Director, Technical Services

The University of British Columbia; Vancouver; On-site; CAD 100,000 - 125,000; Full time

Job summary

An established industry player is seeking a Director of Technical Services to lead and manage engineering operations within a dynamic academic environment. This pivotal role encompasses overseeing mechanical engineering, electronics, glassblowing services, and IT support in a leading research department. The successful candidate will provide strategic direction, manage diverse teams, and ensure the delivery of high-quality technical services. With a commitment to equity and inclusion, this position offers the opportunity to contribute significantly to innovative research and education. If you are passionate about advancing scientific instrumentation and fostering a collaborative work culture, this is the role for you.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in scientific instrumentation and engineering.
• Strong understanding of electrical and mechanical technologies.

Responsibilities

• Oversee operation of Mechanical and IT services in the Department of Chemistry.
• Manage engineering support for research and development of instrumentation.

Skills

Engineering Management

Electrical Design

Mechanical Design

Technical Support

Project Management

Customer Service

Education

Masters or PhD in Engineering or Applied Science

Tools

PCB Design Software

Precision Machining Tools

Data Acquisition Systems

Job description

Director, Technical Services page is loaded

Director, Technical Services

Apply locations UBC Vancouver Campus time type Full time posted on Posted 12 Days Ago job requisition id JR20729 Staff - Non Union

Job Category

M&P - AAPS

Job Profile

AAPS Salaried - Scientific Eng., Level E

Job Title

Director, Technical Services

Department

Administrative Leadership | Department of Chemistry | Faculty of Science

Compensation Range

$8,305.08 - $12,952.33 CAD Monthly

The Compensation Range is the span between the minimum and maximum base salary for a position. The midpoint of the range is approximately halfway between the minimum and the maximum and represents an employee that possesses full job knowledge, qualifications and experience for the position. In the normal course, employees will be hired, transferred or promoted between the minimum and midpoint of the salary range for a job.

Posting End Date

May 15, 2025

Note: Applications will be accepted until 11:59 PM on the Posting End Date.

Job End Date

At UBC, we believe that attracting and sustaining a diverse workforce is key to the successful pursuit of excellence in research, innovation, and learning for all faculty, staff and students. Our commitment to employment equity helps achieve inclusion and fairness, brings rich diversity to UBC as a workplace, and creates the necessary conditions for a rewarding career.

Job Summary
Responsible for the effective operation of the Mechanical Engineering, Electronics Engineering, Glassblowing Services, and IT Services in the Department of Chemistry. Provides engineering support to research groups for development of novel research instrumentation. Liaises with and provides technical advice to departmental and university personnel. Sits on departmental committees.

Organizational Status
Reports to the Director, Finance and Operations. Supervises Engineering Technicians, Research Associate/Technicians, the IT Services Manager, and M&P staff. Provides direction and/or assistance to departmental personnel, research staff, and/or Building Operations/Project Services relating to equipment requirements, laboratory renovations, equipment acquisition and equipment relocation

Work Performed

Direction of departmental shops and IT:

Supervises three teams of Technicians and Engineering Technicians, and the IT Services Manager. Responsible for hiring, performance, training and development. Has overall responsibility for the quality, cost and timeliness of services provided by the personnel. Implements and manages short- and long-range strategic operational plans, performance indicators and productivity parameters relating to the operation of departmental shops and IT.

Directs operation of departmental shops (Mechanical Engineering Services, Electronic Engineering Services, and Glassblowing), ensuring timely and economical delivery of fabrication and repair services including maintenance of complex spectrometers and other analytical equipment, precision machining, electronic circuit design and fabrication, vacuum pump repair and rebuild, cryogen distribution, laboratory setup, and other activities in support of teaching and research in Chemistry.

Directs operation of the Information Technology team, ensuring timely and economical delivery of IT services, including desktop support for faculty, staff, and students, management of departmental servers for mail, websites, and teaching computing clusters, and development and support of web-based applications supporting teaching, faculty recruitment, conference organizing, and administration.

Manages the work requisition process for the shops and IT, ensuring that requisitions are assigned to capable personnel and are completed in a timely and efficient manner. Provides staff with technical support and direction for complex requisitions. Resolves scheduling conflicts within and between shops. Tracks labour hours and parts usage, provides detailed statements of costs to researchers, and provides cost-recovery reports to the department on a regular basis. Ensures that records and charges meet Tri-council and CFI requirements.

Continually assesses staff skills, knowledge and experience, and maintains an ongoing succession plan to guide personnel development objectives. Maintains a system of absence back-up for each staff member.

Financial Responsibilities:

Continually assesses shop and IT capital equipment, provides the department with capital spending plans in advance of need, particularly for high value equipment for precision machining, computing clusters supporting teaching, and data servers supporting departmental services.

Manages the operating budgets for the services. Manages day-to-day spending on shop equipment and consumables.

Manages the purchasing and delivery of cryogens (liquid nitrogen and helium) to departmental users.

