Team Leader - Animal Welfare and Regulatory Compliance

IndigCareers; Geelong; On-site; AUD 135,000 - 158,000; Full time

Job summary

CSIRO’s Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness (ACDP) in Geelong is seeking a Team Leader to oversee animal welfare and regulatory compliance within a high-containment facility. You will lead a team of specialists, ensuring ethical research and strict adherence to national and international standards.

You will collaborate with researchers, regulators and internal teams to provide expert guidance, drive audits and continually improve quality and compliance frameworks across ACDP.

Qualifications

• Tertiary qualification in veterinary science, animal science, bioscience, or a closely related discipline.
• Demonstrated experience working in a heavily regulated laboratory or scientific environment.
• Experience within a scientific or health institution, with a requirement for experience in system development, implementation, and compliance framework management.
• Demonstrated understanding of quality, compliance, regulatory and environmental processes.
• Proven ability to effectively handle sensitive and confidential information, interpret policies, procedures, and guidelines to provide clear and consistent advice and support on compliance and animal welfare issues
• Proven ability to work effectively in a team environment, collaborate widely both internally and externally, and establish effective interpersonal relationships with a wide variety of people.
• Demonstrated experience working with animals in a laboratory environment or under animal ethics systems that consider welfare.
• Demonstrated understanding of the compliance requirements for work with biosecurity, GM or SSBA materials and animal research ethics principles and state and national requirements.
• Further qualifications or formal training in animal welfare, laboratory animal medicine or compliance management.
• Experience working under a quality management system with demonstrated accomplishments in the delivery of continual improvement and systemic improvements.

Responsibilities

• Lead animal welfare and biorisk management officers to deliver expert advice and support best-practice animal care and compliant research.
• Oversee compliance and microbiological security requirements for research involving biosecurity goods, GMOs and security-sensitive biological agents.
• Coordinate external and internal audits across ACDP, ensuring non-compliance is reported and corrective actions are implemented.
• Support adverse-event investigations and advise on animal welfare interventions and report outcomes to committees and authorities.
• Collaborate with research, facility and quality teams to develop procedures, policies and compliance frameworks across ACDP.
• Align practices with CSIRO’s Animal Welfare Procedure and the Australian Code for the Care and Use of Animals for Scientific Purposes.
• Provide expert regulatory guidance and contribute to training in technical procedures, animal welfare.
• Contribute to biorisk management leadership and foster inclusion, knowledge sharing and continuous improvement.

Skills

Team leadership

Regulatory compliance knowledge

Animal welfare expertise

Biosecurity awareness

Communication

Education

Tertiary qualification in veterinary science, animal science, bioscience, or a closely related discipline.

Job description

Team Leader - Animal Welfare and Regulatory Compliance

CSIRO acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the land, sea and waters, of the area that we live and work on across Australia. We acknowledge their continuing connection to their culture and pay our respects to their Elders past and present. View ourvision towards reconciliation.

Role highlights

• Lead animal welfare and biorisk specialists at CSIRO’s ACDP
• Champion animal welfare and ethical research
• Drive compliance and improvement in high-containment research

About CSIRO

As Australia's national science agency, CSIRO is solving the greatest challenges through innovative science and technology. Many of our iconic innovations were once considered impossible until someone, just like you, joined us and took on the challenge.

VisitCSIRO.aufor more information.

CSIRO’s Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness (ACDP) in Geelong is a nationally significant high-containment facility protecting Australia from serious and emerging animal and zoonotic disease threats. Our teams work across research, surveillance, diagnostics and emergency response, helping safeguard Australia’s animal industries, environment and communities.

This is a pivotal time to join ACDP. A major Part-Life Refit is modernising laboratories, infrastructure and animal research capability to support the Centre’s critical work for decades to come at the Geelong site. You’ll have the opportunity to contribute to science with genuine national impact in helping Australia anticipate, detect and respond to serious biosecurity threats such as lumpy skin disease, African swine fever and avian influenza. Whether your role supports research, diagnostics, surveillance, animal care, laboratory operations or critical infrastructure, your work can strengthen Australia’s preparedness, protect animal health and industries, and help reduce risks to the environment and community. You’ll also build distinctive experience in a complex, highly regulated environment unlike conventional veterinary, animal-care or laboratory practice.

The opportunity

As the Animal Welfare and Regulatory Compliance Team Leader, you’ll lead a team of animal welfare and biorisk specialists supporting ethical, compliant animal and scientific operations at ACDP. Working with relevant internal teams in CSIRO you will support compliance with the Australian Code for the Care and Use of Animals for Scientific Purposes (2013), DAFF biosecurity controls, OGTR guidelines, the SSBA Regulatory Scheme and internal policies.

