I will lead with a description of our position description and salary (at
retirement).
We now have six instruments (max of seven for six years). I have one
other staff who helps with hardware projects and repairs and a variety of
other responsibilities. We have had the benefit of having a rf hardware
expert for 30 years. During that time he has done numerous repairs,
re-energize quenched magnets, console development ( assemble an entire 3
channel solids instrument, develop bipolar gradient drivers, and more),
probe development (built and frequently modified >40 probes including a
solids transition line probe at 150 MHz (1H) and solids transition line
probe at 600 MHz (1H)). Except for a magnet quench earlier this year (9
year old Varian R2D2), we have not had a paid repair service call in 30
years. We would have done the magnet ourselves if we could have gotten a
power supply and charging stick for it. During that time our NMR facility
has directly provided data for >850 publications and >$65M in funding.
Such a rf hardware expert provides more worth than his ~$45K/year salary at
retirement.
I have included most of the comments below and have taken care to remove
any identifying info.
$34,000
>$60,000
$38,000
76,500
$60,000
$50,000
>$55,000
$55,000
$50,000
$52,000
$50,000
$45,000
$70,000
$57,000
>50,000
55,000
49,000
52,000
55,000
>50,000
60,000-70,000
***************
the Department of Chemistry has 17 faculty lines, something like 15
postdocs at any one time, and about 55 full-time graduate students. The
Engineering interdisciplinary program also has about 30-35
full-time graduate students, and some of them use the NMRs and other
departmental equipment.
We DO have an NMR instrumentation specialist, with a Ph.D. I don't know his
exact salary, but it is between $50 k and $60 k for a 12 month appointment,
with benefits IN ADDITION to that number. He is responsible for a Bruker
AM-500 (solutions), a Bruker AMX-360 with microimaging and solutions, and a
Jeol FX-90Q. IN ADDITION, he helps me with the General Electric GN-300
(solids) upon request, and takes care of the rest of the departmental
instrumentation (two GC-MS, two FT-IR, UV-VIS, chromatographs, etc.).
We do NOT have any service contracts---we trouble shoot ourselves and board
swap when possible. Instrument use charges pay for repairs (but not salary);
they range from $5 per hour up to $20 per hour depending on the instrument and
its operating costs.
**************
Hope you don't mind some input from an industrial facility.
We have two employees that staff our in-house electronics repair shop
but they work only on our GCs and some of the older MS equipment. The
head of the repair shop said that he would have to offer about $50 to
$60k to attract a qualified replacement were he faced with your
situation.
As for service/repair of our NMR, we rely on the vendor for this
rather than the electronic shop.
About 1 year ago, we upgraded from a Bruker AM-series console to a
2-channel Bruker DMX console. With the old system, a full service
contract (console, magnet, and all OEM accessories) from the vendor
was about $25k/year (1996). We will purchase a service contract for
the upgraded system at the end of this year when our warranty expires.
Here are the service contract prices:
A Full Service Contract (console, magnet, SGI workstation, and all
OEM accessories) for the coming year (1998) will cost about
$29k/year.
A cheaper version providing service coverage for the console, SGI,
and OEM accessories (magnet coverage excluded) will cost about
$23k/year.
Looking back at the service records for the past 5 years, we have come
close only one year in getting the full dollar value out of the
service contract. This isn't of major concern to us though since it
is more important to keep the instrument operational (our time is
quite valuable).
********************
Please post summary to group (or reply to me individually). Thanks!
****************
$50K plus benefits. This is actually pretty cheap since my guy is in late
fifties, knows what discreet components and tubes are, publishes! in
circuit design magazines, etc.. We are relishing replacing him when he
retires (early retirement is a possibility he is considering). I'll be
interested to hear how you fare in this since that will give me some idea
of what we have to expect!
>
>2. Do you have service contracts for your instruments?
no.
>
>2a. If so, what is the cost?
checked into this...compared to engineer, way too expensive (twice).
Also, my engineer contracts out with the MS, EPR, and other instrument
labs. We save $$$.
**************
I do all the instrument repair in the department. My salary is around
52k and I have been at it for about 20 years.
>
> 2. Do you have service contracts for your instruments?
