Core Laboratory Lead, University of Arizona Cancer Center

University of Arizona Cancer Center (UACC) is a National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center dedicated to the prevention and cure of cancer through patient care, research, and education. UACC serves to support UA and UACC researchers and faculty by providing access to state-of-the-art technologies and approaches through UACC Shared Resource laboratories (core facilities). The Flow Cytometry and Immune Monitoring Shared Resource (FCIMSR) is actively recruiting a Core Laboratory Lead with significant experience in performing immune profiling and flow cytometry on clinical and basic research samples. The primary purpose of this position is to support daily laboratory research conducted in the FCIMSR that provides technical and scientific expertise across the UACC and the University of Arizona.

An important component of this position will be to work as part of a team and lead the team in the daily function of the laboratory. The successful candidate will plan, coordinate, and participate in all aspects of research studies performed by FCIMSR. This includes participating in planning and optimization of core facility procedures, authoring, editing, and adhering to Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), improving and monitoring procedures performed in the core, and developing innovative methods and approaches to solve scientific problems while meeting goals and objectives in accordance with priorities, time, funding and other limitations.

Outstanding UA benefits include health, dental, and vision insurance plans; life insurance and disability programs; paid vacation, sick leave, and holidays; UA/ASU/NAU tuition reduction for the employee and qualified family members; retirement plans; access to UA recreation and cultural activities; and more!

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Laboratory/Project Management:

• Oversees quality control, safety, and confidentiality programs within the facility and ensure they comply with UA and HIPPA regulations.
• Develops, and/or implements research lab policies and daily SOPs.
• Operates, maintains, and troubleshoots equipment, instruments, and apparatuses.
• Manages purchasing, maintenance, and handling of lab equipment and supplies in compliance with all federal, state, and local regulations.
• Communicates with investigators about project design, project status, timeline, budget, and deliverables.
• Oversees billing for completed projects using iLabs.

Training Staff Members and New Users:

• Ensures laboratory personnel maintain current knowledge of laboratory techniques, procedures, and equipment operations.
• Manages schedules on shared equipment.
• As needed, travels to receive specialized training to stay up to date with techniques and advances in the field. Provides training to others in the unit to ensure everyone is up to date.

Equipment Support:

• Provides experienced technical expertise to the operation of complex scientific equipment utilizing specific knowledge and expertise.
• Maintains, calibrates, and confirms proper performance of complex scientific equipment used to perform core services including spatial and full spectrum cytometry instrumentation.
• Troubleshoots equipment performance issues.

Assay Development and Execution:

• Follows, revises, and authors facility SOPs to ensure coherence, completeness, and consistency of complex immune assays.
• Establishes best practices, optimizes, and troubleshoots new assays to improve the facility's products and services.
• Reviews data for quality and accuracy.
• Delivers clean and organized data to requesting researcher.

Bio-specimen Processing and Bio-banking:

• Coordinates sample collections from hospital and clinic sites for processing at FCIMSR.
• Communicates with the Clinical Trials Office (CTO) to schedule and receive bio-specimens.
• Processes human material for immune profiling analysis or bio-banking to ensure high levels of sample quality and integrity.
• Ensures all HIPPA, research safety, and good clinical laboratory practice certifications are up to date for all members of the facility including themselves.

Knowledge, Skills, & Abilities:

• Strong organizational and communication skills.
• Fluency with record keeping, data acquisition, and report generation.
• Ability to quickly adapt priorities based on facility needs.

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent advanced learning attained through professional level experience required.
• Minimum of 5 years of relevant work experience, or equivalent combination of education and work experience.

• Bachelor's degree in immunology or biological sciences.
• 5 years experience working in a CORE facility.
• Experience in Cancer Immunology/Immune Profiling or complex molecular biology techniques.
• Experience with multicolor flow cytometry.
• Proven project development and execution.
• Experience with project management.
  
• Experience with academic research.