Laboratory Technician (Seed Processing) (Fixed term)

Job description
Area

Plant & Crop Sciences

Location

Sutton Bonington

Salary

£24,727 to £27,720 per annum pro-rata depending on skills and experience. Salary progression beyond this scale is subject to performance.

Closing Date

Friday 25 July 2025

Reference

SCI160525

About Us

The Nottingham Arabidopsis Stock Centre (NASC) provides seeds resources to the wider plant research community. NASC was established in 1991 and it is based in the Plant and Crop Science division of the School of Biosciences at Sutton Bonington campus. NASC's activities are coordinated with those of the Arabidopsis Biological Resource Center (ABRC) at Ohio State University, USA. This facilitates a unified and efficient service for the plant research community. NASC distribute approx. 50,000-70,000 stocks every year worldwide and receive an average of 5,000 new stocks that need to be curated and integrated into our collection.

The role

We are seeking a Technician (seed processing) to help us plant, harvest, package, integrate and distribute seed stocks at the Nottingham Arabidopsis Stock Centre (NASC). This includes cleaning, aliquoting and integrating thousands of stocks into seed rooms as well as walk-in freezers. You will be responsible for preparing additional seed tubes to send to our colleagues at ABRC. You will also make sure orders are completed, packaged and dispatched using NASC web-based tools and different courier accounts (DHL, FedEx).

As a key member of our team, you will work closely with both, NASC's Bioinformatics and ABRC’s Seed Team, to make sure orders are completed and dispatched as soon as possible. You will also prepare seed stocks for inspection by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA).

This is a fixed-term, full-time (36.25 hours per week) post until 30 April 2027. Job share arrangements may be considered. Requests for secondment from internal candidates may be considered on the basis that prior agreement has been sought from both your current line manager and the manager of your substantive post, if you are already undertaking a secondment role.

Your Experience
• a minimum of two A Levels in relevant subjects or equivalent vocational

qualifications (NVQ, City & Guild), plus some experience in a relevant technical/scientific role or considerable work experience in a relevant technical/scientific role
• ability to adopt a methodical approach to work in order to achieve work deadlines
• previous relevant experience in a production glasshouse or laboratory environment
• familiarity with plant husbandry and seed storage requirements ideally with

Arabidopsis or Brassicaceae
• good IT literacy skills

Your approach
• Positive and proactive.
• A willingness to learn and develop.
• Flexible and happy to engage in new opportunities and challenges.
• Ability to develop novel solutions to problems.
• Ability to communicate your advice and thoughts to other staff members.

Further information is available in the role profile. To apply for this vacancy please click ‘Apply Now’ to complete your details.

Informal enquiries may be addressed to Marcos Castellanos, Operations Manager, marcos.castellanos@nottingham.ac.uk. Please note that applications sent directly to this email address will not be accepted.

Location: Plant Sciences Building, School of Biosciences, Sutton Bonington campus

Email details to a friend

Apply Online

Further details:
• Job Description/Role Profile

Our university is a supportive, inclusive, caring and positive community. We welcome those of different cultures, ethnicities and beliefs – indeed this very diversity is vital to our success, it is fundamental to our values and enriches life on campus. Visit our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion website.

We are proud to be a Disability Confident Employer (Level 2) employer . Increasing the diversity of our community is extremely important to us and we are committed to the aims of Disability Confident Scheme.

We are the first university to have achieved Athena Swan Gold Award .

To help you succeed, we published Candidate Guidance to provide support on the application and interview process.

Discover our benefits, visit Your Benefits website.

We welcome applications from UK, Europe and worldwide and aim to make your move to the UK as smooth as possible. Visit the Moving to Nottingham page for details.

Your application will be considered on an equal basis, subject to the relevant permission to work in the UK as set out by UK Visas & Immigration .

View All Vacancies

View Previous List

United Kingdom Show on map Get directions