Forensic Practitioner

Company Description
**Eurofins Scientific is an international life sciences company, providing a unique range of analytical testing services to clients across multiple industries, to make life and our environment safer, healthier and more sustainable. From the food you eat, to the water you drink, to the medicines you rely on, Eurofins works with the biggest companies in the world to ensure the products they supply are safe, their ingredients are authentic and labelling is accurate.** **Eurofins believes it is a global leader in food, environmental, pharmaceutical and cosmetics products testing and in agroscience CRO services. It is also one of the global independent market leaders in certain testing and laboratory services for genomics, discovery pharmacology, forensics, CDMO, advanced material sciences and in the support of clinical studies.**

**In over just 30 years, Eurofins has grown from one laboratory in Nantes, France to over 50,000 staff across a network of more than 900 independent companies in over 50 countries and operating more than 800 laboratories. Eurofins offers a portfolio of over 200,000 analytical methods to evaluate the safety, identity, composition, authenticity, origin, traceability and purity of biological substances and products, as well as providing innovative clinical diagnostic testing services, as one of the leading global emerging players in specialised clinical diagnostics testing.**

**In 2020, Eurofins generated** **total revenues of EUR € 5.4 billion, and has been among the best performing stocks in Europe over the past 20 years.**

**Job Description**:
**About Us**

Eurofins Scientific is a leading international group of laboratories with over EUR 3.5 billion annual sales and nearly 40,000 employees with a network of 400 laboratories in over 40 countries. Eurofins has a network of over 30sites in the UK and the Group provides an unparalleled range of over 100,000 reliable and validated analytical methods and support services to the pharmaceutical, food, environmental and consumer product industries, and to governments

**Division**

The Toxicology team is responsible for the analysis of body fluids and other biological material for alcohol, drugs and poisons in a wide range of criminal cases. Offence types encountered include affray, sexual assault, causing death by dangerous driving, homicide and sudden death. The team also undertakes analyses for H M Coroner in the investigation into the cause of death.

**The Role**

Contribute to the success of the department by ensuring that analyses of casework items are carried out in a timely manner to quality standards and to ensure that instruments are available and suitably checked and maintained. Practitioners are responsible for the routine analyses of casework items, mentoring of Examiners and general housekeeping duties. Practitioners work under the direction of a reporting scientist or senior scientist.

**Key Responsibilities**

You will be required to undertake routine extractions of biological matrices and process the analytical data from these experiments, as well as provide peer review of the analytical data for at least one of the analyses undertaken in the laboratory. **In this recruitment round, we are specifically looking for individuals that have a strong background in high-resolution accurate mass spectrometry (HRAM) of small molecules.** You should also have the ability to undertake routine maintenance and troubleshooting of an Orbitrap HRAM instrument. You will be required to lead small method improvement projects as well as method development and validation projects associated with HRAM.
- Preparation of casework samples using L/L and SPE
- Analysis of casework samples using HSGC-FID, GC-MS, GC-QQQ, HPLC, LC-MS/MS and HRAM in particular
- Lead and organise laboratory meetings with a subgroup of Examiners/Practitioners that focuses on the development and day-to-day activities of HRAM
- Be aware of customer requirements at all times
- Maintain sample integrity and chain of custody
- Follow Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and highlight any changes required
- Ensuring analytical data conforms to quality standards and ISO17025 accreditation
- Assist in other sections of the laboratory, when necessary
- Carry out method improvement & development projects, under the supervision of senior staff.
- Carry out method validation studies, under the supervision of senior staff
- Assist with training as required particularly in the area of HRAM
- Take an active role in continuous improvement within the team
- Appropriate scientific qualification, usually to degree level or equivalent.
- Previous experience in industry with high resolution accurate mass spectrometry with a minimum of 2 years.

**Qualifications**:
**Knowledge, experience and technical skills**

For this role you must have a chemistry degree or equivalent, have strong verbal and written communication skills, and have good planning and organisational ski