Research Associate I, II, III, and Senior

Position Function:

Onsite leadership to facilitate, develop, and/or complete improvements to the NOAA Southeast Fisheries Science Center’s Invertebrate Aquaculture Laboratory in Galveston, TX and to assist with the development and completion of a document assessing the nationwide inventory of NOAA science centers with respect to their capacity warm-water finfish aquaculture.

Salary Grade:  13

Please see Staff Compensation Structure or Skilled Crafts and Service Maintenance Compensation Schedule for salary ranges.  For salary grade UC, these positions are "Unclassified" and salary ranges are determined by the hiring department.

Department Profile:

The Northern Gulf Institute (NGI) is a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Cooperative Institute comprised of six academic institutions that are geographically distributed across the U.S. Gulf Coast states. The six NGI member institutions are Mississippi State University (lead), the University of Southern Mississippi, Florida State University, Louisiana State University, the University of Alabama in Huntsville, and the Dauphin Island Sea Laboratory. Together with NOAA and in support of their strategic plan, NGI conducts research on interconnections among Gulf of Mexico environments, habitats, resources, and people and engages in outreach to help others learn about and make decisions based on these interconnections.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

• Transition the existing culture facilities located at the NOAA Galveston Facility from a turtle rearing facility to an invertebrate rearing facility. This may include system redesign or modifications.
• Conduct or oversee repairs/redesign of culture tanks.
• Develop SOPs documenting how the upgraded system function and estimate values required for rearing invertebrates.
• Start rearing of test animals to ensure systems are functioning properly. Initial focus is expected to be on Easter oysters and Queen Conch.
• Lead the completion of a nationwide analysis of NOAA laboratory facilities documenting the capacity to engage in aquaculture of warm-water marine fishes. This would include documenting current facilities, required upgrades, staffing capacity and needs, permitting, identification of potential research partners, and understand the viewpoints of leadership at each facility and their opinions on engaging to expanding aquaculture activities.
• Produce a professional style publication to be published as a NOAA Technical Memorandum.
• Disseminate results via oral presentations at conferences, local meetings, and with NOAA Leadership.
• Other duties as assigned.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Appointment to this position requires an B.S. in biological sciences or engineering.

A professional employee with a bachelor’s degree in the required discipline and demonstrated competence can begin work at the Research/Extension Associate I level.

To begin at the Research/Extension Associate II level, one must have a bachelor’s degree in the required discipline and a minimum of three years relevant experience and the equivalent of a master’s degree.

To begin at the Research/Extension Associate III level, one must have a bachelor’s degree in the required discipline and a minimum of six years relevant experience and the equivalent of the master’s degree.

Master’s Degree: A professional employee with a master’s degree and a minimum of 1 year of relevant experience can begin
work at Associate II; 3 years for Associate III; 6 years for Senior Associate.

Doctoral Degree: A professional employee with a doctoral degree in the required
discipline and 2 years of relevant experience can begin work at Associate III; 3 years for Senior Associate.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Ph.D. in the Biological Sciences, Aquaculture, Systems Engineering, or a closely related field.
• Experience in culturing fishes or invertebrates for aquaculture.
• Experience in building aquaculture systems.
• Strong publication record.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:

• Basic understanding of tank-based culture systems.
• Basic understanding of plumbing.
• Basic understanding of aquaculture focused water chemistry.
• Strong writing and organizational skills.

Working Conditions and P