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Posting Reason:
New Position
Job Type:
Employee
Anticipated Duration in Months (for contracts and temporary assignments):
N/A
Job Family:
Laboratory Support
# of Open Positions:
1
Faculty/Service - Department:
Department of Chemical and Biological Technologists
Campus:
Main Campus
Union Affiliation:
SSUO
Date Posted (YYYY/MM/DD):
2026/06/25
Applications must be received BEFORE (YYYY/MM/DD):
2026/07/06
Hours per week:
35
Salary Grade:
SSUO Grade 09
Salary Range:
$72 437,00 - $91 502,00About the Faculty of Engineering
The Faculty of Engineering strives to provide a learning environment that promotes excellence and innovation, ethical practice and responsibility towards society. Our workplace will challenge, energize and motivate you to be your very best while providing opportunities for career growth and professional development. Our work makes a world of difference in the lives of our students, who will become the next generation of leaders and change makers of our society. Our dynamic community is dedicated to building innovations that will not only help the advancement of technology, but solutions that will revolutionize the industry. We look forward to making the future TOGETHER!
Position purpose:
Reporting to the Lead Technician, Laboratory Support, this position performs a variety of technical activities in support of clients, including students, teaching assistants, faculty members, and other scientific or engineering professionals, in an assigned group of specialized scientific teaching lab infrastructures and research equipment. Provides complex technical advice, support, and training to clients in the research, analysis, design, development, production, set-up, testing, operation, and maintenance of laboratory systems and research instrumentation to the specification of the department or faculty’s curriculum or research requirements in order to achieve the experimental objectives and ensure safe working practices. The work is performed with minimal supervision, under general guidelines, and requires full awareness of the various technologies used. This position is intended to support both chemical engineering research and teaching laboratories.
In this role, your responsibilities will include:
- Technical Support: Meets with clients to identify and analyze their needs for special purpose complex scientific/research lab equipment relating to selection of relevant instrumentation and data acquisition hardware. Develops software program code, mainly using National Instruments LabVIEW software to interface with data acquisition hardware networks. Maintains instruments and data acquisition equipment located in designated laboratories by regular maintenance for performance and accuracy. Designs, assembles, installs, tests, maintains and repairs assigned laboratory equipment and materials as well as research equipment and instrumentation meet specific client needs and to ensure accurate and proper functionality. Analyzes and diagnoses the causes of lab malfunctions and carries out the required repair actions in order to maintain lab functionality for clients. Under the direction of the supervisor or faculty, carries out applied research related to experimental methods in fields related to the assigned labs.
- Training: Trains, performs demonstrations for, and supports teaching assistants and students as well as research personnel in the use of lab equipment and materials to improve end-user proficiency. Promotes and supervises the responsible use of all lab equipment and materials to contribute to the safety of all users and to safeguard the value of the University’s assets. May interact with students and teaching assistants to provide support beyond demonstrations that assists with the description of concepts and the analysis of data to ensure that experimental objectives are successfully achieved. Evaluates components of student performance and understanding as part of the grading process.
- Health and Safety: Ensures that all assigned laboratories operate in accordance with the Health and Safety rules of the University, the Occupational Health and Safety Act, WHMIS and any other applicable regulations. Ensures that research equipment and associated workspaces are operated and maintained in compliance with applicable safety procedures and user training requirements. Mitigates risk by ensuring that there is always a lab staff member present during scheduled labs, as well as during operating hours when clients may use the facilities outside of labs.
- Technical Advice, Design & Fabrication: Provides advice regarding the design of lab equipment and accessories to ensure the feasibility of fabrication and provides build or fabricating consultation services when required. Translates product specifications, such as verbal requests or sketches, to design equipment and accessories. May participate in the fabrication of this specialized lab equipment to create prototypes to meet teaching and research requirements of users. Acts as a resource person within the field by imparting skills and knowledge to clients at all levels of design and fabrication. Provides purchasing advice by researching, evaluating and recommending new equipment as it relates to instrumentation and data acquisition hardware. Maintains regular contact with suppliers to obtain information and necessary diagrams to carry out work, repair and modifications as required.
What you will bring:
- Undergraduate degree in natural/applied sciences or related discipline or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
- Minimum 3 years of experience providing support and technical advice in a teaching/research laboratory.
- Experience in electronic circuit design and troubleshooting is an asset.
- Knowledge of chemical engineering processes is an asset.
- Knowledge of instrumentation, data acquisition networks and LabVIEW software development is an asset.
- Knowledge of the specialized areas of research supported by the department or Faculty.
- Knowledge of laboratory tools, equipment, instruments, materials, and hazards and their safe usage.
- Knowledge of Health and Safety rules, regulations and University policies and procedures related to the operation of labs and lab equipment/material.
- Knowledge of computers and data acquisition procedures.
- Experience in providing technical support and advice to users for lab equipment.
- Experience in designing, fabricating, assembling, building, testing and repairing special purpose lab equipment.
- Experience in preparing and developing scientific experiments.
- Experience in writing and developing technical reports and other related documentation.
- Ability to read and understand texts of considerable difficulty requiring understanding of concepts, procedures, and instructions.
- Analytical skills to diagnose and repair laboratory equipment and material issues.
- Ability to communicate technical concepts to users.
- Experience in teaching and student evaluation.
- Bilingualism - French and English (spoken and written)
Key Competencies at uOttawa:
Here are the required competencies for all or our employees at uOttawa:
Planning: Organize in time a series of actions or events in order to realize an objective or a project. Plan and organize own work and priorities in regular daily activities.
Initiative: Demonstrate creativity and initiative to suggest improvements and encourage positive results. Is proactive and self-starting. Show availability and willingness to go above and beyond whenever it is possible.
Client Service Orientation: Help or serve others to meet their needs. This implies anticipating and identifying the needs of internal and external clients and finding solutions on how to meet them.
Teamwork and Cooperation: Cooperate and work well with other members of the team to reach common goal(s). Accept and give constructive feedback. Able to adjust own behaviour to reach the goals of the team.
The University of Ottawa embraces diversity and inclusion in the workplace. We are passionate about our people and committed to employment equity. We foster a culture of respect, teamwork and inclusion, where collaboration, innovation, and creativity fuel our quest for research and teaching excellence. While all qualified persons are invited to apply, we welcome applications from qualified Indigenous persons, racialized persons, persons with disabilities, women and LGBTQIA2S+ persons. The University is committed to creating and maintaining an accessible, barrier-free work environment. The University is also committed to working with applicants with disabilities requesting accommodation during the recruitment, assessment and selection processes. Applicants with disabilities may contact hrtalentmanagement@uottawa.ca to communicate the accommodation need. All qualified candidates are encouraged to apply; however, Canadians and permanent residents will be given priority.
Note: if this is a union position: The hiring process will be governed by the current collective agreement related to the union affiliation noted above; you can click here to find out more.
If this is a front-line position with responsibilities to interact with students, selected candidates must be rated at the Low Advanced proficiency level or higher for both oral comprehension and reading comprehension in their second official language. The rating is determined by a proficiency test designed by the Official Languages and Bilingualism Institute.
Prior to May 1, 2022, the University required all students, faculty, staff, and visitors (including contractors) to be fully vaccinated against Covid-19 as defined in Policy 129 – Covid-19 Vaccination. This policy was suspended effective May 1, 2022 but may be reinstated at any point in the future depending on public health guidelines and the recommendations of experts.
