Brian Braithwaite was born in Devonport in 1938 and moved with his family to Salford in 1940. He was a Technician Apprentice at Associated Electrical Industries from 1956 to 1961, during which period he spent time in the Scientific Apparatus Department assisting engineers in design work on NMR Spectroscopy and Mass Spectrometry. At the end of his apprenticeship, he joined the Mass Spectrometry Group as a junior development engineer progressing to development engineer in 1963. During this period, he worked on one of the first commercially available Mass Spectrometers, the Type MS2, and the more advanced MS7, MS9, and MS12.

Following his time at AEI, Mr Braithwaite worked as a senior research assistant at Unilever Research, Colworth, Bedfordshire. In 1974, he moved to Applied Research Laboratories (ARL) in Luton as a senior engineer, working on the design of ICP Spectrometers. ARL was a subsidiary of the optics company Bauch and Lomb, affording Mr Braithwaite the opportunity to work in the USA. From 1979 to 1984, Mr Braithwaite worked as a senior development engineer at Applied Chromatography Systems in the electronics team, developing Liquid Chromatography instruments. From 1984 to retirement in 2004, Mr Braithwaite was a self-employed consultant working on instrument and robotic projects, later servicing some of the instruments he helped to design during his career.