Maintains Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectrometer magnet-filling schedule. Reports usage to stores each month for customer billing. Maintains liquid nitrogen dispensing room, ensuring users can dispense LN2 safety and usage is tracked for billing purposes. Reconciles invoices to deliveries and approves payment of all invoices.

Support for research:

Leads and manages the development (design, acquisition, fabrication, assembly, and commissioning) of equipment and instrumentation. Maintains current knowledge of new developments, processes and technology related to material, electronic and computer engineering. Conducts research on recent developments in area of specialization. Uses this information to formulate staff and technological plans to meet current and future departmental needs. Makes recommendations to the department based on these plans.

Provides expertise to research and teaching faculty in the acquisition of sophisticated and complex research instrumentation; may make recommendations as to models/manufacturers with regards to adequacy, operation and maintenance of prospective purchases.

Evaluates surplus equipment and instrumentation for use by research or teaching labs.

Departmental support:

Sits on departmental committees; is a permanent member of the departmental Information Technology, Employee Health and Safety, and Shops and Services Committees.

Provides input for planning of major Dept of Chemistry laboratory renovations and building maintenance and upgrade projects. Provides direction/assistance related to the facilities' requirements for equipment acquisition/relocation. Three of the five Chemistry buildings have not had significant upgrades in 30+ years, which results in frequent maintenance/upgrade/repair projects that require careful planning and excellent communication with researchers (e.g., backup power for scientific equipment).

Provides indirect supervision and guidance to research engineers working within research groups, validates work experience for EITs (Engineers in Training) who are applying for licenses to practice as professional engineers.

Safety

Follows safety regulations and the WHMIS 2015 legislation, ensures that staff work in a safe manner, and reports unsafe conditions to their supervisor and/or the Chemistry Safety Officer.

Consequence of Error/Judgement

This is a key position responsible for maintenance of a wide variety of scientific electronic equipment located in our services, teaching and research labs, and for the timely provision of detailed design services of prototype research equipment. Error and/or poor judgement could have an immediate and long-term negative affect on departmental efficiency, stall research projects and affected related research funding initiatives, and/or disrupt teaching lab schedules.

Uninterrupted cryogen deliveries are critical to the department’s operation, the multi-million-dollar NMR spectrometers cannot operate without cryogens. Interruptions to the cryogen supply, in a best-case scenario would result in a risky shutdown, and in the worst case a catastrophic failure.

Supervision Received

Works independently consulting supervisors only on unusual issues.

This position reports for administrative issues to the Director, Finance and Operations.

Supervision Given
Directly supervises Engineering Technicians (as many as 7 electronics, 7 machining/mechanical, 1 glass blower), the IT Manager (M&P), and M&P research and IT staff (up to 4 personnel). Provides guidance to research engineers across the department.

QUALIFICATIONS
- Willingness to respect diverse perspectives, including perspectives in conflict with one’s own
- Demonstrates a commitment to enhancing one’s own awareness, knowledge, and skills related to equity, diversity, and inclusion

University degree (Masters or PhD preferred) in Engineering or Applied Science with 10 years practical experience in an industrial or university research environment in work related to instrumentation for scientific research or development. Solid understanding of the electrical and mechanical technologies used in the construction and operation of scientific instrumentation.

ENGINEERING

• Considerable engineering experience in electrical and mechanical design, development, maintenance, production management, vendor specification, supervision and administrative duties.
• Ability to adapt to the latest technological advancements and apply them to the field of scientific electronic instrumentation.
• Ability to provide advice and guidance to students and faculty on technical issues related to scientific instrumentation.

MECHANICAL SYSTEMS

• Broad-based knowledge of machine shop capabilities and workflow.
• Experience managing the delivery of precision machining, additive manufacturing, vacuum chamber construction, and other standard shop technologies
• Knowledge of techniques and materials selection for fabricating devices used in extreme temperatures and pressures, chemical exposure, high magnetic fields, intense radiation, etc.

ELECTRONIC SYSTEMS

• Design and fabrication of digital, analog, high power, fast acquisition, and other electronics used in chemistry research.
• Expert proficiency in electronic design and assembly of complex electronic systems.
• Knowledge of printed-circuit board (PCB) design software and techniques for designing for high power, high speed, RF, and low noise electronics.
• Extensive experience developing software in a research environment including user interfaces, data acquisition and control, instrument control, and data processing.

IT SYSTEMS

• A broad-based understanding of computer technology and IT infrastructure, including computer networks and server hardware, is required.

GLASSBLOWING

• An understanding of scientific glassblowing is desirable.

COMMUNICATION AND MANAGERIAL SKILLS

• A strong customer service attitude, with a demonstrated record of leading teams that provide exceptional customer service.
• Effective oral and written communication, problem-solving, interpersonal and organizational skills.
• Demonstrated ability in the provision of strong, effective and supportive management of technical staff, specifically in team building and conflict resolution.