Senior Teaching Technician (Dry Lab) - College of Engineering and Physical Sciences - 58772 - Grade 5 at The University of Birmingham

Position Details

College of Engineering and Physical Sciences 

Location: University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham UK

Full time starting salary is normally in the range £29,647 to £31,460, with potential progression once in post to £35,388

Grade: 5

Full Time, Permanent

Closing date: 11th September

Our offer to you

People are at the heart of what we are and do.

The University of Birmingham is proud to have been a part of the City of Birmingham and the wider region for over 100 years, and we are equally proud to be recognised as a leading global university. We want to attract talented people from across the city and beyond, support them to succeed, and celebrate their success.

We are committed to helping the people who work here to develop through our sector-leading Birmingham Professional programme which provides all professional services staff with development opportunities and the encouragement to reach their full potential. With almost 5,000 professional services jobs in a wide-range of functions in Edgbaston and in our campus in Dubai, there are plenty of opportunities for you to be able to develop your career at the University.

We believe there is no such thing as a typical member of staff and that diversity is a source of strength that underpins the exchange of ideas, innovation, and debate. We warmly welcome people from all backgrounds and are committed to fostering an inclusive environment where diversity is at the heart of who and what we are, and how we work.

Supporting our people to achieve a healthy work/life balance is important both to our employees and to the success of the University and, depending on the role, we offer a variety of flexible working arrangements. We therefore welcome discussions on all forms of flexible working. In addition, you will receive a generous package of benefits including 40 days paid holiday a year, one paid day a year for volunteering, occupational sick pay, and a pension scheme. We also have three high quality subsidised day nurseries.

The University is situated in leafy Edgbaston and there are excellent transport links to our beautiful campus, including main bus routes and a train station on site. On campus we have a state-of-the-art sports centre with pool, shops, places to eat and drink, our own art gallery, museum and botanical gardens.

Find out more about the benefits of working for the University of Birmingham

Background

The Collaborative Teaching Laboratory (CTL) represents a £42m investment in STEM teaching. The CTL provides primarily undergraduate students with a transformational teaching experience in state-of-the-art facilities to encourage and enable inter-disciplinary working. 

This position will suit a candidate with good experience working within a laboratory environment. The role holder will ensure that expert in-class support is provided to ensure that all aspects of practical classes run well, and that the student experience is high. 

This remit for this role is to provide support to academic teaching, although you will not be teaching yourself. Instead, the position is designed to ensure everything is in place ready for students at the start of a session and to help with any issues that may arise during teaching.

Position details:

• Applicants should have technical experience in a STEM subject. Experience in Electrical Engineering would be preferred. 
• The ability to identify non-obvious faults and troubleshoot equipment.
• Ensure that practical classes are set up in a good time for published start times. This will involve ensuring that consumables and equipment are set up and calibrated etc as required.
• Ensure that classes run without equipment breakdowns. To assist with the development of new experiments making suggestions that could lead to a better user experience.
• Ensure the premises and environment are safe, clean, tidy and well maintained.
• Provide training to students and staff in the safe operation of specialist equipment, assist the lab manager to keep and maintain all appropriate training records
• To assist with the upkeep of CTL equipment ensuring that it is maintained to a satisfactory standard through regular inspection, checks and testing. To assist with the maintenance, repair, calibration and cleaning of equipment in-house. To assist with the safe disposal of redundant equipment quickly and appropriately.
• To assist in the production and updating of a variety of risk assessments and SOP’s. Ensure that this documentation is available as required.
• Safe working practices: To monitor that the control measures specified in risk assessments are being followed. To inform the floor manager of any unsafe activity and to assist with remedial action. To assist with the reporting of accidents and incidents.

Role Summary

You will provide technical expertise, support and guidance in support of teaching. You will be expected to act as a role model and coach others as appropriate.

You will need a significant understanding of the requirements to deliver undergraduate classes, an in-depth understanding of all main subject areas, the ability to respond quickly and positively to changes in protocols, and troubleshoot problems, and optimise protocols to ensure a positive student experience. You may need to operate out of normal working hours to accommodate classes.

In order to flexibly use resources, you may be offered the opportunity to work in different areas of the department or wider university.

