Research Lab Technician in Human Health and Microbiome

Job Summary

The Ismagilov Lab at Caltech is hiring a full-time Research Lab Technician for a 2-year term position. Reporting to Professor Rustem Ismagilov, the successful candidate will contribute to the lab’s ambitious projects and collaborations focused on human health. Examples include: discovering within human tissues the bacteria, fungi, and viruses (and corresponding genes and pathways) responsible for health and disease; developing novel diagnostic approaches; investigating the microbial origins of human diseases; developing tools that improve biological AI models by orders of magnitude; and developing closed-loop systems that combine robotics and AI for rapid autonomous experimentation.

About the Role

The selected candidate will receive mentorship and structured training in lab-specific protocols, electronic lab notebooks, biosafety, sample-tracking, qPCR/ddPCR, sequencing-library quality control, liquid-handler automation, and data analysis.

Essential Job Duties

• Support graduate students, postdocs, and research staff in their projects.
• Contribute to experimental design and troubleshooting.
• Perform exceptionally high-quality experiments using established protocols.
• Perform automated DNA and RNA extractions from many different sample types, including clinical samples (e.g., saliva, swabs, urine, blood, biopsies).
• Perform nucleic-acid amplification analyses using standard techniques such as qPCR, ddPCR, RT-qPCR, and RT-ddPCR.
• Assist with Illumina and Nanopore sequencing library preparations for 16S rRNA gene, shotgun metagenomic sequencing, and RNA sequencing.
• Perform crucial sequencing-library quality-control steps.
• Assist with scripting and validating protocols for automated liquid handlers.
• Maintain the lab’s excellent standards for biosafety and chemical safety.
• Maintain the organization of lab workspaces and maintain stocks of lab supplies.

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in science with an educational emphasis in chemistry, biology, microbiology, or a related field by the start date.
• Strong drive to learn and make a positive impact on the lab and the lab’s mission.
• Strong organizational, time-management, and project-management skills.
• Hands-on lab experience (beyond academic coursework) in microbiology, molecular biology, and/or biochemistry, such as undergraduate research, internships, or equivalent experience.
• Highly detail-oriented; must have prior experience performing complex experiments, using standard laboratory techniques, and generating rigorous, reproducible data that others can rely on.
• Demonstrated ability to learn to perform highly technical workflows in a laboratory setting.
• Must be able to use sound judgment to handle a variety of tasks simultaneously and to shift priorities, as well as effectively solve problems.
• Must be able to work independently as well as part of a collaborative team in a dynamic, fast-paced environment in which multiple active projects are running in parallel.
• Excellent communication skills and the ability to interact professionally and productively with faculty, staff, students, and collaborators.
• Ambition to learn how to do research at an increasingly higher level, including how to design high-quality experiments, interpret results, and answer scientific questions.
• Deep curiosity, reliability, and desire for mentorship/training.

Preferred Qualifications

• Ambition to undertake rigorous research training before entering medical or graduate school or a similar high-performance, high-impact environment in industry or academia.
• Prior experience working at BSL-2.
• Prior experience performing qPCR and nucleic-acid extractions.
• Prior experience tracking and/or handling large numbers of samples in parallel.
• Prior experience handling and processing 96-sample assays, such as 96-well PCR plates or 96-well screening assays.
• Interest in liquid-handler automation of wet-lab workflows and closed-loop automation systems.
• Co-authorship on a scientific publication or other substantial contribution to a research project.
• Prior experience or undergraduate-level coursework with a basic programming language for data analysis (Python, MATLAB, R).

Hiring Range

$19.00 - $25.75 per hour

The salary of the finalist(s) selected for this role will be set based on a variety of factors, including but not limited to, internal equity, experience, education, specialty and training.

As one of the largest employers in Pasadena, CA, Caltech is committed to providing comprehensive benefits to eligible employees and their eligible dependents. Our benefits package includes competitive compensation, health, dental, and vision insurance, retirement savings plans, generous paid time off (vacation, holidays, sick time, parental leave, bereavement, etc.), tuition reimbursement, and more.

Non-benefit eligible employees will have access to some benefits such as onsite counseling and sick time.

To read more Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) go to eeoc_self_print_poster.pdf.

Disability Accommodations: Caltech complies with the Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). We consider reasonable accommodation measures that may be necessary for eligible applicants and employees to perform the essential functions of a position.