This position is part of the National Institute of Standards (NIST) Professional Research Experience (PREP) program. NIST recognizes that its research staff may wish to collaborate with researchers at academic institutions on specific projects of mutual interest, thus requires that such institutions must be the recipient of a PREP award. The PREP program requires staff from a wide range of backgrounds to work on scientific research in many areas. Employees in this position will perform technical work that underpins the scientific research of the collaboration.
Research Title:
Automation technician
The work will entail:
The Biosystems and Biomaterials Division at NIST is seeking to hire a laboratory automation scientist or engineer. The person hired for this position will help to lead the development of automation-based methods to create a measurement infrastructure for engineering biology. They will work with a multidisciplinary team to develop and program new automation methods and to facilitate rapid and flexible adoption of automation systems for a variety of biological measurements.
They will:
- Support the NIST Engineering Biology Program in the automation of microbial growth and measurement protocols.
- Perform programming, setup, execution, and training of automated growth and measurement protocols.
- Troubleshoot and resolve issues that arise with liquid handling equipment and other general laboratory equipment.
- Maintain a basic working knowledge of microbiology or cell biology. Protocols will include microbial growth, flow cytometry, DNA extraction, and sequencing library preparation.
- Interact with team members with multidisciplinary backgrounds including biologists, engineers, statisticians, and computer scientists to facilitate protocol development.
- Document automation workflows, assay results and QC testing procedures.
- Validate new assay reagents and new consumables for use in automation assays.
- Troubleshoot and fix common problems, interface with instrument vendors, and schedule maintenance calls to minimize instrument downtime.
- Keep consistent documentation and assist with preparing technical publications. Demonstrate problem-solving skills, and the ability to identify, manage, and overcome technical hurdles.
Key responsibilities will include but are not limited to:
- Perform programming, setup, execution, and training of automated growth and measurement protocols.
- Troubleshoot and resolve issues that arise with liquid handling equipment and other general laboratory equipment.
- Maintain a basic working knowledge of microbiology or cell biology.
- Protocols will include microbial growth, flow cytometry, DNA extraction, and sequencing library preparation.
- Interact with team members with multidisciplinary backgrounds including biologists, engineers, statisticians, and computer scientists to facilitate protocol development.
- Keep consistent documentation and assist with preparing technical publications.
- Demonstrate problem-solving skills, and the ability to identify, manage, and overcome technical hurdles.
Qualifications
- Bachelors, masters, or PhD. in engineering, biology, chemistry, physics, computer science, or related field.
- Experience working with laboratory automation systems.
- Experience operating and developing methods for automated liquid handling systems.
- Ability to troubleshoot and resolve issues that arise with liquid handling equipment and other general laboratory equipment.
- Experience with programming languages used for scientific data analysis, including, for example, Python, R, MatLab.
- Basic working knowledge of microbiology or cell biology.
- Demonstrated problem-solving skills, and the ability to identify, manage, and overcome technical hurdles.
- Good communications, laboratory, and organizational skills; the ability to work independently and with a multi-disciplinary team.
Apply Here
The university is an Equal Employment Opportunity/Affirmative Action employer that does not unlawfully discriminate in any of its programs or activities on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or on any other basis prohibited by applicable law.