Customer Education Specialist

Position Summary:

The Customer Education Specialist will provide advanced educational training for bioMerieux products and applications to internal and external customers. Additionally, this position will play a role in the development of new educational material and redesign of existing materials. In this role the Customer Educational Specialist will use his/her clinical expertise and professional credibility to represent bioMerieux as a clinical education expert. This position will provide clinical and scientific expertise to enable customers to safely and effectively use bioMerieux proprietary products. The Customer Educational Specialist will serve as a liaison between functional groups, and technical consultants  in key project initiatives. The Education Specialist is responsible for driving improvements in all aspects of customer education.

Context of the Job & Major Challenges: 

The Customer Education Specialist is a highly experienced Subject Matter Expert (SME) who provides technical training to internal and external customers for the diagnostic test systems marketed by bioMérieux. The  Customer Education Specialist will be instrumental in the creation, implementation, revision and maintenance of training materials and technical support tools. This position’s liaison function is critical to the success of team projects. Analysis of training methodology and evaluation of data to recommend improvements in line with adult learning best practice methodologies is paramount to the effective transfer of knowledge to end users.

Dimensions of the Job: 

• Directly supports U.S. customer base representing business of 250 M in 2007
• Supports revenue targets for sale of professional services
• Educates over 800 customer/end users per year

Main Accountabilities:

• Coordinates the development and delivery of complex training programs and related materials in support of customer training objectives
• Establishes and reviews course content and objectives
• Conducts training sessions and develops criteria for evaluating the effectiveness of training activities
• Maintains records of training activities, participant progress, and program effectiveness
• Updates course documentation on a regular basis to ensure timeliness and relevance
• Provides work leadership to lower level employees, including evaluating the effectiveness of their training presentations and programs, and may have supervisory responsibilities
• May serve as technical team or task lead
• Conducts research into new training, educational, and multimedia technologies
• Maintains current knowledge of relevant hardware and software applications as assigned;
• Participates and/or leads in special projects as required
• Serves as lead SME for customer education to achieve smooth and efficient implementation of bioMérieux products in the customer laboratory by ensuring a basic working knowledge of the system to foster confidence in the customers’ ability to act as key operator in their laboratory.
• Provide programmatic and technical subject matter expertise to support redesign of existing courses and development of new courses.
• Assist in defining specific educational objectives and content and in reviewing materials making recommendations for content improvement.
• Communicate with functional groups within bioMérieux to facilitate resolution and improvements in support of customer satisfaction with the company and its products.  Drive for timely resolution of issues for customers.
• Evaluate and analyze customer complaint trends to identify possible weaknesses in training curriculum and develop solutions for implementation into training materials.
• Periodically review laboratory and classroom set up from a physical space and equipment perspective and make recommendations for improvements as necessary
• Perform monthly safety inspections of all classroom and laboratory space 

Studies and Experience:

• B.S. in Medical Technology or other related science. Master’s preferred
• In-depth knowledge of Microbiology  (ID /AST or Blood Culture) and Molecular product lines
• 5 years minimum of directly related training and microbiology experience
• Advanced knowledge and application of principles, methods and techniques used in the development and delivery of training programs
• Advanced knowledge of relevant software and computer equipment as required
   

Skills and Qualifications:

• Demonstrated effective presentation and communication skills
• Ability to evaluate effectiveness of training programs
• Ability to serve as key team, project, or task lead
• PC skills desired- Word, Excel, PowerPoint
• Excellent interpersonal and diplomacy skills
• Excellent written and oral communication skills
• Project management and organizational skills

Additional Information:

The above job description is not intended to be, nor should it be construed as, exhaustive of all responsibilities, skills, efforts, or working conditions associated with this job.