POSITION TITLE: Veterinary Laboratory Scientist Mentor
DIVISION / SECTION: Global and Tropical Health
SUPERVISOR: Animal Health Lead, Fleming Fund Timor-Leste project
CLASSIFICATION LEVEL: General Staff Level 8
SALARY RANGE: $98,552 - $107,331
* Salary rates effective 19 September 2019 as per Menzies Enterprise
Agreement
STATUS (FTE): Full Time
NO. OF POSITIONS REPORTING DIRECTLY: 0
NO. OF POSITIONS REPORTING INDIRECTLY: 4
ABOUT MENZIES:
Menzies School of Health Research is one of Australia’s leading medical research institutes dedicated to
improving Indigenous, global and tropical health. Menzies has a history of over 30 years of scientific discovery
and public health achievement, joining with partners across the Asia-Pacific as well as Indigenous
communities across northern and central Australia.
THE PROJECT:
The focus of the Fleming Fund Country Grant for Timor-Leste is strengthening the antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and antimicrobial use (AMU) surveillance systems and antimicrobial consumption (AMC) data capture in both the human and animal health sectors. The project will facilitate a stronger One Health approach to surveillance, bringing together multi-sectoral stakeholders to share surveillance data and gain a better understanding of AMR, AMU and AMC.
SUMMARY OF POSITION:
The veterinary laboratory scientist mentor will contribute to capacity building within the Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory (VDL) to improve sample flow, sample processing, diagnostic testing and biobanking; with a focus on basic microbiological techniques for organism culture & identification and antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST).
The role involves providing teaching and technical advice for laboratory activities relevant to strengthening
AMR and AMU surveillance system in the animal health sector, including the introduction of new equipment and new tests.
The role also involves working to strengthen laboratory quality management, information management,
biosafety and equipment servicing/procurement within the VDL. The mentor will work closely with Timorese scientists and technicians employed in VDL, staff in the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries of Timor-Leste (MAF), National Health Laboratory (NHL) staff, and visiting scientist mentors from Berrimah Veterinary Laboratory (BVL).
The position will be based in Dili, Timor Leste.
Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander people are strongly encouraged to apply
PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITIES:
1. Provide on-the job coaching and mentoring for laboratory staff at VDL, with a focus on quality assured
basic microbiological testing (microscopy, culture, identification and AST), with the aim of ensuring that VDL staff have capability to reliably culture and identify prioritized bacteria and conduct AST.
2. Assist VDL staff with the development of standard operating procedures (SOPs) for bacterial culture,
identification and AST for prioritized organisms in the AMR surveillance programme.
3. Assist VDL staff in the coordination of laboratory activities to receive specimens from the field.
4. Assist with the assessment on the current capacity within VDL for bacteria culture, identification and
AST to identify needs for infrastructure and equipment refurbishment, repair and acquisition.
5. Assist VDL staff with the procurement, implementation and validation of new equipment or supplies
for the VDL as part of the Fleming Fund project.
6. Work together with the Fleming Fund project Laboratory Lead to establish a laboratory information
management system for AMR data entry and storage across animal and human health sectors.
7. Work together with the VDL staff and the Animal Health Lead to strengthen collaboration between
VDL and NHL for AMR surveillance in Timor-Leste
8. Working together with the Medical Laboratory Scientist mentor, support the Biosafety officer to
develop and implement policies and procedures that will lead to improved biosafety in the human
health lab (NHL) and the Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory (VDL).
9. Contribute to approved Menzies research projects associated with the Fleming Fund, based in VDL.
10. Assist the Project Leads and Animal Health Lead with reporting requirements for funders,
collaborators, and internal Menzies purposes.
11. Any other tasks as reasonably required by the supervisor, Division Leader and/or Director.
SELECTION CRITERIA:
Essential:
1. Postgraduate qualification or progress towards postgraduate qualification and/or extensive
experience and management expertise in a field relevant to the Primary Responsibilities.
2. Proven experience working in a veterinary diagnostic laboratory with experience in microscopy,
bacterial culture, basic bench testing for organism identification and antimicrobial susceptibility testing
(AST).
3. Demonstrated knowledge and ability to lead quality assurance and biosafety improvements in a
veterinary laboratory.
4. Proven experience working with laboratory information management systems.
5. Experience teaching, training and supervising veterinary laboratory scientists.
6. High level expertise in animal disease surveillance in livestock, health systems strengthening and
capacity development in low-resource settings.
7. Ability to correspond with stakeholders, manage sensitive issues and maintain confidentiality.
8. Strong oral and written communication skills and demonstrated ability to be flexible and pragmatic,
including ability to interact effectively with people in a cross-cultural setting.
9. Self-motivated with initiative, good judgement and strong problem-solving skills, and ability to work
unsupervised in remote locations, as well as in multidisciplinary teams.
10. Proven ability to manage time efficiently and handle multiple tasks and assignments.
11. Demonstrated ability to think analytically and critically and to synthesize relevant data in the stated
area(s) of interest.
12. Undertake a National Police Clearance, hold a Working With Children (Ochre) card and be able
to obtain working rights in Timor-Leste.
13. An understanding and awareness of relevant Workplace Health and Safety as well as Equal
Opportunity principles and legislation along with a commitment to maintaining a healthy and safe
workplace for all Menzies staff, students, volunteers and visitors.
Desirable:
1. Ability to communicate in Tetum, Bahasa Indonesia or Portuguese an advantage.
2. Prior experience working in Timor-Leste.

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