No, not since I came here
*************
we have a person who is responsible for training and general repair on all
department instruments for $50k, but
more complicated problems we pay at the usual rates. our previous
service contract was $14 k on a bruker am300 and was not worth it.
***************
We have the equivalent in our prime electronics guy who fills this role.
$45K with fringes of about
30% of salary.
>2. Do you have service contracts for your instruments?
>
No. That's why we hire very good people. (Or maybe its vice versa.)
****************
a position similar to what you described at
theChem Dept . The salary being offered at
that time was $70K.
*************
We do have someone who does what you describe....that would be me, and I
do indeed make close to $60K (actually $57K). However, I do the
Rf/Electronic hardware work for our 6 supercon NMR instruments in
addition to all management, training, user-supervision, service NMR
spectroscopy, research consulting and everything. So with that said, I
will answer your questions using myself as the person being described.
> So, I hope you will answer the following questions for me:
>
> 1. If you presently have an NMR hardware expert on your staff, what is
> their salary?
-- $57,000
> 2. Do you have service contracts for your instruments?
-- No Service Contracts
> 2a. If so, what is the cost?
> 3. If you do not have either, how do you cover the costs of instrument
> repair and development?
-- All costs of maintence/repair/development are recovered by billed
instrument time from instrument usage. My salary is a "hard" (fully
state-funded) line, so is not recovered from NMR instrument-use
charges. My time is not billed.
***************
I am not privvy to exact salary information, but I know that our
electronics engineer's salary is >$50K. We minimize our expenses by selling
part of his time to other nearby NMR facilities. In addition to NMR
hardware maintenance, he also takes care of most of our software and
networking upkeep for NMR. <paraindent><param>left</param>
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2. Do you have service contracts for your
instruments?</paraindent><paraindent><param>left</param>
We have no hardware service contracts, but we have a software update
contract with Varian. </paraindent><paraindent><param>left,left,left</param>
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2a. If so, what is the
cost?</paraindent><paraindent><param>left,left,left</param>
The software update service is about $2-3K/yr.
*****************
Only myself: PhD Physical Chemist who learned some essentials of hardware
and computers over the years by osmosis. I do go to our electronics shop
in certain cases. I also do the education and scientific interfacing with
researchers so with 6 NMR machines I stay pretty busy.
$55K
>
> 2. Do you have service contracts for your instruments?
No
>
> 2a. If so, what is the cost?
>
> 3. If you do not have either, how do you cover the costs of instrument
> repair and development?
Costs of repair and upkeep are covered by user fees; no major costs in
the past 9 years but do have a fund we could beg from in the event of a
major crunch.
*****************
One question you didn't ask is how many instruments are involved - I think
this will have a big effect on how you interpret the answers. We have no
service contracts, and no NMR hardware engineers on staff; however we do
have a 4 person electronics shop in the Department and this comes in very
handy. The way we have handled instrument development/repair thus far is
via usage of Departmental funds (begging for allocations when the need
arises), however we are moving to a cost center
system where the users will share in the cost of these. I have 6
instruments under my control.
I will be very interested to see what others have to say about this.
**************
I am the Technical Director/Instructor for the College
. I have a degree in
electrical engineering and have been working with NMR,RF,Mass Spec,and
analytical instrumentation . My current salary is $48,000.
**************
I have an NMR technician with a bachelor's degree in chemistry and 15 years
of experience who makes about $34,000 / year.
>2. Do you have service contracts for your instruments?
>
We have no service contracts for our instruments. The technician takes
care of the repairs and the instruments are all very old.
>2a. If so, what is the cost?
>
>3. If you do not have either, how do you cover the costs of instrument
>repair and development?
>
Part of our technician's salary is built into our user fees.
>
********************
we have an NMR
hardware expert who has an MS in physics. His salary is about $38K. We do
not have service contracts. Hope this helps.
******************
We have a 400MHz FTNMR system with a number of accessories (liquid, solid,
autosampler, 6 probes). We do not have an NMR hardware expert on our
staff to maintain the instrument. However, we have service contract on
our instrument and it costs about $38K/yr.
It is hard to justify to hire an NMR hardware expert when there is
only one
FTNMR system. There is not enough of jobs for the person. However, the
cost of the service contracts can become extremely expensive for multiple
systems. Having the NMR hardware expert is probably more cost
effective if
there are multiple systems.
