Technical Officer, Biology

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Priority may be given to the following designated employment equity groups: women, Indigenous Peoples* (First Nations, Inuit and Métis), persons with disabilities and racialized persons*.

* The Employment Equity Act, which is under review, uses the terminology Aboriginal peoples and visible minorities.

Candidates are asked to self-declare when applying to this hiring process.

OrganizationalUnit:Medical Devices

Classification:TO-3

Duration: 2 years

Language Requirements:English or French

Work arrangements:

• Due to the nature of the work and operational requirements, this position will require full-time physical presence at the NRC work location identified.
  At the NRC, we recognize that Indigenous candidates may have important connections to their communities and you may be eligible for an exception to this work arrangement. Alternative work arrangements may also be considered to accommodate candidates as required. To learn more about these options, please contact the NRC Hiring team using the contact information below.

Defence Industrial Strategy

The NRC has an important role within the Government of Canada’s Defence Industrial Strategy , accelerating research and innovation, and helping Canadian businesses develop leading-edge technologies for civilian and military use.

With expertise across fields such as transportation, quantum science, medical countermeasures and advanced manufacturing, the NRC is hiring to drive the development of national sovereign defence capabilities. The following role will support the NRC’s contributions to defence priorities.

The role

We are looking for Technical Officer 3 (TO-3) specializing in biology to join our Medical Devices Research Centre. The Research officer will be someone who shares our core values of Integrity, Excellence, Respect and Creativity.
The Technical Officer – Biology will provide technical support to research work for developing and performing different techniques in biology, molecular biology and biochemistry with environmental, food or clinical samples. The individuals selected will also have to recognize and resolve problems associated with the experimental or analytical techniques and the approaches used. The candidate is expected to be able to work independently as well as part of the broader R&D team as well as function in an environment requiring a high-level of adaptability and multitasking. The successful candidate will join the NRC Bioanalytical Micro-Nano Devices (BioAMND) Section, which spans two locations (Toronto, Boucherville) and includes more than 40 35 researchers and technical officers specializing in physics, nano and microfabrication engineering, chemistry, and molecular and cellular biology. The selected TO candidate will be part of the Centre for Research and Applications in Fluidic Technologies (CRAFT), will strengthen NRC and CRAFT’s internationally recognized research activities and help transform discoveries into value-added research platforms and clinically adopted devices. As part of a multi-disciplinary team, the incumbent will be responsible for observing and recording preliminary results and will have to discuss progress in experiments and interpretation of results with the researchers and/or other technical officers and make recommendations for improvements as needed. The work will be performed as part the NRC’s approved research programs in cooperation with industrial partners, universities or other government laboratories. The position includes maintaining laboratory equipment, space, logbooks and inventories, as well as responsibilities involving health and safety.

Screening criteria

Applicants must demonstrate within the content of their application that they meet the following screening criteria in order to be given further consideration as candidates:

Education

Bachelor’s Degree in Biochemistry, Biotechnology, Cell and Molecular Biology, or other disciplines relevant to the position.

A College Diploma in Laboratory Technology with a combination of significant experience could be considered.

Extensive recent experience (3-5 years) in molecular biology/microbiology laboratory:

• Strong experience with DNA and RNA extraction, purification, and quantification.
• Hands-on experience with PCR, RT-PCR, and qPCR.
• Experience with NGS library preparation, preferably Oxford Nanopore sequencing.
• Hands‑on experience operating Oxford Nanopore platforms such as MinION or GridION.
• Experience working with microbial samples, including bacteria and preferably viruses.
• Experience developing, optimizing, and troubleshooting laboratory protocols and methods.
• Experience with metagenomic or untarget