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Commonwealth of Pennsylvania |
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POSITION DESCRIPTION FOR JOB POSTING |
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Position Number: 00103196 |
Description Activated On: 9/30/2026 2:57:06 PM |
Position Purpose: Describe the primary purpose of this position and how it contributes to the organization’s objectives. Example: Provides clerical and office support within the Division to ensure its operations are conducted efficiently and effectively. This position performs advanced professional quality assurance work by administering the laboratory information management system (LIMS) of the DEP Bureau of Laboratories. The employee serves as the primary laboratory quality and functional coordinator for planning, configuring, validating, and implementing, the LIMS and related programs to support laboratory operations and accreditation standards. Work results support the mission of the DEP by facilitating Bureau wide quality assurance and accreditation activities to produce accurate and quality data that informs agency decisions in protecting environmental and public health. |
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Description of Duties: Describe in detail the duties and responsibilities assigned to this position. Descriptions should include the major end result of the task. Example: Types correspondence, reports, and other various documents from handwritten drafts for review and signature of the supervisor. This position is responsible for oversight, technical support, and daily maintenance required for operation of the Bureau’s laboratory information management system (LIMS). Administers LIMS quality controls and ongoing system operations. • Develops, reviews, revises, and implements policies, standard operating procedures, work instructions, forms, workflow diagrams, data dictionaries, and quality controls governing sample receipt, chain of custody, test assignment, analytical data capture, calculations, result review, approval, and reporting, record retention, laboratory inventory and electronic data exchange. • Configures and maintains authorized LIMS master data and business rules, including analyses, methods, specifications, limits, units, result codes, report formats, user roles, and approval workflows, in coordination with laboratory management and technical staff. • Evaluates proposed changes to laboratory processes, methods, instrumentation, reporting requirements, and accreditation standards; determines LIMS impacts and recommends compliant implementation approaches. Participates in professional laboratory or quality assurance activities as needed to maintain knowledge of environmental laboratory operations and technical proficiency. Coordinates procurement implementation, validation, transition, and retirement of LIMS platforms. • Serves as BOL’s primary laboratory functional and quality-assurance coordinator for implementing and retiring LIMS platforms and programs. Works with DEP information technology staff, LIMS vendors, laboratory management, technical sections, customers, and external data partners to define and document functional, scientific, regulatory, reporting, security, continuity, and data-retention requirements. • Develops and executes risk-based implementation and validation plans, requirements traceability matrices, test scripts, acceptance criteria, defect records, and approval documentation for LIMS configuration, workflows, calculations, reports, instrument interfaces, external data exchanges, user roles, and system integrations. Coordinates user-acceptance, regression, security-role, interface, report, performance, and data-migration testing and verifies that deficiencies are corrected or formally resolved before production use. • Plans and controls any transition between LIMS platforms and programs. Establishes procedures for parallel operations, system-of-record designation, duplicate-entry controls, data comparison and reconciliation, issue escalation, change freezes, cutover readiness, contingency and rollback planning, and communication of transition status and risks. Monitors the transition to identify discrepancies that could affect sample custody, analytical results, regulatory reporting, or customer service. • Coordinates migration, verification, retention, and disposition of legacy data and records in accordance with approved requirements. Develops recommendations and supporting evidence for production release, stabilization, final acceptance, decommissioning of interfaces, restriction of legacy access, and retirement or archival old platforms. Conducts or participates in implementation audits, root-cause analysis, corrective and preventive actions, and verification of effectiveness. Monitors laboratory data quality, system performance, and compliance. • Performs routine and ad hoc reviews of audit trails, exception reports, quality-control flags, turnaround-time metrics, incomplete records, interface failures, access activity, and other indicators to identify discrepancies or adverse trends. • Analyzes scientific and operational data against established requirements; investigates potential data-quality issues; coordinates remediation with technical staff; and maintains records supporting the reliability and traceability of reported results. • Prepares comprehensive reports, dashboards, summaries, and accreditation evidence describing LIMS quality activities, findings, corrective actions, performance trends, and compliance status. Provides functional coordination, technical guidance, stakeholder communication, and training. • Serves as the primary functional coordinator between BOL staff, DEP information technology personnel, environmental programs, customers, external data partners, and the LIMS vendor throughout implementation, parallel operations, stabilization, and ongoing production support. • Triages, documents, prioritizes, and follows through on implementation defects, incidents, service requests, configuration decisions, data discrepancies, and quality concerns; provides functional