Variable Hour Animal Welfare Program Assistant

Oregon Metro•Oregon Zoo, OR

5d•Hybrid

About The Position

The Oregon Zoo’s Animal Welfare and Research Department is looking for an Animal Welfare Monitoring Program Assistant to help with various day-to-day activities of the Zoo’s animal welfare monitoring program. The focus of this position is to support our endocrine lab and welfare monitoring staff by providing timely data and reports for ongoing welfare assessments and research. You will have the opportunity to learn a variety of techniques and tools, such as behavior and endocrine monitoring, in addition to monitoring environmental factors such as sound and light and how to integrate all these data for analysis and reports that help inform animal care, management and conservation. The role will provide support for the completion of a variety of day-to-day activities needed for the welfare monitoring of our species. The role will work with the Animal Welfare Monitoring Specialist and the Endocrine Lab Manager and will report to the Director of Animal Welfare and Research. This role will also interact with our behavior volunteers who collect data for our welfare monitoring program and help with some aspects of volunteer training and support.

Requirements

High school Diploma or GED
One year of experience working with animals in a professional care setting (e.g., vet hospital, rescue center) and/or studying/observing animals as part of a formal research program or job function
OR Any combination of education, professional, volunteer and lived experience that provides the necessary knowledge, skills, and abilities to perform the classification duties and responsibilities.
Strong communication skills, both verbally and in writing
Enjoys working with complex data sets and performing data analyses, including robust statistical analyses
Comfortable working in a biological lab including interaction with biological samples
Ability to consistently follow lab protocols/directions
Comfortable interacting with guests and patrons of the Oregon Zoo
Has report writing experience
Passionate about animals and conservation

Nice To Haves

Proven experience in advanced statistical analyses and data integration
Lab experience with pipetting, weighing and calculating dilutions
Experience with Microsoft Apps (i.e., Power BI, Excel) and R Statistical Package
BS degree or working towards a BS degree in the Biological Sciences
Previous experience working in a research lab setting
Documented experience with data entry and with Microsoft Word/Excel
Documented experience with data analyses and report writing

Responsibilities

Help with the analysis and organization of several large data sets with ongoing data collection (behavior, endocrine, environmental).
Use existing reporting tools to help communicate data findings to Animal Care Staff in a timely manner.
Assist with organization, processing, and general maintenance of the Oregon Zoo’s Endocrinology Lab.
Assist Animal Care Staff and/or Guest Services with environmental testing (sound, light, and visitor presence) during day-to-day activities and special events.
Be a resource for the Animal Behavior Monitoring Volunteer group, alongside the Volunteer Coordinator and Animal Welfare Monitoring Specialist, and assist them with technological questions and animal behavior data collection.