Animal Care Technician I

For 75 years, Charles River employees have worked together to assist in the discovery, development and safe manufacture of new drug therapies. When you join our family, you will have a significant impact on the health and well-being of people across the globe. Whether your background is in life sciences, finance, IT, sales or another area, your skills will play an important role in the work we perform. In return, we’ll help you build a career that you can feel passionate about.

Job Summary

Full Time - 40 hours/week
(Must be able to start full time within 1 month of hire)

The Animal Care Technician is responsible for performing daily animal husbandry duties.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:
•Changing laboratory animal rooms and animal housing in accordance with a schedule devised by senior personnel.
•Responsible for changing cage pans, changing and washing water bottles and feeders, sanitizing cards, rooms and ancillary equipment and changing room filters and cleaning vents.
•Will feed and water laboratory animals and monitor feed and water consumption of animals.
•May assist in handling and grooming, weighing and receiving animals.
•Observes animals for general health and overall wellbeing.
•Responsible for receiving, storing and distributing supplies and reporting low inventory, as appropriate.
•Record study required data in appropriate form, record husbandry data in electronic database(s), and reviews protocols to ensure proper husbandry and environmental parameters.
•Utilize GLPs, SOPs, study protocols, processes and company policies when performing all job functions.

The pay range for this position is $19.00/hour. Please note that salaries vary within the range based on factors including, but not limited to, experience, skills, education, certifications, and location.

Job Qualifications

QUALIFICATIONS:
• Education: High school diploma or General Education Degree (G.E.D.) preferred.
• Experience: Animal handling in a veterinary or commercial or industry establishment preferred.
• An equivalent combination of education and experience may be accepted as a satisfactory substitute for the specific education and experience listed above.
• Certification/Licensure: ALAT, LAT, or LATG preferred.
• Other: Must be able to perform accurate data record keeping in compliance with GLP guidelines. Must be able to meet core competencies of an Animal Care Technician I.

PHYSICAL DEMANDS:
• While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to read, talk, hear, write and type at a computer.
• Must regularly be able to use close vision and have the ability to adjust focus.
• Must be able to frequently lift and/or move up to 50 pounds over a distance of approximately 1-75 feet.
• Must be able to regularly stoop, kneel, stand or reach up with hands and arms to manipulate objects on shelves from one and one-half to six and one-half feet above the floor on a repetitive basis each day.
• Must be able to regularly stoop, kneel, stand, or reach up with hands and arms to perform repetitive tasks such as filling water bottles, placing stoppers in water bottles and removing soiled liners from cages.
• Must be able to securely restrain and move mice, rats, hamsters, guinea pigs and rabbits from one location to another.
• Must be able to regularly clean animal rooms, including mopping of floors on a repetitive basis each day.
• Must be able to regularly push wheeled carts weighing up to 1200 pounds on a repetitive basis each day over distances of approximately 1- 100 feet.
• Duties require standing for an average of eight hours a day.
• Must be able to regularly handle and transfer small to medium size animals from one location to another.

WORK ENVIRONMENT:
• General research laboratory working conditions.
• Constantly wears protective clothing as required by OSHA standards and Company SSPs. This includes, but is not limited to, respirators, surgical masks, gloves, and scrubs.
• Regularly works with or near caustic chemicals.
• Regularly works in tight or confined spaces.
• The noise level in the work environment ranges from moderate to high. Noise protection devices are provided for use in the cage wash area.
• Regularly exposed to rodent dander.

COMMENTS:
• Work schedule will include rotating weekends and holidays.

About Safety Assessment
Charles River is committed to helping our partners expedite their preclinical drug development with exceptional safety assessment services, state-of-the-art facilities and expert regulatory guidance. From individual specialty toxicology and IND enabling studies to tailored packages and total laboratory support, our deeply experienced team can design and execute programs that anticipate challenges and avoid roadblocks for a smooth, efficient journey to market. Each year approximately 300 investigational new drug (IND) programs are conducted in our Safety Assessment facilities.

About Charles River
Charles River is an early-stage contract research organization (CRO). We have built upon our foundation of laboratory animal medicine and science to develop a diverse portfolio of discovery and safety assessment services, both Good Laboratory Practice (GLP) and non-GLP, to support clients from target identification through preclinical development. Charles River also provides a suite of products and services to support our clients’ clinical laboratory testing needs and manufacturing activities. Utilizing this broad portfolio of products and services enables our clients to create a more flexible drug development model, which reduces their costs, enhances their productivity and effectiveness to increase speed to market.

With over 20,000 employees within 110 facilities in over 20 countries around the globe, we are strategically positioned to coordinate worldwide resources and apply multidisciplinary perspectives in resolving our client’s unique challenges. Our client base includes global pharmaceutical companies, biotechnology companies, government agencies and hospitals and academic institutions around the world.

At Charles River, we are passionate about our role in improving the quality of people’s lives. Our mission, our excellent science and our strong sense of purpose guide us in all that we do, and we approach each day with the knowledge that our work helps to improve the health and well-being of many across the globe. We have proudly supported the development of 86% of the drugs approved by the FDA in 2021.

Equal Employment Opportunity

Charles River Laboratories is an Equal Opportunity Employer - all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran or disability status.

If you are interested in applying to Charles River Laboratories and need special assistance or an accommodation due to a disability to complete any forms or to otherwise participate in the resume submission process, please contact a member of our Human Resources team by sending an e-mail message to [email protected]. This contact is for accommodation requests for individuals with disabilities only and cannot be used to inquire about the status of applications.

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