Without Compensation (WOC) - Research Biological Lab Technician (Animal)
What you'd do
This is a Without Compensation (WOC) Research Biological Lab Technician (Animal) position with the Office of Research and Development (ORD). The VA Research Program strives to promote Veteran-centered care to improve patient experiences and outcomes across VA healthcare and community settings, and to advance value-driven care by providing Veterans the highest quality care at the lowest financial burden.
Major duties
This is a Without Compensation (WOC) Research Biological Lab Technician (Animal) position with the Office of Research and Development (ORD) in Kansas City, MO. The incumbent will be responsible for the following: Laboratory Duties - Assisting with laboratory studies and data analysis; performing and assisting with laboratory experiments, including cell culture and tissue section staining. Animal-Related Duties - performing perfusion fixation of rodents; processing brains for histological examination; genotyping animals, including transgenic animals; and assisting with animal experiments, including gene delivery. Molecular Biology Techniques - performing DNA gels and western blots. Animal Welfare Oversight - collaborating with Animal Facility staff and the Principal Investigator (PI); and evaluating the health, well-being, and behavior of animals before, during, and after research experiments.
What you need to qualify
To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 08/13/2026. INDIVIDUAL OCCUPATIONAL REQUIREMENT (IOR) - All applicants must meet the IOR with one of the following criteria: Specialized Experience: Experience must be related to the work of the position being filled. Examples of qualifying specialized experience include: Research activity or control program work. Nursery work that required the growing and maintenance of plants in a controlled environment. Work comparable to that with a large dairy farm where production records, animal environment, and sanitary conditions were kept in accordance with modern dairy practice. OR Education: Successful completion of 2 years of study that included at least 12 semester hours in any combination of scientific or technical courses such as biology, chemistry, statistics, entomology, animal husbandry, botany, physics, agriculture, or mathematics. At least 6 semester hours of courses must be directly related to the position being filled. MINIMUM REQUIREMENT - In addition to the IOR, all applicants must meet one of the below listed Minimum Requirement criteria. All claimed experience and education must be demonstrated on the applicant's resume and corroborated with copies of applicable transcripts. Experience: six (6) months of general work experience and six (6) months of specialized experience performing the following duties: Laboratory Duties - Assisting with laboratory studies and data analysis; performing and assisting with laboratory experiments, including cell culture and tissue section staining. Animal-Related Duties - performing perfusion fixation of rodents; processing brains for histological examination; genotyping animals, including transgenic animals; and assisting with animal experiments, including gene delivery. Molecular Biology Techniques - performing DNA gels and western blots. Animal Welfare Oversight - collaborating with Animal Facility staff and the Principal Investigator (PI); and evaluating the health, well-being, and behavior of animals before, during, and after research experiments. OR Education: Successful completion of two (2) years of study with courses related to the work of this position. OR Combination: Equal combination of general/specialized experience and education, as described above. Equal combination in this case means six (6) months of general/specialized experience and one (1) year of study with courses related to the work of this position. Experience refers to paid and unpaid experience, including volunteer work done through National Service programs (e.g., Peace Corps, AmeriCorps) and other organizations (e.g., professional; philanthropic; religions; spiritual; community; student; social). Volunteer work helps build critical competencies, knowledge, and skills and can provide valuable training and experience that translates directly to paid employment. You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience. A full year of work is considered to be 35-40 hours of work per week. Part-time experience will be credited on the basis of time actually spent in appropriate activities. Applicants wishing to receive credit for such experience must indicate clearly the nature of their duties and responsibilities in each position and the number of hours a week spent in such employment. Physical Requirements: The work is predominantly sedentary. Typically, the employee sits comfortably to do the work. However, there will be some walking, standing, bending and carrying of items of moderate weight such as large binders, banker style file boxes, meeting materials, papers, books or small parts. Hand and eye coordination for delicate testing procedures may be the only special physical demand required to perform the work.
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