Animal Care Technician I

Charles River Laboratories; Boston (MA); On-site; USD 32,000 - 42,000; Full time

Job summary

Charles River Insourcing Solutions in Boston, MA seeks an Animal Care Technician to perform routine animal husbandry tasks, including cleaning, feeding, and watering laboratory animals, as well as maintaining cages and related equipment within the CRADL facility.

Responsibilities include handling animals, sanitation, health observations, cage washer operation, and documentation. High school diploma required; ALAT preferred. Opportunity to support GMP/GLP environments.

Qualifications

• High school diploma or GED required.
• Bachelor’s degree in animal or life sciences preferred.
• Assistant Laboratory Animal Technician (ALAT) certification preferred.

Responsibilities

• Handle, transfer, and deliver animals, supplies, and waste to and from work areas as needed.
• Perform daily cage duties and sanitation procedures.
• Monitor daily animal health and welfare and conduct routine observations.
• Operate cage washers and autoclaves to sterilize equipment.
• Maintain QA documents, logs, and environmental records.
• Provide daily care including food, water, cage changes, and health reporting.

Skills

Animal care

Health monitoring

Documentation

Team communication

Education

High school diploma or GED

Bachelor’s degree in animal or life sciences

Job description

For 75 years, Charles River employees have worked together to assist in the discovery, development and safe manufacture of new drug therapies. When you join our family, you will have a significant impact on the health and well-being of people across the globe. Whether your background is in life sciences, finance, IT, sales or another area, your skills will play an important role in the work we perform. In return, we’ll help you build a career that you can feel passionate about.

Job Summary

We are seeking an Animal Care Technician to join our Insourcing Solutions team located in Boston, MA.

As an Animal Care Technician, you will perform routine animal husbandry tasks, including cleaning, feeding, and watering laboratory animals; cleaning cages and related equipment; and maintaining animal care environments within the Charles River Accelerator & Development Labs (CRADL) animal facility.

Key Responsibilities

• Handle, transfer, and deliver animals, supplies (including caging, gases, dry ice, and liquid nitrogen), and waste to and from work areas as needed.
• Perform daily cage duties, including recycling and scheduled sanitation procedures.
• Monitor daily animal health and welfare while conducting routine health observations.
• Operate cage washers and autoclaves to sterilize caging equipment and instruments.
• Maintain quality assurance documentation, including temperature strips, room environmental reports and logs, and washer or autoclave logs.
• Perform animal husbandry duties to maintain the quality and health of research animals, including daily water bottle and cage checks, providing appropriate food and water, performing cage changes and cleaning, and recording animal health concerns in accordance with SOPs and specified protocols.
• Communicate procedural questions or training needs to the Team Lead or Facility Supervisor.
• Perform humane euthanasia in accordance with the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals.
• Monitor client rack and row assignments in shared animal holding rooms to ensure proper labeling and assignment based on facility needs.
• Maintain a clean and organized work environment, including animal rooms, corridors, cage wash areas, procedure rooms, anterooms, storage areas, and grounds, following established cleaning procedures and schedules.

Required

Job Qualifications

• High school diploma, General Education Degree (G.E.D.) or equivalent required.

Preferred

• Education: Bachelor’s degree (B.A./B.S.) in animal or life sciences field preferred
• Experience: Directly related laboratory animal experience in a laboratory animal facility preferred.
• Certification/Licensure: Assistant Laboratory Animal Technician (ALAT) certification from AALAS preferred.

About Insourcing Solutions

Charles River Insourcing Solutions can streamline research by delivering operational and cost efficiencies through the strategic insourcing of GMP, GLP and non-GLP research services from discovery through safety assessment. Insourcing Solutions provides you with the ability to maintain control of your facility and expertise while leveraging available space.

About Charles River

Charles River is an early-stage contract research organization (CRO). We have built upon our foundation of laboratory animal medicine and science to develop a diverse portfolio of discovery and safety assessment services, both Good Laboratory Practice (GLP) and non-GLP, to support clients from target identification through preclinical development. Charles River also provides a suite of products and services to support our clients’ clinical laboratory testing needs and manufacturing activities. Utilizing this broad portfolio of products and services enables our clients to create a more flexible drug development model, which reduces their costs, enhances their productivity and effectiveness to increase speed to market.

With over 20,000 employees within 110 facilities in over 20 countries around the globe, we are strategically positioned to coordinate worldwide resources and apply multidisciplinary perspectives in resolving our client’s unique challenges. Our client base includes global pharmaceutical companies, biotechnology companies, government agencies and hospitals and academic institutions around the world.

At Charles River, we are passionate about our role in improving the quality of people’s lives. Our mission, our excellent science and our strong sense of purpose guide us in all that we do, and we approach each day with the knowledge that our work helps to improve the health and well-being of many across the globe. We have proudly worked on 80% of the drugs approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the past five years.

We’re committed to providing benefits that elevate your quality of life. Based on your position these may include: bonus/incentives based on performance, 401K, paid time off, stock purchase program, Health and wellness coverage, employee and family wellbeing support programs, and work life balance flexibility.

Equal Employment Opportunity

Charles River is an equal opportunity employer and is committed to providing equal employment opportunities for all qualified applicants and employees without regard to race, color, sex, religion, national origin, ancestry, age, mental or physical disability, family status, pregnancy, military or veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local laws.

It is unlawful in some states (including Massachusetts) to require or administer a lie detector test as a condition of employment or continued employment. An employer who violates this law shall be subject to criminal penalties and civil liability.

For more information, please visit www.criver.com.