Cryo-FIB Research Specialist

Instruct-ERIC; Ashburn (VA); On-site; USD 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

The Cryo-FIB Research Specialist at HHMI's Janelia Research Campus in Ashburn, VA focuses on cryo-FIB/SEM, cryo-light microscopy and CLEM, performing routine preparation, milling, imaging, and data collection for facility users and collaborators.

You will adapt existing protocols, stay current with literature, and train scientists. The role requires hands-on experience with cryo systems, careful documentation, and a collaborative approach to enable high-quality structural biology research.

Qualifications

• Hands-on with cryo instrumentation and sample prep.
• Experience operating cryo-FIB/SEM or cryo-EM systems preferred.
• Strong documentation and data management practices.

Responsibilities

• Operate cryo-FIB/SEM and cryo-EM workflows for facility users.
• Prepare samples, mill, image, and collect data.
• Develop and adapt imaging protocols as needed.

Skills

Cryo-FIB/SEM

Cryo-EM

Microscope operation

Data collection

Training users

Documentation

Problem solving

Literature review

Tools

Titan Krios

Helios Hydra

Cryo-FIB/SEM

Cryo-light microscopy

Job description

Jobs in Structural Biology and Related Fields

Cryo-FIB Research Specialist

Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), United States

The Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Janelia Research Campus is a pioneering research center in Ashburn, Virginia, where scientists pursue fundamental questions in the life sciences. Our integrated teams of biologists, computational scientists, and tool-builders innovate research practices and technologies to solve biology’s deepest mysteries. HHMI launched Janelia in 2006, establishing an intellectually enriching environment for scientists to do creative, collaborative, hands-on work. We share our methods, results, and tools with the scientific community.

This is a role for someone who wants to spend their days at the controls of some of the most advanced microscopes in the world, doing the same careful prep and imaging work reliably, day after day, and building something new when the situation calls for it.

The cryoEM Shared Resource at Janelia Research Campus supports cryo-electron microscopy research for the entire HHMI community, not just the scientists on campus. The facility runs four Titan Krios microscopes, two cryo-FIB/SEM systems (an Aquilos2 and a Helios Hydra), cryo light microscopes, and the equipment needed to prepare cryo-EM grids. It is one of the busiest, most technically demanding resources HHMI operates.

You will focus on cryo-FIB/SEM, cryo-light microscopy and CLEM, and advanced cryo-EM sample preparation. Most of your time goes to routine operation: preparing samples, milling with the FIB, imaging, and collecting data for facility users and collaborators. When an existing protocol does not cover what a project needs, you will help build or adapt one. You will also keep up with the literature and emerging technologies in the field and bring back ideas that could make the facility better, and you will train other scientists in techniques you have already mastered.

You will work closely with facility staff and with research groups from across the country, some of whom you will never meet in person. Part of the job is translating what a researcher needs into a concrete imaging or sample-prep plan, and telling them plainly when something is not going to work.

• Hands-on with cryo already. You've prepared samples, milled, or imaged on a cryo-FIB/SEM or cryo-EM system before. This is not a role to learn the fundamentals from scratch.
• A steady hand with expensive machines. You can operate, troubleshoot, and get real performance out of instruments like a Titan Krios or a Helios Hydra without white-knuckling it.
• Meticulous without being told. Logs, sample tracking, and daily records happen because you do them, not because someone checks.
• Invested in getting it right, not just getting it done. When a result looks off, you follow it through until you're confident in it, because you care whether the science holds up, not just whether the step is checked off.
• Judgment you can defend. You can look at an image or a milled sample and say, honestly, whether it's good enough to move forward or needs another pass.
• A teacher who doesn't need a script. You can walk a first-time user through a delicate procedure and make it look less intimidating than it is.
• Comfortable with the unknown, when it comes up. Most days you're running an established workflow well. When a sample doesn't behave and there's no protocol for it, you can build one instead of stalling out. You stay steady when the path isn't clear and figure out next steps without being walked through them.
• Genuinely curious about the science. You follow the literature and new techniques as they emerge, and you bring back ideas that could make the facility better, not just when someone asks you to.
• Owning your part of a shared process. From sample prep to final imaging, a sample may pass through several steps and several hands. You take responsibility for the work you touch, and when something goes wrong, you speak up early and work with colleagues and users to fix it.