• Based at our Waurn Ponds Campus
• Full-time, Fixed term (2 years)
• HEW 6 $85,588 - $92,428 + 17% Superannuation

Founded in 1974, Deakin is a public university in Victoria with 61,000 students across five campuses: Melbourne Burwood, Geelong Waurn Ponds, Geelong Waterfront, Warrnambool, and the online Cloud Campus. We are a progressive and open-minded university, with the highest student satisfaction in Victoria and consistently ranked in the top 1% of the world’s universities.

The Animal Services team is responsible for supporting researchers using animals under the Australian Code for the Responsible Conduct of Research, the Australian Code for the Care and Use of Animals for Scientific Purposes, humans and genetically modified organisms, the requirements of the University Animal Ethics Committees, the Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions and the Office of Gene Technology Regulator.

Reporting to the Manager, Animal Services, the Senior Technical Officer – Laboratory Species has a dual role, caring for animals and providing support for wider research objectives.  The position provides guidance for the day-to-day care and husbandry requirements of animals within allocated facilities. In addition to supporting the well-being of the animals, the role contributes to ensuring the validity of scientific work is met and maintained.

The Senior Technical Officer position will draw on your people leadership capability and technical skills. The role specialises in the management of rodents and may lead a small team of technicians to support the delivery of services. The position is ideally suited to a mid-career rodent breeding program specialist and presents an opportunity to perform a range of injections as well as organ collection. There is also the potential to undertake small surgical procedures.

Your key responsibilities will include the need to:

• Ensure that people responsible for implementing work priorities have role clarity, the necessary skills and authority to act and feel empowered and supported to act
• Identify, lead, and actively promote change within own area of responsibility and understand and communicate the reasons for the change
• Lead with professional and ethical behaviours, managing the use of animals for research and teaching and ensuring animal research facilities are maintained and functioning at the standard expected of a leading research institution whilst operating within legislative certification of the SPPL
• Oversee and manage the ethically sound husbandry of all allocated animals in accordance with standard operating procedures and relevant protocols, ensuring that they are observed daily to assess health, ecological conditions, social environment, at the same time and ensuring animals have access to clean food, water, and environmental enrichment
• Manage and actively participate in delivering laboratory animal requirements of experimental projects, for instance breeding programs to defined specifications
• Investigate and probe for the facts and identify relevant solutions and select the most appropriate from the range of alternatives
• Strive for excellence and establish short to mid-term operational plans to meet Deakin’s strategic priorities
• Plan and oversee all aspects of the end-to-end projects to deliver sustainable outcomes, value within constraints of time, cost, and quality
• Work with contractors and service providers to ensure facilities remained appropriately stocked with consumables equipment and facilities remain fit for purpose
• Understand and integrate perspectives held within different areas of the University and put plans in place to build collaboration, mutually beneficial ethical alliances and develop common goals
• Seek feedback from clients regarding their satisfaction and perspective with products or services received, respond to feedback with openness and transparency and seek to identify ways to better service the customer
• Provide ethical advice to clients that address underlying issues, promoting value-adding insights and recommendations
• Act as a coach and work with team members to facilitate growth and development by giving balanced, constructive feedback considering individual capability and team performance, in alignment with Deakin’s code of conduct and core university strategies and policies that promote a safe, sustainable, and productive working environment.

To be successful, you’ll have:

• A Degree in Animal Studies or a relevant discipline including Laboratory Animal Studies with subsequent relevant work experience, or equivalent combination of training and experience
• Demonstrated care of laboratory animals, including application of surgical skill
• Experience in animal use in research and teaching in a broad range of disciplines and proven ability to successfully work within a high performing research team
• Understanding of the requirements of relevant Commonwealth and State legislation and external regulatory authorities or funding bodies
• An understanding of components of disease and health status, with the ability to recognise signs or symptoms of disease and ill health.

First aid training is desirable but not essential.

For a copy of the position description, please see below:

 PD - Senior Technical Officer Laboratory Species.pdf

Special Requirements of the role:

• Work outside business hours e.g. participate in weekend, public holiday, University holiday rosters and for on call work
• Working with Children Check

Please submit your updated resume and a short cover letter outlining your skills and experience for this role by 4 October 2022.

For a confidential discussion regarding this position, please contact David Taylor

Successful applicants will need to comply with vaccination mandates imposed by the relevant state/territory government. Applicants who attend third-party sites to undertake University activities will also be required to comply with any other directions or requirements in place at the third-party location.

Are You Ready?

Deakin is a Victorian university with a global impact. We are an agile, dynamic and innovative university committed to making a positive impact through our excellence in education, research and innovation and the contributions we make to the wider community.

We understand that our reputation has been built on the dedication and expertise of our staff and we offer a dynamic and diverse working environment with opportunities to grow and develop careers. We believe that a progressive, thriving culture will ensure that people choose to come, and stay at Deakin and contribute to our ongoing success.

We value diversity and aim to build an inclusive environment that champions, embraces and respects differences. We support and encourage applications from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and people of all abilities, cultures, sexual orientation, and genders.