Faculty /Department:          STEM Faculty

Job Category and Level:      Professional/Administrative

Hours of Post:                       35 hours per week

The Purpose of the Role

The Comparative Medicine Unit (CMU) in Trinity College Dublin (TCD) seeks applications for the role of Operations and Facilities Director. The purpose of this role is to provide operational leadership and to direct and manage the day-to-day and strategic operations of the unit. The postholder will work in collaboration with the Academic Director in order to operationalise staff and research needs, and to assess the feasibility of research opportunities from a logistical, people and resource standpoint whilst adhering to animal welfare and regulatory legislation. Both the Academic Director and the Operations and Facilities Director will report to the Faculty Deans and will be principle members of the CMU Executive Board. They will be responsible to the Faculty Deans who are the Institutional Compliance Officers and they will be accountable for meeting the performance benchmarks and operational objectives of the unit.

The role holder must have a strong track record of managing a core/technical facility in a University or comparable setting and have experience of animal research. The appointee will have at least 5 years senior management experience with an in-depth understanding of people management and team development; knowledge of operating large multi-strand budgets, of the effective allocation and distribution of resources, of infrastructural development and usage optimisation in a shared facility. Applicants must have essential qualifications and be able to demonstrate relevant experience in animal science and the management and use of laboratory animals.

The Operations and Facilities Director will need to demonstrate a wealth of experience of working in a highly regulated environment and in compliance with statutory requirements, and an ability to take transparent and accountable managerial decisions. They should have demonstrable ability in internal and external reporting and in managing communications with external stakeholders, including regulators.

Context of the Role

The CMU has a centralised responsibility to provide for the ethical use and management of all animals used in biomedical research within the College. It is a vibrant and dynamic unit operating within several physical locations on and off campus and across the University. The unit delivers the essential technical and administrative support that enables ground‐breaking biological and medical research in areas such as Biochemistry, Immunology, Neuroscience and Genetics. The CMU is registered and approved under EU and National legislation (SI 543 of 2012) with the Competent Authority. Under directive 2010/63/EU, the Health Products Regulatory Authority (HPRA) is designated as the Competent Authority in Ireland.

The CMU supports the scientific work of >300 researchers at all levels (academic, PI, PDR, PhD, undergraduate). It has an annual operating budget of around 1.5 M€ supporting individual and centre research funding in multiple schools in excess of 10M€. It is a large and complex core facility, supporting the cutting-edge research undertaken by approximately 40 HPRA approved project authorisation holders and 300 HPRA approved individual authorisation holders, all of whom are actively engaged in projects within the unit.

The Operations and Facilities Director will report to the CMU Executive Board and have shared responsibility for setting the operational direction and of meeting the performance objectives of the unit. The Director will be responsible to the Deans of the Faculty of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, and Health Sciences, in their capacity as joint designated HPRA Institutional Compliance Officers. This newly configured role will be the most senior operational role within the CMU and will be accountable for the management of operational resources (logistics, space, facilities, staff, operational finances) with line management responsibility for a team of approximately 13 technical and laboratory-based staff. The people management aspects of the role necessitate that the individual is visibly present and on-site in the unit during working hours.

The Operations and Facilities Director will collaborate with the CMU Academic Director who, representing the research and academic users of the facility, will enable operational alignment with the research direction and research vision of the unit. The Operations and Facilities Director will be the first point of contact for all operational staff reporting in to them within the Unit and will work particularly closely with the Chair of the Animal Welfare Body (AWB), the Designated Veterinarian and the Chief Technical Officer(s) who each have an important statutory role. In conjunction with the Institutional Compliance Officers and CMU Administrative Officer, the CMU Operations and Facilities Director will have a lead role in liaising with external stakeholders (such as members of the HPRA inspectorate, and the Director of Estates and Facilities) with whom they will collaborate to ensure compliance with the legislative requirements to include the maintenance of the environmental parameters and the operation of access controls and barrier systems. They will work to manage the occupancy and use of the physical spaces considering the facilities available and in response to emerging requirements.

Person Requirements

The role-holder will require the following knowledge, skills and attributes for successful performance in the role.

Qualifications

• Third Level Qualification at degree level which could be one of the following (essential):
  •  Primary degree and post graduate qualification (at PhD or equivalent) in an animal science or related biological science field.
  • Degree in Veterinary Medicine (appropriate for registration with the Veterinary Council of Ireland).
  • Medical qualification with at least 5 years suitable experience in the management of laboratory animals.

AND

• Health and Safety qualification (desirable)
• Qualifications in Laboratory Animal Medicine equivalent to European College of Laboratory Animal Medicine (ECLAM ) or American College of Laboratory Animal Medicine (ACLAM) standards (desirable).

Application Instructions