Lab Manager, Department of Plant Sciences: UTIA

University of Tennessee•Knoxville, TN

9d•Onsite

About The Position

The Omics Hub is a centralized shared core facility that supports interdisciplinary research across seven UTIA departments in agriculture and life sciences. This position serves as the primary manager and technical lead of the facility, overseeing operations, training users, maintaining and acquiring equipment, decommissioning and removing obsolete equipment, providing user support, student guidance, and managing resources including basic cost-recovery and budget monitoring. Key responsibilities include delivering expert consultation and hands-on training for core facility-based instruments, providing assistance with designing and executing experiments, ensuring instrument reliability through proactive maintenance and quality control, facilitating access and efficient scheduling, conducting outreach activities, managing resources, and working with faculty to write proposals for equipment acquisition and funding initiatives to drive innovative research in plants, animals, microbes, food, and related fields.

Requirements

Master’s degree in a life sciences field such as Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, Biotechnology, Genetics, Genomics, Cell Biology, or a closely related discipline (with a research/thesis component preferred).
Knowledge of molecular biology and omics techniques with broad applications across plant, animal, microbial, and agricultural sciences is required.
Skill in operating and maintaining core instrumentation is essential.
Skill in experiment design, data analysis, troubleshooting, and protocol development are necessary.
Ability to provide excellent training, consultation, and communication to effectively support diverse users is required.
Knowledge of laboratory safety, hygiene, compliance, and core facility best practices is essential.
Ability to learn emerging technologies quickly and adapt to new applications is necessary.
Ability to demonstrate a strong customer service orientation with excellent interpersonal and organizational skills is required.

Nice To Haves

PhD in a relevant discipline or equivalent advanced training.
Experience in a university shared/core facility, experience in preparing equipment proposals and pursuing instrument funding opportunities.
Ability to build and maintain strong vendor relationships for staying current on emerging technologies.
Ability to effectively prioritize tasks and manage multiple user requests in a service-oriented environment.
Knowledge of best practices for developing and updating standard operating procedures and user guidelines.
Ability to organize and deliver workshops, demonstrations, or outreach activities to promote facility capabilities and foster collaborations.

Responsibilities

Act as the primary equipment and workflow expert, providing hands-on user training, expert consultation, and technical assistance to PIs, postdocs, students, and staff on instrumentation and workflows.
Mentor and guide students (e.g., through undergraduate research opportunities or credit-based projects) in hands-on learning to use and maintain key instrumentation, while assisting them in designing, executing, optimizing, and interpreting experiments across a range of applications.
Partner with users to design, execute, optimize, and interpret experiments across a broad spectrum of applications.
Troubleshoot technical issues, develop/validate custom protocols, and deliver reproducible, high-quality results to address diverse research objectives.
Manage daily operation, preventive maintenance, calibration, troubleshooting, and performance verification of instruments to ensure optimal performance and minimal downtime.
Develop and implement standard operating procedures (SOPs), diagnostic protocols, and maintenance schedules.
Coordinate vendor services, repairs, and compliance with university safety, hazardous materials, and operational standards.
Maintain inventory of consumable materials and supplies.
Manage computational resources, including storage and transfer of user-generated data, and regular updates of software and hardware.
Oversee facility access and user scheduling; keep facility website and calendars updated; track and report usage of facility resources and prepare usage reports and annual summaries.
Build and maintain strong vendor relationships to stay informed on emerging technologies and best practices.
Host workshops, demonstrations, and lab tours to promote facility capabilities and encourage collaborations.
Identify equipment needs in partnership with users and assist faculty with writing proposals for funding to support instrument acquisitions or upgrades.
Oversee centralized supply procurement as part of overall facility operations including basic cost-recovery and budget monitoring.
Make sure the facility is physically secure, especially outside of normal working hours.
Participate in long-term strategic planning for facility capabilities, growth, and sustainability.