Where do you actually find PhD level Staff jobs. I've heard good things about them but they're basically mythical, as far as I can tell?
Well, if the pay is good, people stay in them for ages. So it’s very hard. I’m not counting on getting one. I am mostly aware of them because I interacted with them a lot as a technician. But. In general, the larger and more well funded the research side of a university is, the more there are? Research institutes also have a very high concentration of these roles. Ideally you are looking for somewhere with large enough research labs that it benefits the university to have infrastructure in place to support them.
(Standard disclaimer, not all staff jobs are made the same. If you manage to find one, make sure to ask why the previous person left. There are definitely places that overwork everyone or have toxic environments etc)
Jobs in this type are like, lab manager*, certain core facility positions, some kinds of research administration, and the rare genuine staff research scientist roles. There are definitely others I just don’t know about.
*you don’t need a phd for most lab manager roles, but it does come up sometimes.
If I were looking for one now I would make a list of universities and check their listings for PhD level positions every few weeks. I’m not sure what the best job board for these would be, but probably anywhere you see science jobs listed in your area is an ok bet.
Lab specific jobs (manager, staff scientist) might get posted to twitter by the hiring lab. If there were a particular kind of position I wanted, I would also follow any professional associations related to it on twitter, especially local chapters if they exist. Even better if their website has job listings. If I were still at a university while I’m looking, I would also start asking the people in the jobs I want for advice, which can be a sneaky way to find out if anything is opening up (assuming they like you) or just a decent way to network and like. Get advice. I’m not sure this strategy would work! But these are my immediate thoughts.
