Animal Care Technician I

Charles River; Reno (NV); On-site; USD 22,000 - 31,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Bonus incentives

401K

Paid time off

Stock purchase program

Health and wellness coverage

Employee and family wellbeing support

Work-life balance flexibility

Job summary

Charles River in Reno, NV is seeking an Animal Care Technician I to support Safety Assessment studies onsite. You will assist with animal care, housing, handling, and basic health monitoring under supervision.

The role emphasizes welfare, safety, and compliance with GLP/SOP/IACUC rules, with training provided. Schedule is initially M-F, with potential shift variation; starting pay is $19 per hour with opportunities for advancement.

Qualifications

• Education: High School Diploma or GED preferred, but not required.
• Strong communication skills and attention to detail.
• Ability to work extended hours beyond normal schedule, including evenings, weekends, and short-notice shifts.

Responsibilities

• Assist with cleaning, sanitizing, animal handling, and animal husbandry.
• Perform cage manipulation, movement, and maintenance of equipment and facilities.
• Collect, document, and verify data in forms or electronic systems; ensure data quality.

Skills

Strong communication skills

Attention to detail

Education

High School Diploma or GED

Job description

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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 Overview

We are seeking an Animal Care Technician I for our Safety Assessment site located in Reno, NV.

The Animal Care Technician I will be trained in basic skills required to support our research studies onsite. Duties may include cleaning, sanitizing, animal handling, animal husbandry, changing out animal cages, observing, monitoring, and recording basic information about animal health.

Ensure good welfare and humane care for all animals worked with through gentle, positive human-animal interactions

Perform duties such as animal husbandry, animal handling, cage manipulation, and movement, equipment storage/tracking, wash systems, and water delivery system maintenance for various animal species throughout the site

Collect, document, review, and verify data on forms, or in electronic data systems

Review documentation for quality control purposes

Stocking n supplies and facility cleaning duties

Use and perform maintenance on instruments and equipment

Progress through training for skills required in this position

• Works in a research environment, which requires use of sharp objects, working around mechanical parts, heavy mobile caging, working with or near known or unknown toxic or caustic chemicals and/or biological hazards, exposure to fumes and airborne particles
• The employee regularly works with live animals with risk of exposure to dander, allergens, zoonotic disease, and biohazards in a windowless vivarium
• The noise level in the work environment ranges from low to high depending upon the species housed, and vivarium locations

The starting pay for this position is $19.00 USD per hour with room for advancement through Animal Care Technician V

Schedule is M-F, 7 am - 4 pm while in training for roughly 6 months. After training, work week is either Tues-Sat or Sun-Thurs, 7 am - 4 pm daily

Job Description

• Education: High School Diploma, General Education Degree (G.E.D) preferred, but not required.
• Strong communication skills and attention to detail.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Previous experience in a physically demanding environment
• Previous personal or professional experience in animal care
• Ability to maintain a safe work environment by observing all safety procedures and making use of protective clothing
• Ability to follow all Good Laboratory Practices (GLP), Standard Operating Procedures (SOP), Business Operating Procedures (BOP) and Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) rules
• Ability to work extended hours beyond normal work schedule, which may include evenings, weekends, extended shifts, and/or extra shifts, sometimes on short notice
• Ability to work under time constraints

PHYSICAL DEMANDS: Employees must be able to lift, move, manipulate, and/or hold heavy objects up to and including 50 pounds; this includes work materials, equipment, and/or animals. Must be able to perform procedures, which require, talking, hearing, standing or sitting for long periods of time, entering data into a computer, using appropriate instruments, reaching with hands and arms, working in narrow spaces, and wearing safety equipment (PPE) according to OSHA regulations and company standards. Must be able to frequently firmly hold species while utilizing fine motor skills. Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, color vision, depth perception, and the ability to adjust focus.

About Safety Assessment Charles River is committed to helping our partners expedite their preclinical drug development with exceptional safety assessment services, state-of-the-art facilities and expert regulatory guidance. From individual specialty toxicology and IND enabling studies to tailored packages and total laboratory support, our deeply experienced team can design and execute programs that anticipate challenges and avoid roadblocks for a smooth, efficient journey to market. Each year approximately 300 investigational new drug (IND) programs are conducted in our Safety Assessment facilities.

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.

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.

If you are interested in applying to Charles River Laboratories and need special assistance or an accommodation due to a disability to complete any forms or to otherwise participate in the resume submission process, please contact a member of our Human Resources team by sending an e‑mail message to [e-mail]. This contact is for accommodation requests for individuals with disabilities only and cannot be used to inquire about the status of applications.

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

Nearest Major Market: Reno

Nearest Secondary Market: Tahoe

Job Segment: Facilities, Pharmaceutical, Animal Health, Laboratory, Biology, Operations, Science, Veterinary