Technician
Job Description
Job title: Technician
Company: King’s College London
Job description: Job id: 085689. Salary: £32,979 – £36,396, per annum, including London Weighting Allowance.
Posted: 04 March 2024. Closing date: 25 March 2024.
Business unit: Faculty of Life Sciences & Medicine. Department: Human & Applied Physiological Sciences.
Contact details: Lindsey Marjoram. lindsey.marjoram@kcl.ac.uk
Location: Guy’s Campus. Category: Professional & Support Services.
Job Description
The School of Basic and Medical Bioscience (BMBS) is recruiting for a technician to support and contribute to the smooth running of undergraduate and postgraduate teaching and research activities in the field of human physiology. The post-holder will be primarily responsible for providing technical assistance to taught practical classes run within the Centre for Human & Applied Physiological Sciences (CHAPS) but is also expected to support other teaching activities across the Faculty of Life Sciences and Medicine. CHAPS have highly specialised laboratories based at the Guy’s and Denmark Hill Campuses which facilitate cutting edge research including collaborations with a broad range of specialists within King’s, across King’s Health Partners and with external organisations including the European Space Agency and the RAF Centre of Aviation Medicine.
The post-holder will ensure the set-up of equipment for practical classes in a timely manner, demonstrating its correct use to students during the class and alongside academic staff, will troubleshoot problems that arise. Other duties will include routine maintenance and calibration of equipment, ordering stocks of consumables and chemicals, dealing with deliveries and ensuring correct storage of temperature sensitive items, contributing towards ensuring compliance with health and safety policy and acting as a first point of contact to answer all technical enquiries from staff and students. In addition, the post-holder will undertake routine cell culture and will assist with human muscle biopsies and other invasive procedures, ensuring aseptic techniques are always followed and performing basic histological techniques on the samples collected.
The ideal candidate will be a dependable team player, able to work well within a technical team to deliver a comprehensive technical service across multiple locations. They will be able to work independently when appropriate, possessing excellent planning and communication skills and able to prioritise their own workload effectively. They will be expected to build relationships with a wide set of stakeholders across academic, technical, finance, health & safety, estates & facilities directorates to support the research and educational objectives of the School.
A background and interest in Human or Sport and Exercise Physiology would be an advantage but is not essential.
This is a full-time on campus role.
This post will be offered on an indefinite contract.
This is a full-time post – 100% full time equivalent.
Key responsibilities
The post holder is a member of the Departments professional services team, providing high quality technical support to the Department and specific support to its education activities. Working closely with their line manager(s) and lead academics, the post holder will:
- Provide a range of services where there are established service standards.
- Use a broad range of technical or practical skills and a well-developed working knowledge of technical or scientific practices and procedures, applying knowledge in the context of new areas.
- Engage in Continuing Professional Development and training initiatives, in line with the Technician Commitment and Research Concordat for a minimum of 10 days pro rata per year.
- Oversee service facilities ensuring efficient use of resources, installing, maintaining, and securing technical equipment systems and software and controlling local budgets, stocks/store, equipment, and supplies, while adhering to King’s principles of ethics and sustainability.
- Oversee and allocate work to team members when deputising for line manager, supporting colleagues in meeting their objectives, providing advice and feedback as appropriate.
- Manage own workload within the parameters of an-agreed work plan, responding to changing priorities and an evolving environment/context, maximising the efficiency of the technical support being provided and resolving problems as they arise, using standard procedures and initiative.
- Use well-developed analytical and problem-solving skills to identify trends and patterns, using appropriate techniques and procedures to inform decisions with an impact on the local service, with a potential impact for 6 months to a year.
- Resolve routine and complex problems that arise in the local service.
- Work with colleagues and network as agreed by the line manager(s).
- Actively engage in King’s Technical Network, building a network across the Faculty to provide peer support and opportunities to share best practice.
- Forge relationships with colleagues in the School, Faculty, university and external to the university, to build relationships, disseminate and get information, coordinate, and deliver the service.
- Provide advice and guidance and, where appropriate, training.
- Communicate information in a clear and precise way, both orally and in writing.
- Contribute to ideas for improving current working methods and procedures
- Implement local environmentally sustainable practices, following the King’s sustainability audit process, where appropriate.
- Collaborate with colleagues to share good practice and support wider sustainable initiatives and suggest new ideas where you see that improvements could be made.
- Implement and monitor compliance with regulations governing the service, to ensure a safe and environmentally sustainable workplace.
- Report accidents/ incidents to line manager(s)/ supervisor.
- Facilitate an inclusive culture and ethos working with academic, research and other professional services staff and colleagues external to King’s.
- Participate in cross-School/ Faculty/ university projects and initiatives for up to 10% FTE.
Skills, knowledge, and experience
Essential criteria * Minimum level 3 qualification, e.g. A levels, AS levels, International Baccalaureate diploma or other Level 3 qualification, plus work experience in relevant technical/scientific posts OR Considerable knowledge and skills gained through work experience in relevant technical or scientific posts
- Evidence of an active commitment to career development including professional registration, such as RSciTech or RSci and clear progression in increasingly demanding jobs
- Knowledge and practical use of a range of technical skills and their environmental impact
- Ability to apply learnt techniques to the work context
- Clear spoken and written communication skills, with proficient computer use and strong interpersonal and influencing/behavioural skills
- Proactive and responsive to contacts in immediate area, across the wider organisation and externally (e.g., suppliers) to build relationships and network
- Solutions-focused self-starter, with strong planning and analytical skills, able to manage competing priorities and work with minimal supervision
- Working knowledge of regulations and best practice governing area of work, including Health & Safety and environmental sustainability
- Experience of ordering goods and services in a research environment and dealing with suppliers to meet the needs of the researchers
- Able to demonstrate knowledge of aseptic techniques gained in a research laboratory environment
- Previous experience of performing cell culture and/or histological techniques
Desirable criteria * Experience in supervising/advising less experienced colleagues, monitoring, and providing feedback on performance
- Able and willing to provide support beyond core hours, as required
- Background in Human or Sports Exercise Physiology
- Previous experience of performing work under the Human Tissue Act
Expected salary: £32979 – 36396 per year
Location: Strand, Central London
