Primary Technical Leader

Job Description

Reporting and Executive Participation

Scope / Impact of Actions

Technical Authority and Governance

• Govern the technical operations of the designated technologies as the final technical authority for all related casework.
• Define, approve, and enforce technical policies, procedures, and requirements within the scope of accreditation.
• Authorize the start, suspension, or resumption of workflows in response to technical, quality, or safety concerns across all phases of analysis.
• Provide technical acceptance of instruments and platforms before use in casework.
• Approve the technical specifications for outsourcing agreements and outsourced services.
• Identify and approve the technical need for kits, supplies, and consumables within the designated scope, in coordination with operations and finance.

Case Acceptance and Workflow Authorization

• Provide technical consultation on case acceptance, scope, and feasibility.
• Provide technical input and consultation on case triage and assignment within the designated scope, in coordination with operational leadership.
• Authorize requests for additional evidence or information when needed for technical reasons.
• Verify and approve case submission and acceptance from a technical standpoint.

End-to-End Technical Oversight

• Maintain continuous technical authority over the capillary electrophoresis workflow, from evidence receipt through interpretation and final report.
• Provide technical supervision of evidence examination and screening, isolation, extraction, quantification, amplification, capillary electrophoresis, and genetic characterization of biological samples.
• Authorize technical transfer to the MPS Technical Authority when a case proceeds to sequencing, after quantification and formal acceptance into the sequencing workflow, when that designation is held by another individual.

Methodology, Validation, and Technical Standards

• Evaluate, approve, and maintain methods and their validations within the designated scope.
• Propose and assess new or modified procedures using a risk-based, scientifically justified approach.
• Establish and maintain interpretation guidelines, including analytical and stochastic thresholds and mixture criteria, and the criteria that distinguish routine from non-routine casework.
• Resolve complex analytical and interpretive challenges.

Interpretation and Scientific Decision-Making

• Lead interpretation of complex profiles, including mixtures, low-template, degraded, and inhibited samples.
• Render final technical determinations on analytical and interpretive issues, ensuring consistency, reproducibility, and compliance.
• Hold technical accountability for approval of forensic, relationship, and database reports, including appropriate disclosure of limitations before issuance.
• Determine CODIS eligibility of profiles generated by the laboratory, verify genotype concordance as internal quality control.
• Serve as the technical point of contact with the uploading agency on profile eligibility, concordance, and resolution of database-related technical questions.
• Coordinate reporting consistency and case integration when multiple technologies apply to a case.

Technical Review, Deviations, and Testimony

• Perform or oversee technical review and approval of casework and reports within the designated scope.
• Decide on technical deviations, alternative approaches, and non-routine issues.
• Support court preparation and consult on analyst testimony within the designated scope.

Training, Competency, and Personnel Authorization

• Review, approve, and oversee training, proficiency testing, and analyst qualification within the designated scope.
• Set and enforce competency requirements, providing technical guidance and supervision so personnel maintain authorization and compliance.
• Authorize DNA Technicians to execute specific procedures and instrument operations following documented training and competency assessment.

Compliance, Audits, and Quality Integration

• Serve as the primary technical authority during internal and external audits and accreditation assessments for the designated workflows, in coordination with the Quality Manager.
• Review audit documentation, approve technical corrective actions, and periodically review procedures, including conflict-of-interest risk assessments.

Other Duties

• Perform other technical duties as assigned by the Executive Director or coordinated through the LDO, provided they fit the designated technical authority and do not assume executive, quality system, or operational administration authority under the MUFSC Governance and Authority Framework.

• Minimum of a master’s degree in a biology, chemistry, or forensic science related area.
• Successful completion of at least nine (9) credit hours of coursework in biology or chemistry related areas that provide an understanding of the foundation of DNA analysis, and, in addition, coursework in statistics or population genetics. The required coursework shall include at least one graduate level course.

• Minimum of three (3) years of human DNA experience, current or previous, as a qualified analyst on forensic samples.
• Currently or previously qualified analyst in each technology utilized in the laboratory, or documented training in each technology utilized in the laboratory within one year of appointment.
• Previous completion of, or successful completion within one year of appointment of, the current FBI DNA auditor training course.
• Demonstrated technical leadership, supervisory, or management experience in a forensic DNA laboratory.
• Extensive STR analysis experience: isolation, identification, amplification, interpretation, and genetic characterization using STR and Y-STR methods.
• Experience overseeing daily technical operations in an ISO-accredited forensic laboratory.
• Comprehensive knowledge of capillary electrophoresis workflows, including contamination control, analytical thresholds, stochastic effects, and complex mixture interpretation.
• Working knowledge of CODIS, the CODIS core loci, profile eligibility criteria, and NDIS acceptance requirements, including quality control of profiles prior to release to an uploading agency.
• Thorough knowledge of FBI QAS and ISO/IEC 17025, including technical leadership, validation, training, competency, audits, and corrective actions.
• Working knowledge of Quality Management Systems (QMS) and how to apply quality requirements to technical operations.
• Knowledge of laboratory safety standards, contamination prevention, and quality control for forensic DNA analysis.
• Experience overseeing laboratory resources, including inventory, equipment coordination, and consumables planning.
• Proficiency with laboratory data management systems and genetic analysis software.
• Comprehensive knowledge of federal and state laws governing forensic DNA testing.
• Experience supporting audits and approving technical corrective actions.

• Experience with massively parallel sequencing, including library preparation, sequencing, data analysis, interpretation, and bioinformatic review, and the education and experience specified in the MPS Technical Authority profile, which requires a minimum of one year of experience working with the sequencing technology. These requirements apply only when the MPS Technical Authority designation is added to the position, are met and documented before the designation takes effect, and do not apply to the STR and Y-STR scope.