Marine Senior Aquarist

Specialist Wildlife Services Heathrow - Matthew Ford

Location: South East

Closing date for applications is: 19th Mar 2025

Full time Aquarist with background in aquatic retail/public aquarium/private keeping required for hotel with exclusive and diverse array of rare tropical marine, coral and freshwater tanks.

The ideal candidate will have a background in maintaining a wide range of life support systems and equipment, and be competent in completing all tank maintenance tasks to a meticulously high standard along with daily water testing and associated record keeping.

Skills required include the ability to effectively time manage, self-motivate and problem solve. These key skills, along with a strong work ethic and genuine care for marine life, are of primary importance. Formal qualifications are secondary to industry experience; dive qualifications are advantageous as weekly snorkel work is required in some of the displays.

In return, we offer a competitive salary, annual discretionary performance-based bonus, workplace gym access, regular CPD training from industry and veterinary experts, along with a commitment to continually developing our employees. An internal development programme is also in place, with room for progression into senior/supervisory roles.

Weekend work is required on a 3 on, 1 off basis. 45-hour working week, 10 hours per day, with 1 hour paid lunch break per day. Work hours can vary pending winter/summer requirements.

Responsibilities

• Overseeing the accurate preparation of all diets for all animals on the aquatics section, including ensuring correct and timely administration of any medications or supplements.
• Ensuring the daily feeding regime of all animals, monitoring body condition fluctuations, and reporting any changes to the Aquatics Supervisor.
• Upholding high standards of cleaning and aquatic maintenance, ensuring disinfection of equipment and related cleaning tasks are carried out accurately and diligently.
• Maintaining records and relevant data in the section logbooks and uploading this data to the Animal Care Database periodically, including water quality, condition of animals, food intake, and training programmes.
• Ensuring fish have high quality water parameters which are closely monitored and recorded.
• Monitoring the safety of all animals within the aquatics department, ensuring environments are kept safe and suitable.
• Ensuring full compliance with all issued SOPs and RAs.
• Working between sites as required.
• Ensuring excellent presentation of the aquariums, enclosures, and aquatic animals, meeting the collection's high standards.
• Engaging with the owners of the collection through site tours, answering questions, and implementing any structural or husbandry changes they see fit.
• Training and oversight of junior staff within your section.
• Arranging veterinary treatment when needed, including reporting sick animals to the Aquatics Supervisor and administering medications as per veterinary professionals’/Supervisor's instructions.
• Providing accurate information to supervisory colleagues for the submission of AHEF requests.
• Checking the security and safety of the area you are working within and reporting any damage or repairs required to the Aquatics Supervisor.
• Maintaining animal equipment as instructed by your line manager, including daily use equipment and regular checks of handling equipment and PPE.
• Keeping workspaces within the department and site clean and presentable, reporting low stocks to the Aquatics Supervisor.
• Reporting any H&S incidents or near misses in the accident book and any other issues affecting safety at work to the overall Manager in a timely manner.
• Checking security and safety of all areas within your section, ensuring all areas are secured when unmanned and reporting suspicious activity immediately to Security and the shift Supervisor.
• Conducting any extra research or projects your supervisor requires to care for new or unknown animals or to undertake specific client or managerial requests.
• Holding a valid UK driving license and owning a car for driving tasks as required, including moving staff to sites and doing vet runs (paid mileage and business insurance covered by the company).
• Conducting snorkel cleans in exhibits.
• Keeping work fleet buggies and vehicles presentable, including washing after every use, and reporting maintenance issues through the relevant channels.
• Completing any other reasonable request your supervisor or the Animal Kingdom Manager makes.
• Driving work vehicles as required.
• Ensuring guest areas worked within are left in the same condition found, not leaving equipment out if not present.
• Assisting with new designs and builds within the Aquatics department, reviewing proposals to meet client and animal needs.
• Reporting maintenance of filtration systems and other work that must be completed externally to the Aquatics Supervisor.
• Assisting within other departments of the site if required.

The working premises is in Slough, Buckinghamshire; you must be able to relocate or live within a commutable distance.

This is a senior role; mandatory strong knowledge of Coral, Fish, and Life support workings and management is essential.

A flexible approach is sometimes required due to the nature of animal keeping.

BIAZA's office hours are 9am – 5pm Monday to Friday. Contact outside of those times will receive a response when we are next in the office.

If your enquiry is urgent and you need a response before the BIAZA office reopens, please call Jo Judge on . For reaching one of our members, please contact them directly.

The British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquariums is a charitable company limited by guarantee and registered in England and Wales number 6789783. Registered Office: Regent’s Park, London NW1 4RY. Registered Charity Number: 1128168 and SC040783 (Scotland).

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