Veterinary Technician

Union: Non-Union
Number of Vacancies: 1
Replacement or New: Replacement
Site: Krembil Discovery Tower(KDT)
Department: Animal Resource Centre
Reports to: Senior Manager
Wages: $31.72 - $39.65 per hour
Hours: 37.5 hours/week
Shifts: Monday-Friday 7 am - 3 pm
Status: Temporary Full Time (2 year contract)
Closing Date: November 6, 2026
Position Summary
University Health Network (UHN) is looking for an experienced professional to fill the key role of Veterinary Technician in our Animal Resource Centre. Veterinary Technicians, within UHN's Animal Resource Centre, are involved in basic animal husbandry of multi species of laboratory animals and are responsible for the health and welfare of animals in their care. Duties include colony management, animal husbandry of a variety of species(large and small species), health monitoring, treatments and technical services such as blood draws, gavage and drug administration.
Veterinary Technicians are involved in day-to-day communication with clinical veterinarians and laboratory staff, contacting them by phone and or email with any issues involving animal health and welfare.
Duties
Performing feeding, watering, cage changing as per ARC Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) appropriate for the species, as needed
Ensuring appropriate environmental enrichment (EE) for the species is offered as per ARC SOP
Taking care of special research models as per protocol e.g., immune deficient mice
Taking care of large animal species as per protocol
Caring for, cleaning and general maintenance of assigned animal housing rooms and associated equipment
Taking care of animals with Biohazard areas following proper SOP, personal protective equipment (PPE) and decontamination procedures for PPE, equipment and waste leaving the containment area
Maintains responsibility for animal health/welfare for animals assigned to care; conducting daily visual inspections and observations on food and water intake, cage conditions, alerting on call veterinarian to health issues and submitting sick cases
Carrying out veterinary instructions given either by written (sick case) or verbal instructions, including administering drugs
Updating sick cases and treatment sheets as required
Notifying lab groups of issues concerning their animals verbally or by email
Performing necropsy or tissue collection e.g., ecto/endo parasite check, microbiological samples taken, blood and/or serum samples, tissue for histology as needed
Performing tissue sampling and post mortems, as directed by the attending veterinarian
Ensuring room and facility conditions are adequate as per provincial legislation (Ontario Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Rural Affairs) and federal guidelines (Canadian Council on Animal Care) for animal holding areas, record keeping environmental conditions; temperature, humidity, light, ammonia levels
Alerting Supervisor and/or Physical Plant Staff of any issues regarding environmental conditions
Carrying out QA measures as directed by Supervisor or Manager, including: pH reading and recording, using air settle plates, fomite swabs for room and equipment microbiological monitoring
Overseeing responsibilities on QA being carried out in the dirty and clean cage wash up areas by Animal Care personnel, as required
Packaging tissue and biological samples appropriately for shipment to various testing facilities, as required
Carrying out technical services on a fee for service basis for laboratory staff on a variety of laboratory animal species, as required, including: breeding colony maintenance, identification, DNA sampling, drug dosing, blood or tissue sampling, injections, gavage etc.
Administration of drug or treatment as directed by on call veterinarian
Maintaining record keeping for breeding colonies
Maintaining record keeping for technical services for billing and invoicing
Cage inventory and/or animals, on daily/weekly basis as part of the invoicing to investigators
Inputting of inventory data to spreadsheets eg. colony census or as part of a breeding program
Ensuring valid animal use protocol numbers are on cage cards and outside animal holding rooms as part of the provincial legislation and federal guidelines pertaining to housing and use of research animals
Other administrative duties as assigned by the Supervisor or Manager
Completion of a community college program in Veterinary Technology or recognized equivalent
Registration with Canadian Association for Laboratory Animal Science as a Registered Laboratory Animal Technician preferred.
Minimum one year practical and related experience and/or 2 years on-the-job training required
Previous experience within a laboratory animal facility
Previous experience working with large animals in a research setting
Experience handling laboratory animals; both rodents and larger animal species
WHMIS training
Ability to utilize Excel, Word and Outlook at moderate proficiency
Ability to lift 50 lbs
No known allergies to animals
Exercise initiative and time management skills
Effective and professional organizational, interpersonal and communication skills
Exercise good judgement with ability to multi-task
Compliance with confidentiality requirements
Ability to work both independently and as part of a team
Ability to perform duties in a professional and courteous manner and produce high quality work while meeting deadlines
Knowledge of applicable legislative, UHN and/or departmental policies
Client service oriented, with the ability to effectively work with diversity and appreciate that people with different opinions, backgrounds and characteristics bring richness to the challenge or situation at hand

Employment type
Contract

Work arrangement
No