Working with researchers, regulators and internal ethics, biorisk, quality and infrastructure teams, you’ll provide animal welfare oversight and expert advice on research design and experimental proposals. You’ll help coordinate regulatory audits and documentation requests, strengthen collaboration and contribute to ACDP’s certified ISO 9001 management system.

Your high-level duties will include:

• Lead animal welfare and biorisk management officers to deliver expert advice and support best-practice animal care and compliant research.
• Oversee compliance and microbiological security requirements for research involving biosecurity goods, genetically modified organisms and security-sensitive biological agents.
• In collaboration with relevant internal teams, help coordinate transparent external and internal audits across ACDP, ensuring non-compliance is reported appropriately and corrective actions are implemented.
• Support adverse-event investigations, advise on animal welfare interventions and report outcomes and recommended actions to relevant committees and authorities.
• Collaborate with research, facility and quality teams to develop consistent procedures, policies and compliance frameworks across ACDP.
• Partner with the Animal Research Ethics Team to align practices with CSIRO’s Animal Welfare Procedure and the Australian Code for the Care and Use of Animals for Scientific Purposes.
• Provide expert regulatory guidance and contribute to training in technical procedures, animal welfare
• Contribute to biorisk management leadership, advise on emerging compliance and welfare matters, and foster inclusion, knowledge sharing and continuous improvement.

Location:Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness (ACDP), Geelong, VIC

Salary:AU$135k - AU$158k per annum + 15.4% superannuation

Reference:104343

As the successful candidate, you will bring:

• Tertiary qualification in veterinary science, animal science, bioscience, or a closely related discipline.
• Demonstrated experience working in a heavily regulated laboratory or scientific environment.
• Demonstrated experience within a scientific or health institution, with a requirement for experience in system development, implementation, and compliance framework management.
• Demonstrated understanding of quality, compliance, regulatory and environmental processes.
• Proven ability to effectively handle sensitive and confidential information, interpret policies, procedures, and guidelines to provide clear and consistent advice and support on compliance and animal welfare issues
• Proven ability to work effectively in a team environment, collaborate widely both internally and externally, and establish effective interpersonal relationships with a wide variety of people.
• Demonstrated experience working with animals in a laboratory environment or under animal ethics systems that consider welfare.
• Demonstrated understanding of the compliance requirements for work with biosecurity, GM or SSBA materials and animal research ethics principles and state and national requirements.
• Further qualifications or formal training in animal welfare, laboratory animal medicine or compliance management.
• Experience working under a quality management system with demonstrated accomplishments in the delivery of continual improvement and systemic improvements.

For full details about this role, and other criteria, please review the Position Description.

Not sure if you meet all the criteria?

While it is CSIRO policy that the successful candidate must meet all the essential criteria, there are many ways to demonstrate this. Don’t let the list discourage you. If you are unsure about applying, please reach out to the contact person in the Position Description.

Setting you up for success

We are committed to providing arecruitment process that is fair, equitable and accessible to everyone. We recognise that it may be helpful for us to adjust our process to make it equitable for your individual situation. Please contactLaura Mason via **************@csiro.auand let us know how we can support you.

Life at CSIRO and flexible work arrangements

Wework flexibly at CSIRO, offering a range of options for how, when and where you work.We can discuss flexible work arrangements with you during the recruitment process.CSIRO also offers a range of leave entitlements,benefitsandcareer developmentopportunities. To find out more, visitCareers at CSIRO.

Inclusion and belonging

Solving Australia's greatest challenges takes a diversity of minds and lived experiences. We know diverse teams are more effective and deliver more innovative outcomes. As an equal employment opportunity organisation, we are committed to creatingdiverse and inclusive teamswhere people feel they belong. We recognise true diversity encompasses all ages, abilities, cultures, faiths, levels of education, genders, sexualities, diversity of thought and much more. We focus on hiring people who share our values of People First, Further Together, Making it Real and Trusted.

CSIRO holds Gold Status for the Australian Workplace Equality Index for LGBTQIA+ inclusion, and a Science in Australia Gender Equity Bronze Award.

Applications for this position are open to Australian Citizens, New Zealand Citizens, and Australian Permanent Residents. Appointment to this role is subject to provision of a national police check and may be subject to other security/medical/character requirements.

Child safety

CSIRO is committed to the safety and wellbeing of all children and young people involved in our activities and programs. View ourChild Safe Policy.