Biological Teaching Technician in Newcastle upon Tyne

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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.

The Role

The Faculty of Science, Agriculture and Engineering (SAg E) is looking for an experienced and highly motivated Biological UG/PGT Teaching Technician to become part of our dedicated team supporting the delivery of practical classes in the School of Natural and Environmental Sciences.

This is an exciting opportunity to join a team of technical staff supporting the teaching activities in the School of Natural & Environmental Sciences through the provision of technical support within the biology and marine teaching and project labs.

Your role will be to support the biology UG and PGT teaching activities of the School through the provision of laboratory management and technical expertise in biotechnology, microbiology and molecular biology.

Your role will also be to support technical colleagues as designated by the School Technical Operations Manager under the direction of the Technical Team Leader for the area.

Under the direction of the technical management team, the post holder will be responsible for:

• Supporting the preparation and delivery of taught practical classes and UG/PGT projects within the biological teaching and project labs.
• Planning for and preparation of reagents, chemicals, and equipment to use in busy student laboratory classes.
• Undertaking COSHH, BIOCOSHH and general risk assessments.
• Regular lab housekeeping activities such as clinical, chemical, and biological waste disposal, cleaning, and stocktaking.
• Supervising students in a busy environment, where multiple experiments are being carried out.
• Providing technical support, especially in the event of breakages and/or spillages.
• Carrying out regular laboratory safety checks and tap flushing.
• Ordering general lab consumables and reagents for practical classes.

The post holder will be

• Capable of training and advising lab users on safe techniques and will work with users to ensure they are working safely and effectively.
• Confident and competent with Health and Safety management.
• Capable of conducting their own experiments when required in line with teaching requirements and active research projects.

You will have a good working knowledge of Health and Safety policies and procedures in a laboratory setting.

You will preferably have some experience in a relevant technical role in a science environment.

You will have good communication and organisational skills, be proactive, and able to meet tight deadlines.

You should be forward-thinking, diligent with excellent attention to detail.

We are seeking to appoint a positive individual who embraces teamwork and collaboration.

You will be able to respond to unknown risks in a logical and calm manner, ensuring those around are safe and risks mitigated as best as possible.

This is a full-time, open-ended post, with an immediate start.

We are committed to building and maintaining a fair and inclusive working environment.

• To monitor the satisfactory operation of biological UG and PGT teaching laboratory equipment, reporting any defects to the relevant technical team leader.

Carry out basic preventive maintenance of equipment in relevant workshop/laboratory areas.

Operation and operational maintenance of teaching apparatus, equipment and instruments for UG and PGT teaching purposes.

• To support the operation of the biological teaching laboratories to ensure effective use and availability for UG and PGT teaching.

Assistance in the training of academic, technical and research staff, postgraduate and undergraduate project students in specific experimental techniques and the use and application of equipment.

• To be responsible for the determination of all requirements to ensure adequate availability of materials, chemicals, glassware, equipment and botanical and animal specimens for laboratory/field activities that the post-holder is supporting; and for initiating purchase orders to ensure sufficient stocks of these items.
• To be responsible for keeping up to date with relevant Health and Safety legislation, codes of practice and regulations ensuring safe handling, storage and disposal of materials in accordance with local rules and legal requirements (including risk assessments and any other statutory or local safety arrangement).
• To provide assistance to staff and students in the use (methodology and techniques) of equipment and apparatus in the teaching laboratories.

To demonstrate standard molecular biology and microbiology techniques to undergraduate and postgraduate students.

• To liaise with academic staff with regard to the preparation of COSHH forms relating to their practical classes.
• Responsibility for the production of the COSHH forms resides with the researchers
• To prepare solutions, media, materials, molecular biology reagents, microbial cultures and equipment (both sterile and non-sterile) required for practical classes and deploy them appropriately in the laboratory to permit efficient working during classes.
• Any other duties within the scope and general nature of the grade which may be required
• The Person
• Knowledge, Skills and Experience

Essential (must provide clear examples of)

• Demonstrable work experience in a relevant technical role
• Thorough working knowledge of Health and Safety procedures, and experience of safe waste management within a biological teaching laboratory environment
• Excellent team working skills
• Demonstrates technical and problem solving capability
• Demonstrates good organising ability to meet deadlines with a positive and proactive approach to duties and diligence and attention to detail
• Contribute to design and specification of teaching/research activites
• Ability to adapt to changes in laboratory teaching/research priorities
• Knowledge of the standard protocols for the preparation of materials for practical classes
• Ability to carry out the routine feeding and maintenance of insect cultures
• Ability to prepare culture media and plates, and to maintain and produce microbial cultures using good aseptic technique

Qualifications

• Apprenticeship in an appropriate subject with experience in a relevant technical role; or BTEC level 4 / HNC / HND; or A level (or equivalent) qualification; or relevant broad work experience acquired through a combination of vocational training and considerable on-the-job experience, demonstrating development through progressively more demanding relevant roles.
• M Biol/M. Sc in a relevant scientific subject
• Attributes and Behaviour
• Team-working (Self)
• Works collaboratively with others, plays a positive role in teams and establishes and grows relationships across the organisation where different skills, expertise and opinions are valued.
• Shares relevant and useful information with others
• Respects the expertise and contribution of others even if own opinion is different
• Willing to help others and share workloads
• Planning and organising (Self)
• Works in a planned and structured way
• Ensures that all activities are completed on time
• Ensures that others know how processes and systems work
• Can work autonomously and set own priorities in conjunction with team and area objectives
• Finding Solutions
• Looks at ways of overcoming obstacles rather than coming to a standstill
• Keeps an open mind to alternative ways of doing things
• Delivering services (Self)
• Keeps fellow team members up to date with progress
• Pays attention to detail
• Has a positive attitude for doing things better
• Takes responsibility for achieving own targets
• Co-operates with others to achieve targets
• Strives to deliver high quality results
• Is enthusiastic in getting job done on time
• Recognises the need for change and is forward looking.

Promotes the benefits of change to others and regularly comes up with new ideas.

Has the willingness to adopt new ways of working and to make improvements.

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 Gold 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.

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