Assistant Laboratory Technician

Salary: £21,761 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: 19 April 2023

The Role

You will work as part of a technical team under the direction of the School Team Leader. Reporting to the Technical team leader for Anatomy and Clinical Skills, you will be part of the team who prepare and maintain cadaveric material to support the delivery of Anatomy teaching.

This is a varied role and will include a range of tasks including manual handling, housekeeping, waste disposal, setting up laboratory spaces for teaching sessions and assisting in the preparation of cadaveric material. It involves working safely on routine activities within well established procedures and under regular supervision. As the role involves working with cadavers in a regulated environment, it is essential you have high professional standards and behaviours including, empathy, sensitivity and respect.

Ideally, you should have a good general level of education, including science subjects (O level, GCSE, NVQ2 or equivalent relevant experience) and experience of working in laboratory setting in teaching or research. We are seeking a proactive, hardworking, and dedicated assistant technician who can manage their own time effectively, has excellent organisational skills and the ability to work as part of a team. Teaching laboratories are busy environments where service delivery to specific deadlines is essential.

Informal enquiries to Isobel Duckling, Anatomy and Clinical Skills Technical team leader isobel.duckling@newcastle.ac.uk

Key Accountabilities

• Assist in the preparation of cadaveric material
• Understand and follow safe working practices, with the ability to identify and report hazards
• Set up, according to predefined specifications, laboratory spaces in preparation of scheduled laboratory activities
• Report faults or damage to equipment or infrastructure and assist with simple maintenance tasks
• Conduct routine compliance tasks to assist with record keeping, inventory and asset management
• Maintain good housekeeping, assisting with waste disposal procedures and cleaning activities
• Be flexible and adaptable to support change
• Assist with stock control, stores operation and delivery of goods to site
• With high accuracy, prepare routine reagents and materials adhering to standard operating procedures (SOPs) where necessary
• Operate simple equipment following instruction of SOPs and interpret simple results
• Assist with induction of new staff
• Any other grade appropriate tasks required by the infrastructure community

The Person

Knowledge, Skills and Experience

• Ability to understand and follow instructions.
• Ability to make decisions about work activity within defined and safe guidelines based on University & local policies
• Ability to plan own day, prioritise general tasks and work independently on routine tasks
• Good communication skills both verbally and in writing
• Experience of manual handling
• Experience of following safe practices in the workplace

Desirable

• General laboratory experience
• Experience of, or willingness to learn how to work with deceased

Attributes and Behaviour

• Treat colleagues and the deceased with respect and dignity
• Maintain professionalism at all times
• Be considerate of the diverse needs of individuals
• Demonstrate attention to detail
• Demonstrate empathy and sensitivity
• Be adaptable and flexible to situations as they arise

Qualifications

• Good basic education (O level, GCSE, NVQ2 or equivalent) with good level of numeracy and literacy

Newcastle is an inclusive global University community 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 Global 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 our employees and the communities they represent. We are proud to be an equal opportunities employer and encourage applications from everybody, regardless of race, sex, ethnicity, religion, nationality, sexual orientation, age, disability, gender identity, marital status/civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, as well as being open to flexible working practices.

The University holds a silver Athena S wan award in recognition of our good employment practices for the advancement of gender equality. The University is also a member of the Euraxess initiative supporting researchers in Europe.

Requisition ID: 25242