Waters Corp: Using Tech to Find the Science Possibility

Aug 22, 2022
hackajob Staff

You'll be hard-pressed to find a cooler and more innovative place than Waters Corporation to work as a Software Engineer. Using only the latest cutting-edge advancements in tech and operating in over 35 countries worldwide, Waters Corporation is truly a force for good.

Forget about boring projects, instead, experience working at a technology company that delivers scientific insights to improve human health and well-being, with real-world effects (which we'll get into shortly).

So what's it like working there and how can you join? We met with Neil Andrew, Informatics Engineering Manager at Waters Corporation to get 5 top insights into how working there could improve your career, aptitude and skills. Let's get started!

Neil Andrew - Informatics Engineering Manager

Meet Neil, He's been in tech for over 20 years but originally had a background in Chemistry. Having always been interested in the tech side of Science, he ended up securing Software Developer roles and learning coding skills such as Visual Basic, VBA, ASP and SQL. And that's not all - Neil's also got experience as a leader, and in a previous role, grew his department from 9 people to nearly 80. He's now a year into his role at Waters Corporation, let's find out what he's learned straight from him!

1. You'll impact people globally with the work you do

We build cutting-edge, scientific instrumentation that is used by major pharmaceutical companies to improve people's lives. Our instruments are used for screening blood samples of neonatal babies, checking pesticide levels in food, checking water purity, and our instruments were even used during the COVID vaccine research. To be able to tell people that the company I work for has a direct impact on the quality of people's lives gives me a great sense of pride and satisfaction in what I do.

2. You'll work on exciting projects that straddle both the science and tech industries in a great workspace

The real wow factor of where I work is the Wilmslow office for Waters Corporation. Whilst we have many offices all over the world, this is our cutting-edge UK facility, close to Manchester Airport. Not only was it custom built for us and is less than a decade old, but it's actually designed internally to look like a mass spectrometer.

It's got a full research and development function where our scientists can work on any new innovations in our field, a manufacturing capability for our range of instruments and the software space for the engineers has been created with collaboration in mind. So think lots of breakout spaces and room to really engage with each other.

3. You can look forward to leadership opportunities, transparency and great tech

My primary role as a leader in tech, is to find great people, and then stay out of their way so that they can do what they are best at. At Waters, there's really a trust in our tech teams to build the right things, and to build them in the right way. I'm transparent in these principles. What I would say to any engineer looking to grow their career into leadership is don't be afraid to not be a subject matter expert anymore. You can't be an expert in everything, leave that to the people in most specific fields, and trust them, and that trust will be repaid to you over and over again. It's amazing when the work you do helps others thrive.  

In the platform that I work in, we build applications using Angular front end, for the User Interface, and then C# for the processing and backend layers. Different teams use different stacks, for example, we have cloud teams, who are looking at the newest serverless technologies. We're always on the lookout for people who have a range of technical skills.

4. You can enjoy some really incredible perks and benefits

Waters Corporation is a modern employer with a great set of employer benefits. The contributory pension scheme is very generous, all staff have the option of taking out free medical and dental insurance and there's a car leasing scheme amongst others. At our Wilmslow site, we also have an onsite gym, canteen, cycling and parking facilities, cycling to work, storage and shower facilities. Plus we want to do our bit to help the environment so we focus on energy efficiency and carbon neutrality as well.

5. You can take your place as part of the team right now

If you're looking for a career in an industry, that actually makes a difference to people's lives and to be proud of the organisation that you work for then don't hesitate in reaching out to us. We've got lots of technical and non-technical opportunities, and there's always scope to move around the organisation and have a hugely rewarding career at Waters.

At the moment, there are a number of engineering roles currently available for all ranges of experiences and we incorporate career progression for all individuals in those teams. So we engage in the local apprenticeship schemes, with local universities for industrial placements and we bring in people at a junior, intermediate and senior level. It's great because every single person that joins an engineering team is contributing to our next generation of products that will be used to improve people's lives through the advancements of science and technology.

Some roles we currently have on offer are Principal Site Reliability Engineer, Senior Software Engineer, Senior Software Engineer (Cloud) and Senior software Developer (Informatics).

And that's it!

If you're interested in a role with Waters Corporation, then head on over to our platform where you can be matched with them in as little as 3 weeks. It takes just 5 minutes to sign up.

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