Job / Position Summary

The role of this position is to provide technical support to the operation of sensitive equipment such as gloveboxes (45) and high vacuum lines (25). These equipment handle very sensitive and often toxic chemicals and must be to the highest standards. Support includes preventive maintenance, corrective maintenance and training user to operate safely. He or she should also be capable to educate junior staff members for handling of both general and specialized tasks. This will include light troubleshooting to deep explanation of the principle of operation of the equipment. He or she will be in charge of supporting both the daily lab management (i.e. purchase and distribution of resources, etc.) and the instruments operation (i.e. preventive maintenance of analytical instruments, training of user, etc.) and work in perfect synergy with a team of highly motivated technical staff and academic researchers to ensure optimum laboratory operating conditions.  

Major Responsibilities   

The responsibilities are listed as below but not limited to. Major activities include, not necessarily in order of importance:

• Carrying out systematically preventive maintenance on devices
• Carrying out systematically performance tests on all analytical devices
• Carrying out systematically validation tests on analytical methods
• Keep electronic record of all analytical devices in activity in KCC
• Keep electronic record of all maintenance carried on all analytical devices in KCC
• Facilitate mobility of equipment within KCC, and with other KAUST departments (central workshop, LEM, etc)
• Assist the KCC research team for the calibration of analytical instrument
• Assist the KCC research team for running analysis
• Assist the KCC research team for developing analytical methods
• Will have some tasks related to ordering equipment/consumables under the supervision of the Lab Manager  

Competencies

• Have working knowledge of techniques in an international team with team spirit and accurate, focused and thorough attitude
• Have at least 3 years of experience of demanding equipment such as gloveboxes (45 in KCC), high vacuum equipment (25 in KCC)
• Perform routine work and operate standard equipment/software
• Have basic understanding and working knowledge of laboratory methods and method validation
• Conduct preventative maintenance as instructed by the supervisor
• Have basic troubleshooting skills and the ability to acquire and develop new skills by interacting with colleagues
• Be well versed in general laboratory skills such as following safety procedures and standard operating procedures (SOPs), neatness, documentation, following written methods and instructions from the supervisor
• Have good written and oral communication skills in English  

Qualifications 

• Bachelor or Master in Science/Engineering with demonstrated relevant expertise or equivalent with technical curricula / from technical universities, preferably with a few years work experience in relevant industrial (preferably pharmaceutical or fine chemistry) or academic R&D (exceptional experienced candidate could be considered)
• Three or more years in research laboratory, where at least one year experience in team, demonstrating collaborative skills.
• Good team spirit is key.
• Hands-on experience and high motivation to work on the following instruments, equipment, and techniques:   

1. Chromatography ( HPLC, GC-FID, GC-MS, GPC, Ion-chromatography….)
2. Set-up and operation of reactors and autoclaves for catalytic screening (batch reactors, bio-reactors, flow reactors
3. General chemistry techniques for preparation and characterization of air- and moisture sensitive compounds (glovebox, high vacuum line…)
4. UV-VIS, FTIR, Raman and ideally some other spectroscopic tools
5. Elemental analysis (AAS, ICP): perform analysis + method development
6. Maintenance FID, MS tuning, exchange columns, injector maintenance ….
7. Experience with software packages like Chemstation, MassHunter, Chromeleon, Clarity