Supervisor, Laboratory Animal Care

The Laboratory Animal Care Supervisor organizes and directs the work and training of our animal care technician team. They are responsible for providing overall oversight and leadership to the team, scheduling personnel, purchasing adequate supplies for the department, and ensuring proper training and execution of tasks. This position will also provide animal care support in accordance with all standard operating procedures (SOPs), applicable state and federal regulations, where needed.

Located onsite daily at Inotiv's Ft Collins location.

To perform this job successfully, an individual must have the knowledge, skills, and abilities identified below and perform each essential duty and responsibility satisfactorily, either with or without reasonable accommodation. The below is intended to describe the general content of and requirements for this job’s performance and is not to be construed as an exhaustive statement of essential functions, responsibilities or requirements.

• Key Accountabilities
• Supervisory and Leadership

• •Responsible for daily operations of Animal Care team including preparing and prioritizing workflow, ensuring adequate coverage and adherence to quality standards, deadlines, and proper procedures.
• •Directly supervises one or more employees. Carries out supervisory responsibilities in accordance with the organization’s policies and applicable laws. Responsibilities include interviewing, hiring, and training employees; planning, assigning and directing work; appraising performance; rewarding and disciplining employees; addressing complaints and resolving problems. Escalates personnel issues to manager and/or HR as appropriate.
• •Spearheads and implements a comprehensive training program for animal care team to ensure consistency in learning and understanding of policies and procedures. Provides on-the-job training and learning labs for staff to grow in their skills. Assists employees with extra training and assessment if needed. Continuously evaluates and strives to improve training program.
• •Creates and maintains animal care personnel scheduling, ensuring adequate coverage for daily operations, lunches/breaks and absences.
• •Understands and ensures regulatory requirements are being followed by team members.
• •Ensures technicians are checking inventory levels of related animal care supplies (i.e. feed, enrichment, cleaning supplies, personal protective equipment) including for expiration.
• •Manages the purchasing for animal care, including ordering of animal food, enrichment, and supplies, etc. Receives and tracks appropriate inventory in accounting system.
• •Maintains feed certificates for study reference.
• •Reviews study protocol and notebook prior to study initiation. Regularly participates in pre-study meetings.
• •Communicates and makes recommendations to their manager on workflow, equipment issues, and other requests or concerns received.
• •Responsible for building and maintaining productive working relationships between team members to increase efficiency of the team.
• •Ensures daily data review is being performed by technicians and assists as needed.
• •Accurately and timely completes appropriate entries into the electronic data capture system or on paper records.

• Animal Care and Support
• The following job duties are supplemental in nature to this position and will be performed on an as needed basis (i.e. inadequate coverage, etc.).

• •Performs husbandry (food, water, cleaning pens) and general room cleaning procedures for various animal species. Monitors well-being of animals and ensures they have adequate space, safe and secure housing, and appropriate enrichment.
• •Monitors temperature and humidity in animal rooms and reports heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) issues to appropriate staff.
• •Accurately completes animal welfare checks/mortality checks and animal husbandry records.
• •Performs animal receiving procedures including preparation of cage cards, entry and study start physical exams, and completion of animal receipt records.
• •Restrains a variety of animal species for treatments/procedures.
• •Provides animal handling for euthanasia procedures.
• •Performs clinical observations of the animals and their pens/cages to assure the well-being, health, and sanitation is adequate.
• •Collects body weights and body score condition.
• •Assists with study acclimation (leash/collar training).
• •Provides animal transportation for acquisition and disposal.

Other

• •Follows all SOPs and other applicable laboratory or company policies and procedures.
• •Maintains confidential information.
• •Supports and participates in company initiatives as directed.
• •Performs periodic review of all applicable SOPs to ensure accuracy and confirm procedures are being performed according to SOPs. Participates in SOP writing, reviews, and revisions, as needed.
• •Completes training requirements as assigned and maintains appropriate training documentation.
• •Maintains compliance and adheres to all safety regulations, policies, and procedures and good documentation practices.
• •Maintains a thorough knowledge and ensures compliance with Good Laboratory Practices (GLP), United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Association of Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care (AAALAC), Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare (OLAW), and other applicable regulations.
• •Performs other duties as assigned.

Critical Success Factors

• •Exhibits an aptitude for quality, an eye for detail.
• •Actively supports and contributes to the success of the team. Encourages and practices collaboration and cooperation on the team.
• •Manages time to appropriately meet deadlines.
• •Ability to multi-task and prioritize tasks in a high energy, fast paced environment.
• •Communicates openly and respectfully with team members to foster a positive work environment. Ability to work with personnel at all levels of the organization.
• •Has strong organization skills - establishes and prioritizes tasks to manage time and resources appropriately and identifies resources to meet objectives in a timely manner.
• •Adaptability - Adapts to changes in the work environment; manages competing demands; changes approach or method to best fit the situation; able to deal with frequent change, delays, or unexpected events.
• •Has a strong work ethic and positive attitude while working towards or under a given deadline.
• •Is consistently reliable and trustworthy to fulfill commitments, meet deadlines, delivery quality work on time and take ownership of responsibilities.
• •Works with a minimum level of supervision. Must be able to work independently.
• •Maintains a commitment to adhere to all safety regulations and procedures.
• •Demonstrated ability to follow detailed instructions and understand scientific protocols and reports with a sense for scientific methods.
• •Ability and desire to learn new methods or workflows. Participates in continual training opportunities. Continually works to refine skills and abilities.
• •Actively supports others to grow and succeed by modeling successful behaviors, providing feedback, coaching, and encouragement.
• •Evaluates the work of others in an impartial manner.
• •Proficient in using a computer to compile and maintain simple data, spreadsheets, checklists and reports for records and inventory, utilizing the appropriate software.

Minimum Requirements

• •Associate degree or equivalent, in animal science, life science or related field
• •Four years animal handling and care experience in veterinary setting or equivalent
• •Two years animal handling and care experience in a laboratory
• •Previous experience supervising or leading staff including training and performance evaluation
• •Demonstrated proficient user with Microsoft Office Suite or related software, data capture software, and similar computer applications. Ability to quickly learn new systems

Preferred Qualifications

• •Bachelor’s degree in in animal science, life science or related field
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