Laboratory Assistant, School of Marine and Environmental Programs

Position Title Laboratory Assistant, School of Marine and Environmental Programs

Employment Status Full Time

Months 12

Campus Biddeford, ME

The School of Marine and Environmental Programs ( SMEP ) is seeking a detail-oriented and motivated Laboratory Assistant. Duties for the Lab Assistant position include the preparation and maintenance of SMEP teaching labs. This will include prep, set-up, and disassembly of SMEP teaching laboratory spaces; training and working with undergraduate students; and maintaining live cultures, live organisms, and preserved specimens.
About the University of New England

UNE is Maine’s largest private university, with two beautiful coastal campuses in Maine, a one-of-a-kind study-abroad campus in Tangier, Morocco, and an array of flexible online offerings. In an uncommonly welcoming and supportive community, we offer hands‑on learning, empowering students to positively impact a world full of challenges. We are the state’s top provider of health professionals and home to Maine’s only medical and dental colleges, a variety of other interprofessionally aligned health care programs, and nationally recognized programs in the marine sciences, the natural and social sciences, business, the humanities, and the arts.

• Multiple health and dental plan options, plus vision coverage.
• Up to 8% retirement plan match.
• Generous leave time, including vacation, sick, and personal time, and 12+ holidays per year.
• Educational benefits
  :
  • UNE tuition waiver for employees, spouses, and domestic partners.
  • UNE tuition waiver for dependents of employees with 1 year of full-time service.
    • 50% tuition reduction if less than 1 year of full-time service.
• Work collaboratively with other lab staff to prepare for, set-up, and break-down labs for courses in the SMEP assuring that lab conditions provide for a safe learning and working environment.
• Support field activities during lab courses, including driving UNE vehicles to and from field sites as well as riding in a boat to field sites.
• Monitor teaching lab equipment and supplies in the SMEP .
• Perform teaching lab equipment maintenance and laboratory inventories.
• Maintain preserved and live specimens to support lab courses, and monitor specimens being prepared for educational use.
• Support students engaged in credit‑bearing research.
• Edit, update, and contribute to laboratory course materials.
• Supervising work study students caring for marine invertebrates.
• Train and oversee undergraduate student assistants and graduate student laboratory teaching assistants.
• Assist with outreach experiences for visiting school groups and adult learners in the GMSC and in southern Maine.
• Attend weekly lab meetings.
• Perform other related duties as assigned.

A bachelor’s degree in marine science, biology, environmental science or related field is required. Candidates with a master’s degree in marine science, biology, environmental science and two to three years of related experience, or a combination of education and experience from which comparable knowledge and skills have been acquired are preferred.

• Comfort working in field environments (e.g. on and near the water on research vessels, in and around intertidal zones, and in forests) is preferred.
• Working knowledge of laboratory safety procedures and laboratory equipment usage and maintenance.
• The ability to occasionally lift 50 pounds.
• The ability and availability to work early morning or late evening hours, and work occasionally on weekends as necessary.
• A valid driver’s license, as well as the ability to become van certified, is required.

Consistent with federal and state law and…