POSITION: Animal Facility Specialist II

OVERVIEW: Responsibilities of this position are that of an Animal Facility Specialist II for the NIH, Animal Care Project. These responsibilities include all activities required for the proper care and maintenance of on-site animals

Background Requirements:

1. Must have a high school diploma or equivalent.
2. LAT certification or have the equivalent training and experience to achieve certification.
3. Capable of performing animal care duties with no supervision.
4. Assist with technical procedures.

Primary duties may include the following:

• Responsible for all activities required for the proper care and maintenance of the animals, including routine animal husbandry.
• Provides daily oversight and direction to animal caretaker staff.
• Receive, examine, transfer, identify, and properly house incoming animal shipments according to Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs).
• Assists with scheduling assignments and ensures all tasks are completed.
• Ensure all assigned animals have adequate food and water.
• Sanitize and decontaminate all areas of the facility, as scheduled.
• Dispose of waste from the facility following appropriate SOPs.
• Ensure the integrity of equipment used while perform husbandry duties as well as maintain animal caging and / or support equipment.
• Dispose of animal carcasses following SOPs.
• Understand and follow SOPs, safety procedures, and quality assurance guidelines for animal care at all levels of biohazard containment.
• Always think safety first when performing daily duties.
• Maintain appropriate logs, forms and cage card information.
• Maintain clean and organized work areas.
• Report any abnormal conditions of the animal rooms, animal facility or immediate vicinity to project management.
• Reports any animal caging and/or support equipment that is not functioning to your project manager.
• Maintain and repair animal caging and support equipment.
• Familiar with Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) for chemicals used in the work area.
• Weekend, holiday, and after hours work is required as necessary to meet operational needs of the work site.

 *All employees are expected to perform their duties as assigned, arrive to work at 7:00am and depart at 3:30pm M-F. You will be required to work on the weekends as scheduled. The weekend / holiday hours are from 7am to 3:30pm (no more than 8 hours per day). In addition you may be expected to work extra hours during an emergency situation or if any unexpected situation arise until work is completed

Environmental Conditions:

Customarily performs animal care, research management and administration duties in an environmentally controlled work area. However, technical and management duties may be performed in an animal care vivarium, barrier facility, surgical or test procedure laboratory, animal housing/bedding cleaning and processing areas. Work may require use of appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE) in these facilities. Laboratory environment and/or animal care work areas may be prone to hot and humid conditions, and subject to objectionable odors, aerosols, dust, animal dander, and noise.