About the job

Job summary

Do you enjoy working with animals!? Are you passionate about providing high stands of animal care and welfare!?

We are seeking to recruit a hardworking, proactive, self-motivated individual to join our Animal Services Group to build and strengthen our team of animal technologists who will be involved in various aspects of in-vitro and in-vivo work.

You will engage and work closely with the named people, scientific and technical specialists across a range of projects and animal models.

As an Animal Technologist you will be responsible for the provision of high quality care and welfare to animals within experimental facilities; some of which are conducted under high level microbiological containment. All the work is carried out in accordance with best practice and Home Office legislation and guidelines.

Job description

In this role you will:

• Initially undertake training as per protocols, become proficient and be assessed as competent against a sophisticated list of skills to enable effective delivery against role profile, delivering work independently and as part of the wider team.
• Trained in the Institute of Animal Technology Level 2 & Level 3 qualifications
• Carry out appropriate Function C training modules (ASPA)
• Deliver high quality care and welfare to all animals responsible for, maintaining humane endpoints and giving feedback on observations.
• Work to relevant safety and procedural documentation.
• Successful completion of Personal Licence training modules 
• Perform regulated procedures as a responsible Personal Licence holder in support of Dstl’s experimental programmes.
• Engage with a wide range of other staff and stakeholders including; Named Animal Care and Welfare Officers, (delivering daily verbal reports on animal health and well-being) and regular dialogue with Named Veterinary Surgeons, Project Licence Holders and technical leaders.
• Work to quality standards – to include maintaining training and competency records.
• Undertake relevant CPD and achieve required annual credits based on role.
• Be a flexible member of the team for example by taking part in rostered out of hours/on-call duties (additional payment applies). (essential)
• Work with Work Place Managers and Facility Managers to ensure fully functional and legally compliant animal-holding Facilities.

Person specification

We are looking for someone who has:

• Experience to be able to demonstrate an aptitude of working with a variety of animal species. (essential)
• Competence to deliver on agreed set of tasks, to time and to standard.

• A comprehensive understanding of the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986. (ASPA)

Important Information

Our work in defence, security and intelligence requires our employees to be British Citizens who are able to gain a high level of security clearance to understand the work you will undertake to protect us from any security threats. For this reason, we regret that only UK Nationals will be able to apply for this role. If you are an international or dual-national candidate, and you think you have the skills we need, please consider applying to any of our government, security or defence partners.

This role will require full UK security clearance and you should have resided in the UK for the past 5 years. For some roles Developed Vetting will also be required, in this case you should have resided in the UK for the past 10 years.

If you are a current Dstl employee, you are encouraged to inform your line manager of your application as they can support you through the process and should you be successful it will help in negotiating a release date.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £21,333, Defence Science and Technology Laboratory contributes £5,760 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

Things you need to know

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours, Experience and Technical skills.

Online application including CV
Interview and tour of the facilities

We want you to have your best chance of success in our recruitment process, so If at any stage of the application process you would like help or assistance please contact the Dstl Recruitment Team dstlrecruitment@dstl.gov.uk and we will do all we can to support you.

We offer a guaranteed interview for all disabled applicants who provide evidence in their application of meeting the minimum essential requirements of the post, set out in the job description. You will be asked to indicate if you are applying under this scheme when you submit your application.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check. Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check (opens in a new window).

See our vetting charter (opens in a new window). People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

Open to UK nationals only.

This job is not open to candidates who hold a dual nationality.

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window). The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria. The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.