About This Role
This role involves performing laboratory analysis of drugs and metabolites from various specimens, ensuring scientific accuracy and forensic defensibility. The toxicologist will also provide expert consultation and guidance to military agencies and division leadership on drug testing and method development.
Responsibilities
- Conduct or perform extraction and derivatization of drugs of abuse and metabolites from urine, blood, and tissue specimens for subsequent analytical analysis by gas and liquid chromatography mass spectrometry
- Perform all laboratory operations under strict compliance to Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) to ensure results are scientifically accurate and forensically defendable in possible litigation proceedings
- Serve as a laboratory representative and consultant to military agencies in the field of drug testing
- Provide expert consultation to explain technical aspects of the laboratory analyses and chain of custody procedures, and to interpret and explain the results incorporating explanations and interpretations that are based upon known pharmacokinetic principles
- Provide guidance on matters of interpretation of testing results and of experimental data from new method development
- Coordinate with processing, screening, quality control, and certification sections to insure specimen processing through the laboratory is a smooth, cooperative effort
- Troubleshoot methods and offers solutions/alternatives to analytical challenges
- Participate in routine casework analysis using instruments such as headspace-gas chromatography (HS-GC), gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS), liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS), and the quadrupole-time-of flight mass spectrometry (QToF)
- Evaluate new instrumentation/software, and coordinate demonstrations with vendors to ensure suitability with laboratory needs
- Recommend methods and approaches for detection on novel psychoactive compounds
- Consult with and advise division leadership on the development, interpretation and potential solutions to problems where the work may involve cooperative efforts directly concerning the mission of the laboratory, interdepartmental projects or independent but related research
Requirements
- Bachelor's degree or higher in toxicology; or an appropriate discipline of the biological, medical, or veterinary sciences that included at least 30 semester hours in chemistry, biochemistry, or physiology, and 12 semester hours in toxicology
- At least one year of specialized experience at or equivalent to the GS-11 grade level or pay band in the Federal service or equivalent experience in the private or public sector as a professional toxicologist conducting laboratory analysis of chemical, biological, or physical agents using chromatography/mass spectrometry techniques or forensic practices (e.g. chain of custody, use of standard operating procedures, sample handling or testing processes such as accessioning, screening, drug/metabolite extraction and derivatization)
