Lab Animal Caretaker

We are launching people to the Moon and Mars. If you want to be part of this amazing mission and enjoy working in a great team environment, we would love to have you as part of our team that is making history, today. It takes big ideas and determination to take NASA's vision and make it reality. That's what we do every day.

The COMET contract provides overall management and implementation of ground systems capabilities, flight hardware processing, and launch operations at NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida. These tasks will support the International Space Station, Ground Systems Development and Operations, and the Space Launch System, Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle, and Launch Services programs.

Responsibilities

Areas of responsibility include, but are not limited to:

·       Support the preparation of animal husbandry equipment and supplies, including sanitation and sterilization of all items.

·       Process bags and/or boxes of animal feed, bedding material, supplies, and equipment.

·       Prepare and feed regular and/or special diets and sterile deionized water.

·       Perform quality control activities, such as maintaining logs and providing samples of sterile feed and water.

·       Operate cage rack washer, bottle washer, sterilizer, and other facility related equipment.

·       Perform routine maintenance of equipment as per manufacturer's recommendations.

·       Prepare supplies and equipment required in support of research investigations.

·       Handle animals in conjunction with relocating, cage change, feeding, watering, identifying, performing health checks, data collection, and/or administering of medications.

·       Maintain daily health check log.

·       Maintain supply and equipment inventory. Stock received supplies as needed.

·       Perform monthly inventory and communicate to the Lead Animal Care Technician or Technologist when items require replenishing.

·       Support contractor personnel and science customers requiring access to the facility in the proper wipe down/sanitation of items required for use. Assist with donning of clean room attire, including providing gloving instruction to personnel requiring access.

·       Maintain the barrier facility/clean room for Specific Pathogen Free conditions, including cleaning all surfaces and conducting microbial air and surface sampling.

·       Perform weekly safety walk-downs.

·       Coordinate preventative maintenance with external vendors, gains familiarity with routine operations of equipment and implements procedures to support flight.

·       Maintain facility's 100K cleanliness status.

·       Conduct surface sample testing for submission.

·       Cross-over technical support work as assigned supervised by technicians.

·       Hardware preparation and technical support of life sciences payloads.

·       Gain familiarity with flight/ground hardware for life sciences payloads.