Central Services Technician

Salary:  £23,700 with progression to £25,138 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: 25 January 2024

The Role

The Faculty of Science, Agriculture and Engineering (SAgE) is looking for an enthusiastic Central Services Support Technician to become part of our dedicated team assisting research activities in the Devonshire Building. Your role is part of a technical support structure, affording you an opportunity to join a community of technicians working in a world class academic hub and supporting the faculty research, learning and teaching.

Under the direction of the technical management team, you will support activities within the Devonshire Building. You and the team will, amongst other duties.
•    Provide a sterile media preparation service to include autoclaving fluids, utensils and laboratory discard materials.
•    Using asceptic technique to prepare media and plates for microbial culture.
•    Ensure a supply of clean laboratory glass and plastic ware to DNA analysis standards.
•    Dispose of chemical, microbial and laboratory waste materials in accordance with the University safe disposal procedures including COSHH, BioCOSHH and Genetic Modification risk assessment.
•    Support with the procurement and management of stock materials, including the reception and distribution of incoming materials and consumables obtained through the University purchasing service.

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 organisation skills, be proactive, forward thinking and be 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 team working and collaboration. For informal enquiries, please contact David Whitaker by email: david.whitaker@ncl.ac.uk

For more information about the School of Natural and Environmental Sciences, please click here 

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

The position is available immediately and is offered on an open-ended (permanent) full-time basis.

For further details about Newcastle University please visit our information page at: http://www.ncl.ac.uk/about 
 

Key Accountabilities

• To undertake safe disposal of chemicals, solutions, microbial cultures and waste laboratory materials on a daily basis as directed by senior technical staff. This to include sterilisastion by autoclaving as appropriate; and recording autoclave discard cycle printouts to ensure evidence that any such material has been made inert prior to removal offsite. Perform all such duties in compliance with the statutory and local safety arrangements for the facilties in accordance with any relevant risk assessment procedures. Report any failures of compliance to the senior technical staff for the area
• Operate a central stores facility In accordance with the stock control system to maintain minimum stock levels. Under the direction of the senior staff, initiate orders to ensure sufficient supply of consumables and materials including any bottled gases and liquid nitrogen deliveries; and ensure that the building central store is kept stocked of all consumable items including gloves, wipes, disposable plastics etc.  Administer the reception of incoming goods, ensuring correct distribution to end users or inception into the central store; and that the appropriate signatures for receipt of goods is obtained. Ensure that goods receipts are entered into the SAP purchasing system in a timely manner. Keep records of end users access to the central stores so that appropriate recharge can be made
• Using autoclaves and  asceptic technique produce the sterile equipment, media and plates/slopes/broths used in microbial culture by the building end users. Ensure sufficient quantities of such items are produced to meet demand at all times by maximising the use of the available autoclave capacity. Record end user consumption of stocks to ensure any applicable recharge
• Operate a turn around washing service for dirty glassware to provide a consistent supply of clean glassware to the laboratory end users. Manage laundry arrangements for the building to send dirty labcoats away for cleaning and resupply to laboratory end users
• Undertake some frontline maintenance of multi user equipment as directed by senior technical staff, including support to manage the minus 80 freezer facilities
• Demonstrate laboratory techniques to staff and students as appropriate and under the direction of senior technical staff
• Support the distribution and support of stocks and stores across the SAgE faculty environs as part of the wider stores service. This to include (but not limited to) the Bedson, Drummond and Cassie buildings
• Any other duties within the scope and general nature of the grade which may be required

The Person
 

Knowledge, Skills and Experience 

• Excellent team working skills
• Demonstrates technical and problem solving capability
• Demonstrates good organising ability to meet deadlines
• Diligence and attention to detail
• Positive and proactive approach to duties
• Contribute to design and specification of projects
• Ability to adapt to changes in laboratory / research priorities
• Basic understanding of Health and Safety

Desirable

• Experience in using autoclaves 
• Experience in using asceptic technique
• Demonstrable experience of managing stock control
• Experience using computer based ordering systems
• Experience of writing COSHH, BioCOSHH risk assessments

Attributes and Behaviour

• 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
• Works in a planned and structured way
• Ensures that all activities are completed on time
• Ensures that others know how processes and systems work
• Set own priorities in conjunction with team and area objectives
• Looks at ways of overcoming obstacles rather than coming to a standstill
• Keeps an open mind to alternative ways of doing things
• 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

Qualifications

• GCSE/ NVQ / O-levels or equivalent experience
   

 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: 26538