Temporary Insect Production Assistant

Immediate start

Fixed-term contract until October 31st 2023

Availability to work weekends required

• Shift and schedule: 9am – 5.30pm, Thursday – Monday or Friday – Tuesday

£21,000 to £23,000 per year depending on experience

Responsibilities
This role involves working with live insects, supporting the daily production activities of an insect mass rearing laboratory. The focus of the job will be to sex sort insects, collecting males and females for further processing as part of an SIT program. Full training for this process will be provided, in addition to other rearing procedures and techniques depending on requirements, these may include:

• Preparing artificial diet media
• Larval feeding
• Egg collection, surface sterilisation and infestation
• Setup and maintenance of adult mating cages
• QC, life stage monitoring and record keeping
• Cleaning and recycling of laboratory equipment
• Maintenance of lab hygiene standards
• Lab admin, stock keeping

Skills and experience
This job requires fine motor skills, a keen attention detail, positivity and a good team ethos. Proficiency in both written and oral English language and the ability to follow protocols accurately whilst observing health and safety rules. You must be comfortable working with live insects as well as working in the hot and humid insectary. The tasks are repetitive and for long periods of time so concentration and consistency, retaining quality and efficiency over long stretches, is essential and therefore any production related experience will be advantageous.

Personal attributes
To thrive in the unstructured and fast-changing environment of a start-up, important personal qualities are:

• Energy, ambition and commitment to ensure the job gets done
• Honesty, integrity and openness to ensure we build a great company culture
• Flexibility to changes in priorities and adaptability to new ideas

Application process
To be considered for this role, please send your CV and a brief cover letter through Indeed explaining why you think you are the right person for this job.

Job Types: Full-time, Fixed term contract
Contract length: 5 months

Salary: £21,000.00-£23,000.00 per year

Benefits:

• Casual dress
• Free parking

Schedule:

• Weekend availability

Ability to commute/relocate:

• RG18LX: reliably commute or plan to relocate before starting work (required)

Work authorisation:

• United Kingdom (required)

Work Location: In person