Main Duties

• You will discuss the daily programme of work with your manager and other technical staff in the area to ensure the daily programme of work, session protocols and outcomes are clear.
• You will plan, based on the available timetabling information, the most efficient/effective means to turnaround the daily classes. 
• You will research, design, trial & modifying practical protocols for class teaching. 
• Support the teaching laboratories managers where required and to deputise for them in their absence.
• Keeping the teaching laboratories manager informed as to changes to protocols/sessions, content of any discussions with academic session leads and other matters relating to the teaching laboratories.
• Initiate discussion with the teaching laboratories manager on any issues that may compromise the core function of the laboratories or for information that is related to the core functions of the teaching laboratories.
• Prepare and support open day, Applicant Visitor Day events, Continuous Professional Development and other external requirements within the laboratories or other areas as and when required.
• Oversee that the laboratories are suitably prepared for practicals and the setup/takedown of equipment/materials used during sessions.
• Check practical layouts prior to classes and ensure that all requirements are in place.
• Be familiar with the use of a broad spectrum of general laboratory equipment and specialised equipment.
• Demonstrate equipment use, high level techniques and procedures to staff and students. 
• Trouble-shoot and respond to problems, which may occur during practical sessions, using your in-depth knowledge and your ability to diagnose/resolve problems and suggest solutions. 

Health and Safety duties

• Proactive support for health and safety within the laboratory. This may include being required to look after a communal area as part of your duties. Comply with all current rules and ensure all required assessments are in place, approved and up to date.
• Fully understand the safety aspects of equipment operation and be able to demonstrate/train staff (at all levels) on the correct usage of the equipment.
• Ensuring that regular maintenance processes are carried out and that appropriate records are maintained. 
• Reporting any breaches or non-compliance with H&S procedures to the relevant manager(s).
• Upholding the correct waste disposal stream as governed by College and local policy for the laboratory.
• Post holders may be asked to undergo training as a First Aider.

General Administration and Organisation

• Ensuring all records are accurate and kept up to date.
• Proactively maintain stocks of consumables, and when required generate purchase order requisitions using University systems.
• Receipt and correct storage of consumables/equipment and chemical reagents.
• Ensuring that the facilities are maintained in a clean, functional and safe condition, reporting any problems through the appropriate channels.
• Ensuring that PAT testing, calibration of equipment and locally and centrally held equipment inventories are up to date and maintained. 
• Adopt a proactive attitude to assisting with and implementing carbon reduction and energy saving measures. 
• Maintain a technical support-based teaching laboratory website (how to guides for the preparation of materials, practical setup guides), and keeping these up to date as and when session requirements or protocols change or maintaining relevant research lab databases/records.

Other Duties

• In collaboration with the relevant manager the post holder will take an active role in the training and mentoring process for junior or newly appointed staff.
• Supports equality and values diversity, moderates own behaviour to avoid unfair discriminatory impact or bias on others.
• Any other duties as may reasonably be required.

Required Knowledge, Skills, Qualifications, Experience

• Extensive relevant workplace experience, equivalent professional qualification or degree in an appropriate subject. 
• In-depth practical knowledge of relevant technical and scientific methods. 
• Extensive experience of similar laboratory-based work, together with familiarity with a wide range of laboratory equipment.
• Positive service attitude and shows courtesy in dealing with others.
• Ability to organise and manage own workload and demonstrate flexibility in terms of work practices/requirements.
• Ability to work under minimal supervision but function as part of a team. 
• Knowledge of current legislation relevant to the role.
• Knowledge of current H&S policies and ability to uphold same.
• Proficiency in commonly used software packages.
• Understands the importance of equality and diversity in the workplace
• Ability to identify and respond to equality and diversity issues in line with relevant policies and procedures

Dimensions

You will provide specialist expertise in your area and provide advice and support to a range of customers. You may supervise staff; even where you do not have supervisory responsibilities you will be expected to act as a role model for other staff. You may be involved in budget monitoring.

Planning and organising

You will be required to work independently on daily, weekly and monthly tasks but also on projects with medium-longer-term horizons without daily supervision. You will ensure that you have the resources required, which will require planning ahead and procurement of goods.

Problem solving and decision making

You will be able to research, modify and adapt protocols after consulting relevant manager, and prepare for teaching experiments. You will be able to uphold Health and Safety procedures. You will need to be confident in identifying problems, breaking them down and implementing solutions. Although you will work under the direction of more senior staff you will be able to carry out your work with a large amount of autonomy. 

Internal and external relationships

This role will be advising and supporting staff and/or students, and with external contacts such as company representatives.

Informal enquiries to Allen Forbes, email: [email protected] 

View our staff values and behaviours here 

We believe there is no such thing as a 'typical' member of University of Birmingham staff and that diversity in its many forms is a strength that underpins the exchange of ideas, innovation and debate at the heart of University life. We are committed to proactively addressing the barriers experienced by some groups in our community and are proud to hold Athena SWAN, Race Equality Charter and Disability Confident accreditations. We have an Equality Diversity and Inclusion Centre that focuses on continuously improving the University as a fair and inclusive place to work where everyone has the opportunity to succeed. We are also committed to sustainability, which is a key part of our strategy. You can find out more about our work to create a fairer university