Role description – Head of Biolabs
General role information
Reports into: Director – Aquatic Sciences
Grade:
Associate Director
Location:
Any of the APEM Biolabs.
The role is primarily office and laboratory based, although there will be some
travel, both for client meetings and site visits, as well as to other APEM
locations as required, therefore driving licence would be required, along with
ability to travel when required.
Team:
Biolabs team
Purpose / Scope of role
To lead APEM Biolabs, ensuring that it actively contributes to APEM’s commercial success.
A key part of this role will be to lead APEM Biolabs to work together as one cohesive team,
sharing best practices, efficiencies and working together to ensure a high quality and
profitable laboratory service is delivered to a diverse range of clients.
The generic expectations of an APEM Associate Director are set out in a table below, and
should be used in conjunction with the more specific responsibilities and accountabilities for
the role which are listed below.
Key Responsibilities and accountabilities
1. To oversee operations and be responsible for all aspects of APEM’s laboratories.
2. To lead and mentor APEM Biolabs through a period of change, encouraging both the
freshwater and marine teams to work together as one cohesive Biolabs team.
3. To manage relevant budgets (including equipment, procurement, expenses), and
ensure performance targets are achieved.
4. To monitor Biolabs performance by gathering relevant data and produce detailed
reports for management review.
5. To lead and mentor the Biolabs teams, including co-ordinating their training and
professional development.
6. To monitor and be responsible for the output and quality control of all laboratory
analyses.
7. To successfully develop, maintain and manage internal and external stakeholder
relationships, actively seeking new clients and business opportunities.
8. To support and mentor discipline leaders / laboratory managers and encourage
sharing of efficiencies, best practice and new ideas across APEM’s laboratories.
9. To ensure compliance with national and international standards and legislation during
laboratory operations, including health and safety standards.
10. To have final sign off for Biolabs projects, reviewing and monitoring multiple projects
at a time, effectively project managing to ensure client requirements and deadlines
are met.
11. To sign off Biolabs technical reports and procedures.
12. To review and monitor all laboratory tenders and quotations.
13. To provide specialist technical advice to colleagues and clients as required.
14. To maintain a culture of continuous improvement and quality assurance.
15. To ensure all members of staff are utilised to full capacity.
Generic requirements / expectations of an APEM Associate Director
Requirement /
Expectation
Project delivery
Description
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Strategy
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Managerial and
leadership
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To be responsible for project delivery within your area within
budget and to a high standard.
To have excellent report writing ability, demonstrated by an
extensive track record of writing high quality technical reports for
a range of clients in the private and public sector.
To be technically excellent – a recognised expert in a relevant
field.
To be able to review reports to ensure they meet the highest
technical standards and the clients aims and objectives.
To maintain up to date knowledge of relevant scientific
developments and legislation.
To seek opportunities for APEM to contribute to the development
of new techniques and research – to benefit clients, and ensure
APEM remains at the cutting edge of technical consultancy in
applied aquatic science.
To ensure that the highest scientific standards are applied across
all of APEM’s work.
To be responsible for devising, developing and delivering
strategies as part of the senior management team.
To be responsible for the direction and strategy of your team
(which is likely to include 2-4 Principals and their teams) in line
with company strategies.
To work collaboratively with other Associate Directors and
Principals to identify potential opportunities and challenges
facing APEM in relation to organisational goals and provide
potential solutions.
To be able to effectively articulate APEM’s goals, having a
thorough understanding of APEM’s activities and their associated
value, and the relevant activities of the wider APEM group of
companies.
To proactively identify opportunities to support future growth and
generate revenue.
To be commercially astute, ensuring all revenue opportunities
are maximised, whilst not losing the focus on science.
To understand total cost implications, profit and loss, cost of
sale, profit targets.
To be able to foresee recruitment and resourcing issues, and
address these in a timely manner.
To be responsible for the productivity and output of your team.
To ensure all resources within your team are effectively utilised
to enable operation at an optimum level to produce maximum
cost effectiveness for your area.
To support a culture that encourages innovation, creativity,
reward and recognition.
To manage workflow and resource across your teams to ensure
delivery of objectives by setting clear objectives for your teams
so that they can visualise how they can impact on APEM’s
performance, and be proactive in driving this forwards.
To be responsible for driving and improving employee
Requirement /
Expectation
Description
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Business
development
and
client
management
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engagement within your team.
To build and maintain a team culture that promotes, recognises
and rewards excellence.
To proactively address and solve people and process problems,
liaising with relevant individuals as appropriate.
To utilise support available to you effectively.
To be able to motivate and engage a team to perform at high
standards.
To be able to coach and develop team members.
To have strong leadership and people management abilities, and
be able to deal effectively with difficult or sensitive issues.
To have strong influencing skills and the ability to influence at all
levels, both internally and externally.
To be able to deal confidently and professionally with clients.
To already have a wide network of contacts, and be responsible
for acquiring new contracts through a combination of networking,
client relationships, tenders and opportunity development.
To be responsible for revenue generation.