Assistant Laboratory Technician

Salary: £23,393 per annum

Newcastle University is a great place to work, with excellent benefits. We have a generous holiday package; plus the opportunity to buy more, great pension schemes and a number of health and wellbeing initiatives to support you.

Closing Date: 05 May 2024

The Role

A great opportunity is now available for a motivated and enthusiastic individual to join the Technical Operations Team within Newcastle University’s Faculty of Medical Sciences.  Reporting to the Community Lead and Technical Manager team, as part of a professional community of technicians, you will provide a high level of operational support across the Faculty’s busy laboratory and infrastructure facilities, working closely with technical, administrative and academic colleagues.

To be successful in this role you will have an excellent basic education with good levels of numeracy and literacy (GCSE, NVQ2 or equivalent).  We are looking for candidates who can demonstrate good time management and organisational skills with the ability to meet deadlines.  Experience of working with clinical/chemical waste and handling gas cylinders/liquid nitrogen, in a laboratory environment, is desirable.

Please note that if you are successful to this role, you will require medical clearance before you can commence in the role

Informal queries can be made to Annette Lane.

This is a fixed term post available on a full-time basis for a period of 12 months.

Key Accountabilities

•    Maintain good housekeeping standards by assisting with waste disposal processes and laboratory cleaning activities
•    Assist with stock control, stores operation and delivery of goods to site
•    Conduct duties to aid with movement of goods and equipment across site as required
•    Assist with record keeping, inventory and asset management
•    Set up, according to predefined specifications, laboratory spaces in preparation for scheduled lab/workshop activities
•    Set up and operate simple equipment following well-established standard operating procedures
•    Report faults or damage to equipment and assist with simple maintenance tasks
•    Conduct routine compliance tasks
•    Report faults or damage to infrastructure
•    Understand and follow safety paperwork, with ability to identify and report hazards
•    Promote and follow safe working practices
•    Contribute to team meetings
•    Assist with inductions of new staff
 

The Person

Knowledge, Skills and Experience

•    Good interpersonal skills 
•    Manual handling experience

Desirable
•    General understanding of laboratory work with practical experience in a laboratory or workshop setting 
•    Experience of handling gas cylinders and liquid nitrogen 

Attributes and Behaviour

•    Ability to plan own day and prioritise general tasks
•    Ability to work effectively and efficiently as part of a team or independently
•    Ability to make decisions about work activity within clearly defined guidelines based on University & local policies
•    Ability to understand and follow verbal and written instruction
•    Good communication skills both verbally and in writing
 

Qualifications

•    Good standard of education at GCSE/ NVQ Level 2 in relevant subjects or equivalent technical experience

Desirable
•    Professional registration with an accredited professional body 

Newcastle University is a global University where everyone is treated with dignity and respect.  As a University of Sanctuary, we aim to provide a welcoming place of safety for all, offering opportunities to people fleeing violence and persecution.

We are committed to being a fully inclusive university which actively recruits, supports and retains colleagues from all sectors of society.  We value diversity as well as celebrate, support and thrive on the contributions of all of our employees and the communities they represent.  We are proud to be an equal opportunities employer and encourage applications from individuals who can complement our existing teams, we believe that success is built on having teams whose backgrounds and experiences reflect the diversity of our university and student population.

At Newcastle University we hold a silver Athena Swan award in recognition of our good employment practices for the advancement of gender equality.  We also hold a Race Equality Charter Bronze award in recognition of our work towards tackling race inequality in higher education REC.  We are a Disability Confident employer and will offer an interview to disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria for the role as part of the offer and interview scheme.

In addition, we are a member of the Euraxess initiative supporting researchers in Europe. 

Requisition ID: 26942