The Research Technician IV will lead and administer complex plant microbiome studies with a focus on environments of high abiotic stress. The incumbent will initiate field, laboratory, and greenhouse studies of plant-microbial interactions, gather and analyze data, interpret results, synthesize findings, establish protocols, maintain equipment, and troubleshoot experimental design while mentoring junior scientists in data collection in molecular ecology, biodiversity informatics, and applied microbiome work. The incumbent's work on arid environments including the polar deserts (Arctic) will require attention to detail, synthesis of existing literature, and experimental approaches to address challenging questions. Day to day work in this position will require the development of new methods or modification of existing methods, and the incumbent will use decision-making skills to apply their experience for solving complex issues, communicating among teams, working closely with partners in other departments, and achieving broad objectives through a series of independent steps, while improving standard approaches or accepted protocols.

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• Isolating and characterizing microbes, analyzing microbiome data sets, preparing plants and plant materials for inoculation, maintenance of plants, data collection based on DNA sequencing, measurements of plants, and measurements of microbial traits.
• Isolating and cultivating fungal endophytes;
• DNA extraction, PCR, sequencing, and sequence editing;
• Organize and synthesize data for presentations.

• High school diploma or equivalent, or equivalent learning attained through experience required.

• Minimum of 7 years of relevant experience, or equivalent combination of education and work experience.

• Experience in handling fungal culture collections and conducting fungal bioassays.