Please note: There is no pay associated with this position. This position serves as a Without Compensation Research Biological Science Lab Technician (Animal) within the Office of Research and Development (ORD). The VA Research Program strives to promote Veteran-centered care to improve patient experiences and outcomes across VA healthcare and community settings, and to advance value-driven care by providing Veterans the highest quality care at the lowest financial burden.
To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 11/18/2025. You may qualify based on your experience and/or education as described below: Experience: You must possess experience (1) performing and assisting with laboratory experiments involving cell culture and staining of tissue selections and (2) genotyping animals, assisting with animal experiments, and running DNA gels and western blots; OR Education: You must possess a bachelor's degree from an accredited college or university with a major study or at least 24 semester hours in biology, chemistry, statistics, entomology, animal husbandry, botany, physics, agriculture, or mathematics; OR Combination: Applicants may also combine education and experience to qualify at this level. Experience refers to paid and unpaid experience, including volunteer work done through National Service programs (e.g., Peace Corps, AmeriCorps) and other organizations (e.g., professional; philanthropic; religions; spiritual; community; student; social). Volunteer work helps build critical competencies, knowledge, and skills and can provide valuable training and experience that translates directly to paid employment. You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience. Note: A full year of work is considered to be 35-40 hours of work per week. Part-time experience will be credited on the basis of time actually spent in appropriate activities. Applicants wishing to receive credit for such experience must indicate clearly the nature of their duties and responsibilities in each position and the number of hours a week spent in such employment. Physical Requirements: The work is predominantly sedentary. Typically, the employee sits comfortably to do the work. However, there will be some walking, standing, bending and carrying of items of moderate weight such as large binders, banker style file boxes, meeting materials, papers, books or small parts. Hand and eye coordination for delicate testing procedures may be the only special physical demand required to perform the work.
The initial application review cut-off for this job announcement is 50 applications. The first 50 applications received will be considered first. Applications received after the initial cut-off number (50 applications) may not receive consideration unless otherwise requested by management. Major Duties: Assists with laboratory studies and data analysis. Performs and assists with laboratory experiments including cell culture and staining of tissue selections. Performs perfusion fixation of rodents and processing brains for histological examination. Genotypes animals, assists with animal experiments, and runs DNA gels and western blots. Assists with the evaluation of the health, well-being, and behavior of animals before, during, and after research experiments. Work Schedule: Intermittent (Without Compensation)