Animal Care Technician

Houston Methodist; Houston (TX); On-site; USD 32,000 - 46,000; Full time

Job summary

Houston Methodist is seeking an Animal Care Technician to provide daily care and husbandry for research animals within the CMP. You will operate specialized cage wash equipment, maintain accurate animal room records, and ensure compliance with institutional policies and federal regulations.

The role requires a high school diploma or equivalent and at least one year of animal handling experience, with strong English communication and the ability to work in a team environment.

Qualifications

• High school diploma or equivalent required.
• One year of animal handling and husbandry experience.
• Ability to communicate effectively in English.

Responsibilities

• Provide daily animal care and husbandry for research animals.
• Perform cage changes, health checks, and feed/water maintenance.
• Operate cage wash equipment and keep accurate room records.
• Maintain compliance with Animal Welfare Act, GLP, AAALAC and USDA standards.
• Communicate observations to CMP Animal Care Supervisor.

Skills

Animal handling

Animal husbandry

Communication

English proficiency

Education

High School diploma or equivalent

Tools

Autoclaves

Tunnel washers

Rack washers

IVC equipment

Job description

At Houston Methodist, the Animal Care Technician position is responsible for delivering exceptional animal care to the research animals at Houston Methodist Academic Institute (HMAI) Comparative Medicine Program (CMP) under the direction of the Comparative Medicine Animal Care Technician Supervisor. This position performs daily animal care and husbandry of laboratory animals including operating specialized cage wash equipment in a research environment, ensuring animal room records are maintained in conformance with institutional policies and federal regulations including the Animal Welfare Act, Good Laboratory Practices and the standards required for Association for Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care accreditation.

FLSA STATUS

Non-exempt

QUALIFICATIONS

EDUCATION

• High School diploma or equivalent education (examples include: GED, verification of homeschool equivalency, partial or full completion of post-secondary education, etc.)

EXPERIENCE

• One-year animal handling and husbandry technician experience

KNOWLEDGE AND ABILITIES

• Demonstrates the skills and competencies necessary to safely perform the assigned job, determined through on-going skills, competency assessments, and performance evaluations

• Sufficient proficiency in speaking, reading, and writing the English language necessary to perform the essential functions of this job, especially with regard to activities impacting patient or employee safety or security

• Ability to effectively communicate with patients, physicians, family members and co-workers in a manner consistent with a customer service focus and application of positive language principles

• Ability to operate various cage wash and laboratory equipment include rack and tunnel washers, autoclaves and pressure washing systems

• Ability to perform animal husbandry duties using specialized IVC equipment and species-specific caging

• General animal handling skills involved with cage cleaning and animal transporting

• Ability to recognize animal health concerns

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS

PEOPLE ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS

• Establishes and maintains working relationships and communicates effectively with the Houston Methodist Academic Institute (HMAI) animal care, veterinary and research teams.

• Practices Houston Methodist ICARE values in a dynamic, multi-cultural and international work environment. Contributes towards improvement of department scores for employee engagement, i.e., peer-to-peer accountability.

SERVICE ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS

• Provides daily animal husbandry and care for a variety of laboratory animal species including routine cage change out, daily health checks and feed/water maintenance.

• Performs animal handling for a variety of laboratory animal species and effectively communicates related issues to the CMP Animal Care Supervisor.

• Performs sanitization of caging and equipment using tunnel and rack washers, bulk autoclaves and other specialized laboratory equipment.

• Performs daily animal census using an electronic Radio Frequency Identification scanning system.

QUALITY/SAFETY ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS

• Ensures that animal room records are maintained in conformance with institutional policies and federal regulations.

• Ensures the CMP facility remains prepared for routine Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee, Association for Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care and United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) inspections and meets occupational health and safety standards.

• Performs scheduled room and equipment sanitation to meet established CMP quality control standards in animal housing areas.

FINANCE ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS

• Identifies and communicates cost saving initiatives within the department. Self-motivated to independently manage time effectively and prioritize daily tasks, assisting coworkers as needed.

GROWTH/INNOVATION ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS

• Generates and communicates new ideas and suggestions that improve quality and service for a variety of husbandry animal care procedures and facility support practices.

• Embraces opportunities to acquire additional knowledge regarding guidelines and regulations that affect CMP’s animal research facility.

• Seeks opportunities to identify self-development needs and expands learning beyond baseline competencies with a focus on continual development as a technician and takes appropriate action. Ensures own career discussions occur with appropriate management. Completes and updates the My Development Plan on an on-going basis.

SUPPLEMENTAL REQUIREMENTS

WORK ATTIRE

• Uniform: No
• Scrubs: Yes
• Business professional: No
• Other (department approved): No

ON-CALL *

Note that employees may be required to be on-call during emergencies (ie. Disaster, Severe Weather Events, etc) regardless of selection below.

• On Call* No

TRAVEL **

Travel specifications may vary by department

• May require travel within the Houston Metropolitan area No
• May require travel outside Houston Metropolitan area No

QUALIFICATIONS

EDUCATION

• High School diploma or equivalent education (examples include: GED, verification of homeschool equivalency, partial or full completion of post-secondary education, etc.)

EXPERIENCE

• One-year animal handling and husbandry technician experience

Company Profile:

Houston Methodist Academic Institute oversees the Education Institute and Research Institute. The Academic Institute aligns our research and education initiatives in service to the clinical mission, providing solutions that answer the call for new technologies and skills our clinicians need for patient care. Houston Methodist Education Institute coordinates our primary academic affiliation with Weill Cornell Medicine and other joint programs, including the Engineering Medicine Program at Texas A&M University Intercollegiate School of Engineering Medicine. The Education Institute also oversees continuing medical education and graduate medical education, and supports trainees in residence for medical, nursing, allied health and research education programs. Houston Methodist Research Institute supports research programs and infrastructure that enable faculty across the system to bring new scientific discoveries to patients as rapidly as possible through the full cycle of a cure from conceptual bench research, to prototyping and development, to clinical trials and FDA approval. The Research Institute supports clinical research protocols and extramurally funded translational research programs.

Houston Methodist is an Equal Opportunity Employer.