guidance and interpretation; and escalates infrastructure, cybersecurity, contractual, or vendor-product issues to the responsible entity. • Develops and delivers role-based training, job aids, standard operating procedures, and competency-support materials for all LIMS platforms. Coordinates training schedules, evaluates readiness and training effectiveness, and maintains required training and authorization records before users receive production access. • Facilitates cross-functional requirements, design, testing, readiness, cutover, stabilization, and issue-resolution meetings. Provides project-status information, quality-risk assessments, decisions needed, and implementation recommendations to BOL management and other stakeholders to minimize disruption to laboratory operations. Supports laboratory safety, continuity, and emergency operations. • Ensures LIMS procedures address continuity of operations during implementation and normal production, including controlled downtime, temporary manual processes, recovery of laboratory records, reconciliation of data entered during outages, and contingencies for failure of either system during the overlap and cutover periods. • Participates in continuity exercises, incident response, and emergency assignments related to laboratory information and reporting systems as directed. Travels including driving a personal or state-owned vehicle as needed. Departmental Duties 1.Promotes and exemplifies the Department’s Mission, Vision, and Values in all aspects of work performance and professional conduct. 2.Advances DEP’s strategic priorities through collaboration, commitment to data-driven decision-making, delivery of high-quality customer service, and active participation in modernization and continuous improvement initiatives. 3.Inputs, maintains, and updates data in prescribed formats to meet data quality standards established through guidance, training, policy, and procedure across all DEP electronic data systems. Responsibilities include ensuring the accuracy, completeness, consistency, and integrity of all entries, as well as utilizing available system tools and validation processes to minimize duplicate records and data quality issues. 4.Complies with all applicable laws, regulations, policies, procedures, guidance, and training requirements related to assigned duties and DEP electronic data systems. 5.In conjunction with the supervisor, participates in knowledge management and knowledge transfer efforts by identifying key aspects of assigned duties and proactively sharing knowledge with other employees to support continuity of operations and organizational effectiveness. 6.Develops, maintains, and annually updates a comprehensive desk manual documenting essential duties, standard operating procedures, workflows, system processes, key contacts, reference materials, and other critical operational information necessary to support continuity of operations and effective knowledge transfer. Employees are responsible for ensuring desk manuals remain accurate, current, and accessible in accordance with Department requirements. This job description in no way states nor implies that these are the only duties to be performed by the employee occupying this position. Employee will be required to follow any other job-related instruction and perform any other tasks requested by the supervisor. |
Decision Making: Describe the types of decisions made by the incumbent of this position and the types of decisions referred to others. Identify the problems or issues that can be resolved at the level of this position, versus those that must be referred to the supervisor. Example: In response to a customer inquiry, this work involves researching the status of an activity and preparing a formal response for the supervisor’s signature. Work is performed independently within established scientific, quality, information-security, and administrative requirements. The employee exercises professional judgment to: •Prioritize LIMS quality risks, implementation activities, migration and reconciliation issues, incidents, validation work, audit findings, and user requests based on potential effects on sample integrity, analytical results, regulatory reporting, accreditation, transition schedule, and laboratory operations. • Determine the scope and rigor of requirements, validation, migration verification, parallel-operation controls, and quality-control activities; interpret requirements; recommend configuration and workflow solutions; and accept or reject test results against approved criteria. • Identify nonconforming conditions, recommend corrective actions, and determine when configuration promotion, data migration, production release, cutover, legacy-system retirement, or other implementation milestones should be delayed pending resolution of quality concerns. • Refer matters involving significant policy changes, major expenditures, legal interpretation, cybersecurity incidents, or unresolved risks with department-wide impact to the supervisor or other responsible officials. Work is reviewed by an administrative supervisor through conferences, reports, audit results, project outcomes, and evaluation of the effectiveness of results achieved and adherence to departmental policies and accreditation requirements. |
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Requirements Profile: Identify any specific experience or requirements, such as a licensure, registration, or certification, which may be necessary to perform the functions of the position. Position-specific requirements should be consistent with a Special Requirement or other criteria identified in the classification specification covering this position. Example: Experience using Java; Professional Engineer License Experience: Licenses, registrations, or certifications: 1. Class C Driver's License 2. Real ID or Equivalent 3. N/A 4. 5. 6. |
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Essential Functions: Provide a list of essential functions for this position. Example: Transports boxes weighing up to 60 pounds.
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