PRIORITY WILL BE GIVEN TO THE FOLLOWING DESIGNATED EMPLOYMENT EQUITY GROUPS: INDIGENOUS PEOPLES* (FIRST NATIONS, INUIT AND MÉTIS), PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES AND RACIALIZED PERSONS*.

• The Employment Equity Act, which is under review, uses the terminology Aboriginal peoples and visible minorities.
  Candidates are asked to self-declare when applying to this hiring process.
  City: Ottawa
  Organizational Unit: Metrology Research Centre
  Classification: TO-3
  Tenure: Continuing
  Language Requirements: English
  Work Arrangements: Due to the nature of the work and operational requirements, this position will require full-time physical presence at the at the NRC work location identified.

EDUCATION

Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry or related discipline or graduation from a College technologist program in chemistry or related discipline.
For information on certificates and diplomas issued abroad, please see Degree equivalency

EXPERIENCE

• Significant experience in a chemistry or radiochemistry laboratory.
• Significant experience with the manipulation and preparation of radioactive materials in solid and liquid form using microgram gravimetric sampling methods.
• Experience working with MS Office Suite.
• Experience doing coding using languages such as C/C++, python or scripting languages like bash would be considered an asset.

LANGUAGE REQUIREMENTS

English
Information on language requirements and self-assessment tests

We are looking for a Technical Officer, Radiochemistry within the Radionuclide Metrology group in support of the Metrology Research Centre. The Technical Officer would be someone who shares our core values of Integrity, Excellence, Respect and Creativity.
The Ionizing Radiation Standards (IRS) group within the Metrology Research Centre disseminates, maintains, and develops standards for ionizing radiation. It also conducts research and development related to the measurement of ionizing radiation, and is well known for its work developing and exploiting Monte Carlo calculational techniques for the simulation of electron and photon transport in materials.
The successful candidate’s main responsibility will be to run the IRS radiochemistry lab in support of the radionuclide metrology program. Tasks include: administration of all safety and security related aspects of a restricted-access chemistry lab; procurement, safe-handling, storage, and disposal of radioactive liquid and solid samples; manipulation, dilution and chemical alteration of these samples; preparation of chemically and physically stable thin-source, liquid scintillation (LS) and electrodeposited samples for the primary-standard measurement of radioactivity; preparation of solutions having precisely defined chemical content using gravimetric sampling techniques; and development of new methods for improving source preparation and the measurement of radioactivity. In addition, the successful candidate will support the radioactivity calibration service by participating in regular data-taking with the primary standard setup, and will have the opportunity to assist in the preparation of scientific papers.

Some potential key activities are:

• Prepare chemically and physically stable solutions of radioactivity with well-defined chemical content for use as reference solutions; prepare thin-source, LS and electrodeposited samples from these solutions for use in the primary standardization of radioactivity;
• Operate and maintain the mechanical apparatus used to prepare thin-source and electrodeposited samples used for radioactivity measurement;
• Assist in the design and maintenance of detection instrumentation;
• Administer the procurement, safe-handling, storage, monitoring, and disposal of radioactive materials;
• Maintain accurate logbooks and electronic files recording details of source preparation, activity measurements, source inventory, and radiation monitoring;
• Employ innovative solutions and general shop practices to solve technical problems.