winters ahead-it may be seen as the only bright light on the Horizon
Flat.. or Round? - For and against Science
For and against Science? This is apparently the image presented at the Global Irish Economic Forum by Green Minister Eamonn Ryan who on the one hand wants to promote Green technology but on the other hand wants to have Ireland declared a country where all food items linked to GM will be banned.
Not only does this appear to be impractical but it also seriously detracts from Ireland’s reputation as a country that is open to scientific research in all fields of research and development.
When so much of our economy today rests on exploring all aspects and branches of scientific research and development- and more relevantly the appliance of science, it is baffling to see the logic underlying the green party ministers proposals.
Why should one aspect or application of science be more or less deserving of merit than another?
Given the increase in the human population in the past twenty years alone, climate changes leading to less and less useable land given over to agriculture, crops will need to be hardier and different kinds of crops will need to be developed to meet just some of these challenges.
To take a dubious moral high ground that seeks to ignore and discredit a complete strand of science and the scientific and practical benefits of genetically modified foods is ignorant and shortsighted. Worse it is stating to the Scientific World that we do not understand the very basis of science and do not have any credibility in claiming to be a progressive and pro-scientfic country.
GM research and development (R&D)has real scientific merit and the potential to create jobs where this country desperately needs them.
If we declare Ireland a GM free zone, then also we deny reality and pass opportunity to our competitors who will surely reap the rewards. We will also contribute further to the brain drain that is becoming more and more a threat to the Irish Scientific Research community.
But perhaps science and reason will yet prevail- after all there was a time when people believed the Earth was flat…
Medical Devices
Welcome again to myscience jobs. Today we will look at the Medical Devices manufacturing industry and the growth in Medical devices job opportunities.
What are medical devices and why has there been such growth? Medical devices consist of an extremely wide variety of products used with a medical purpose in patients applied to such aspects as diagnostics, therapy or surgical and the effect is generally physical.
They can be as simple as tongue depressors or as complex as minute plastic components such as filter components used in kidney dialysis or as intricate as x-ray machines. Growth then has followed swiftly as a direct result of rapid advances in science and scientific discoveries which have in turn led to new applications of advanced materials; for instance, plastics or exotic polymers which have in turn resulted in the manufacturability of minute vascular components which to manufacture less than a decade ago were undreamt of in term the size and quality that are now commonplace.
Further still we have seen the application of plastics in the manufacture of products expand to as diverse a range of products as gas permeable contact lenses, prosthetic limbs, monitoring devices, pacemakers and cheap disposable hypodermics which can now be manufactured in the millions. This has resulted in a massive reduction in cost, allowing access to clean, safe, healthcare / medical devices previously beyond the financial affordability of many people who suffer from long term illnesses requiring for instance the application of insuline, morphine or other life term medicines.
Small wonder then that Ireland has seen an explosion in the number of medical device manufacturing companies which have decided to capitalise on our local skill base and opted to set up in Ireland. These multinationals range from Boston Scientific, to Johnson and Johnson. The consequence of these companies opening here then is a corresponding increase in demand for skilled polymer/process engineers, materials and quality research specialists amongst others to service these state of the art manufacturing facilities that continue to thrive despite a global economic downturn.
Opportunities do exist for those who are qualified and experienced, and for those Irish agencies who are specialists in the fields of medical recruitment, recruiting for moulding technicians and process engineers amongst others, myscience jobs can proudly say that Jackie Brown Medical is well placed as a lead specialist life science recruitment firm in Irish Science Jobs for recruiting for the expanding medical device manufacuring market that continues to offer careers with the potential for professional growth.
