Research Technician – Molecular Structure and Dynamics

At PNNL, our core capabilities are divided among major departments that we refer to as Directorates within the Lab, focused on a specific area of scientific research or other function, with its own leadership team and dedicated budget.

Our Science & Technology directorates include National Security, Integrated Discovery Sciences, and Energy and Environment. In addition, we have an Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory, a Department of Energy, Office of Science user facility housed on the PNNL campus.

The Integrated Discovery Sciences Directorate (IDSD) leads fundamental research across biology, chemistry, earth and environmental sciences, materials science, advanced computing, super intelligence, quantum information science, mathematics, autonomy, and DOE national user facilities. Our vision is to accelerate scientific discovery by observing, understanding, simulating, predicting, and controlling dynamic biotic-abiotic processes and interactions within complex biological, chemical, material, and Earth systems. We intentionally connect disciplines to advance fundamental discovery science, develop transformative scientific capabilities, and address the nation's most important challenges in energy, environmental resilience, biotechnology, advanced manufacturing, health, and national security.

The Biological Sciences Division (BSD) at PNNL is soliciting applications for an entry-level technician position to support the Standard Model of Biology (SMoB) Laboratory Objective. SMoB is a transformative effort to define the first principle chemical and physical forces that govern how the molecular parts of biological systems interact to result in function and emergence, as a basis to predict, design, and control biology.

This position integrates super intelligence,computational biology, and biophysics to discover quantitative principles that connect molecular sequence, structure, interactions, phase behavior, and assembly to cellular and community-level phenotypes.

The position will sit in the Molecular Structure, Function & Design Group. The individual will support multiple efforts primarily driving expression, purification, and biophysical characterization of high-quality protein samples. Additionally, the successful candidate will contribute to ongoing research by preparing reproducible protein reagents, maintaining accurate documentation, and, under supervision, helping develop and optimize protocols to study protein–protein and protein–small molecule interactions using a variety of biophysical techniques including biolayer interferometry.

This is an on-site position located at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory campus in Richland, Washington.

Minimum Qualifications:

• High school diploma/GED and 2 years of relevant experience
  -OR-
• Technical Institute Graduate (TIG)/relevant AA degree or higher and 1 year of relevant experience

Preferred Qualifications:

• Demonstrated ability to work in a highly collaborative, team-based research environment.
• Strong communication and interpersonal skills.
• Ability to execute and troubleshoot experiments safely and increasingly independently.
• Technical proficiency in one or more of the following:
  • Operation of FPLC systems for protein separations
  • Biolayer interferometry for molecular interactions
  • E. coli-based protein expression and purification of labeled and unlabeled proteins
  • Cell-free protein expression
  • ELISA
  • Circular Dichroism (CD)
• Research experience with lipoproteins, Fabs, nanobodies, and protein–small molecule interactions is a strong plus.

• The candidate may process samples in a Biosafety Level 2 laboratory.

This is not a Testing Designated Position (TDP).