Job Description

NWP Northwestern Polytechnic (NWP) formerly Grande Prairie Regional College is a comprehensive community institution, established in 1966 in Grande Prairie, and our stewardship region includes campuses in Fairview and Grande Prairie. NWP offers a wide variety of credit and non-credit career certificates and diplomas, pre-employment and apprenticeship trades, university transfer studies, and several opportunities for on-campus degree completion through collaborations with four-year universities. As an educational facility in northwestern Alberta, NWP helps meet the cultural, recreational, athletic and conferencing needs of the region in partnership with community and regional stakeholders. NWP is dedicated to providing learners with access to high quality and diverse lifelong learning opportunities, and to the responsible educational, fiscal and environmental stewardship of resources. The Role The National Bee Diagnostic Centre is seeking a temporary Research Associate. This position will be responsible for providing technical microbiology expertise and supporting a specific ongoing research project. Scope of expertise required include bacterial genotyping assays, molecular microbiology and traditional culturing experiments. S/he will be responsible to write results of research and contribute to scientific to meet funders' requirements and/or as requested by the Project Director, industry partners and research collaborators. The successful candidate will be responsible for:

• Assist in planning, optimization and execution of experiments aligned to operational and research objectives
• Provide technical assistance for isolation, characterization, culture and storage of bacteria
• Provide technical assistance for the implementation and execution of lab trials and associated activities
• Provide technical assistance for experiments designed to identify bacterial strains
• Preparation of reagents and media
• Contribute to the development, optimization and implementation of new protocols and techniques
• Contribute to the preparation of lab manuals and Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs)
• Contribute to the collation of data and experimental records
• Contribute to the preparation and delivery of material in the form of reports and presentations
• Contribute to the scientific publication
• Handle and protect confidential and sensitive data with integrity

Job Requirements
What We Offer NWP offers lifelong learning opportunities through professional development/wellness programs, a competitive salary, benefits package and a student centered culture that is vital to our community. Join our team, grow with us and connect your skills and abilities to our vision, mission and values. Education/Skills The successful candidate will hold a PhD in a related field such as, but not limited to, Agricultural Sciences or Biological Sciences. At least 3 years experience in conducting a quasi-independent research within an academic or government setting. Other necessary skills and attributes to be successful in this role include:

• Flexibility to work weekends as required by lab experiments design
• Experience in traditional bacterial cell culture with high level of competence in aseptic techniques
• Experience in molecular microbiology, including qPCR, genotyping, cloning and sequencing
• Ability to function in a fast-past environment with minimal supervision
• A high level of integrity, professionalism and accountability
• Excellent communications and interpersonal skills, and the ability to build strong relationships
• Knowledge of honey bee diseases is an asset
• Strong organizational and multi-tasking skills
• Proficiency in MS Office (full suite), experience with analytical packages (eg. SAS, SPSS) and bioinformatic tools (eg. BLAST, BIOEDIT, MEGA) is required

Thank you for applying to NWP!