Technical Director - Department of Chemistry

Technical Director - Department of Chemistry - 230000029J 

Description

 

Technical Director

Department of Chemistry

Regular Full-time, Paygrade MR11, Exempt

Description: The Technical Director manages and directs the electronics and machine shops that serve and support the teaching and research missions of the Department of Chemistry. This individual supervises technicians involved in electronics repair, fabrication and design, personal computer support, and machined parts fabrication and design.  In addition, the technical director is responsible for oversight of Linux system administration and administration of the department’s networked computing resources.  They directly perform electronics shop services when needed. The Technical Director works closely with the Department Head and Associate Heads in matters pertaining to the department’s building and lab infrastructure and is the primary liaison with Facilities Services to coordinate building maintenance and facilitate changes in infrastructure when such changes become necessary.

 

Qualifications

 

Duties and Responsibilities:

• Provide supervision and direction of technical shop services (electronics and machine shops) and the technical shop staff in the Department of Chemistry.
• Maintain clean, organized, effective and modern shop facilities that are capable of addressing and advancing the instrumentation needs of modern chemical research.  These needs include:
• Repair of instrumentation electronics, either directly or in coordination with manufacturers.
• Design and construction of custom electronic devices utilizing analog and digital circuitry.
• Programming of electronic and fabrication devices including interfacing software such as LabVIEW.
• Providing hardware and software, personal computer and networking services support to faculty, staff and researchers; maintain backup of critical systems.
• Provide LINUX and UNIX server management/ administration to support the research and administrative needs of the department.
• Coordinate and maintain software licensing needs of the department.
• Oversight and coordination of shop safety and safety training.
• Disposal of spent and outdated electronics and instrumentation; coordinating with business office to maintain accurate instrumentation inventory.
• Assistance in transitioning laboratories and offices to new occupants.
• In addition, the Technical Director is the liaison between the Department of Chemistry and Facility Services.   The director initiates most facility service requests for the department, including repair of facility failures and renovation and modification of facilities as needed.  They coordinate and notify the Chemistry Department of pending and unforeseen outages in facilities. 
• They help facilitate database management for the department administration, including business office operations, by creating or arranging for hardware and software systems for such management.
• Maintain continuity among other staff by documenting and communicating actions, irregularities, and continuing needs. Communicate status of projects to the customers, including indicating delays and reasons for delays.  Document actions by completing production and quality logs.  Any other tasks requested by Department Head, Associate Heads, or Immediate Supervisor. 

Qualifications:

Required Experience: Six years’ experience in electronics, computer repair, and network administration, including knowledge of common networking protocols, and PC operating systems, including UNIX, Linux, Windows, and Mac OS.

Preferred Experience:  managing a service-orientated organization or group

Education:

Bachelor’s degree in electronics -or- other engineering-related discipline or equivalent education and experience performing related duties. 

We consider Bachelor's level equivalent experience to be high school diploma and 4 to 6 years of relevant experience in the field. 

Knowledge, Skills and Abillities:

• Have in-depth knowledge and ability to diagnose and repair problems in both digital and analog electronics
• Have an in-depth knowledge of electronic measuring instruments and their application to electronic system design, analysis and repair.
• Proficiency in LINUX and Windows system administration, including a thorough understanding of the process of creating a new server, from purchase of hardware, instillation of operating systems and network and program configuration.
• Have an in-depth knowledge of personal computing hardware and software, networking and data acquisition, instrument control, and industrial automation on a variety of platforms including Microsoft Windows, various versions of UNIX , Linux, and Mac OS X.
• Be able to design and read mechanical and electronic blueprints.
• Have knowledge of CAD software and its application to CAM equipment.
• Have the ability to communicate effectively with co-workers, supervisors, faculty, staff, and students and other university personnel to understand and perform the desired work and to suggest better alternatives.
• Be able to interact with a diverse group of scientists from many different cultures and work with them in a respectful, cooperative manner.
• Have good judgement, be able to evaluate and implement work priorities, be able to multitask and still pay attention to detail.
• Be able to assess strengths and weaknesses of technical staff and utilize these for effective operation of the electronic and machine shops
• Have a knowledge of Environmental, Health and Safety requirements and implement these in shop operations
• Be reliable in attendance, clean and neat in appearance, be in good physical health and able to perform moderately strenuous work activities.

The Department of Chemistry is the oldest PhD granting department at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, offering the University’s first PhD degree in 1947. Our 25 faculty members (and growing) have research interests that span the traditional areas of chemistry and encompass new interdisciplinary fields such as materials chemistry, chemistry of the life sciences, and environmental chemistry. Our graduate PhD and MS programs are also growing and include people from diverse cultures, providing an international business environment.

Salary:  The salary for this position is commensurate with experience and other qualifications and is accompanied by a standard University benefits package (see https://hr.tennessee.edu/benefits/). This is a regular, full-time, market range 11, exempt staff position.

Application Process:  Please complete the on-line application for full consideration. Provide within the application file: cover letter, resume, and a list of at least three references (with current e-mail address and phone number/s) as single merged PDF document. One reference should be your current supervisor.  A review of all applications will begin immediately and will continue until the position is filled.

 

Job
  Other Tech/Para-Professional 
Primary Location
  US-Tennessee-knoxville 
Organization
  Chemistry 
Schedule
  Full-time 
Campus/Institute  Knoxville 
Job Posting
  Feb 29, 2024, 9:16:39 AM