Hopefully the information are helpful for you to make decisions and
convince your University.
***************
We ahve no real support staff- one of 2
electronics/mechanics/woodworking/shop people just retired and I don't
know if they will be replacing him. The one still here I do not consult
on RF problems as he know little about them.
**************
We have a great electronic tecn.III who works with NMR Facility
for 25 years. His salary are around $32K.
We dont have contract for eoither one of ou INSTRUMENTS,
We cover repair expenses fromFacility budget -service income
Good luck
*****************
Our person is currently making in the mid $50's range. The only way we can
keep him here is because he is a long term employee with loyalty and some
other non salary percs.
> 2. Do you have service contracts for your instruments?
>
We use parts only contracts.
> 2a. If so, what is the cost?
>
Cost for these is ca. 3-4% of the instrument purchase price per year.
*************
I am the manager of the
Chemistry Dept. NMR lab.
We have three 300's and 2 500's and several computers.
There are about 30
faculty and 80 NMR users here.
>1. If you presently have an NMR hardware expert on your staff, what is
>their salary?
There is no regular staff other than me. A grad student performs minimal
maintenance and NMR user assistance when I am away from the lab for an
extended period.
>
>2. Do you have service contracts for your instruments?
No.
>
>2a. If so, what is the cost?
>
>3. If you do not have either, how do you cover the costs of instrument
>repair and development?
I do no instrument development. I do troubleshooting and repair usually
with phone and part assistance from vendors (Bruker, Varian, and Tecmag).
Repair and maintanance costs are recovered from NMR user fees which are
$3.50/hr.
>*************
How are things going?
.With regards to your ammrl posting, we have an "instrumentation mananger"
who looks after nmr hardware, mass spec hardware and anything else that needs
fixing. He's very good and probably saves the center many times his salary (
> $50K) in repair costs per year. If I can get a better estimate of these
numbers, I'll send them along.
Talk to you soon.
**************
I don't have an NMR hardware expert/RF engineer working directly for me
anymore - last year we transferred this person to the electronics facility
in the chemistry dept. I still have first dibs on him, and he spends a lot
of time working for me, but this ended up being more cost effective. Be
that as it may, he is a master's level EE with >20 years in NMR and RF
design and repair. His salary is ~$45,000/year; too low but all staff
salaries are low here.
We don't have service contracts - my EE is our service contract. Our
facility recovers the cost of repairs from our hourly charges. As to
development work, we pay our EE by the hour, ($16.00/hr), just as everyone
else does, if they want him to pursue a development project. In general, a
decision was made about 5 years ago that we would not pursue development
projects, but rely instead on the manufacturers.
Let me know if I can furnish any other info.
***************
Here are my answers to your questions. I hope that you will have a
sufficiently large response so that you can post a summary
>
>1. If you presently have an NMR hardware expert on your staff, what is
>their salary?
The person with hardware experience makes between 60 and 70k. However, he
also is a real NMR spectroscopist with 24 years of experience in NMR.
>
>2. Do you have service contracts for your instruments?
No.
>
>2a. If so, what is the cost?
I still want to answer this question: A full Labor and parts service
contract for our Unity INOVA's would be $25,000 per instrument. This does
NOT cover a magnet quench!
>
>3. If you do not have either, how do you cover the costs of instrument
>repair and development?
We budget for one board and one probe repair per machine per year ($10k total).
>
>If there is interest, I will share the results without revealing names or
>locations.
NB: Our philosophy is that modern NMR consoles are so reliable that it is
not necessary to have a maintenance contract. We are also not going to do
on board repairs ourselves (No IC soldering and unsoldering as long as I am
here!). The most important part of the repair process is the trouble
shooting part. This we do ourselves as much as possible.
Over the years the importance of software (even for trouble shooting) and
having a good network has become so important that it is currently at least
as important to have a unix and network expert than an RF wizzard in your
*********************
I do have a NMR engineer on staff. His salary is ~$58k. He has ~20 yrs
experience in the job, but does not have a college degree.
**************
I will be interested in the results because we hope to be confronting this
very issue in a year or two. However, I think $60K would be prohibitive for
us. (It is much more than *I* make.) Remember, average salary for PhD-level
NMR managers seems to be about $47K
****************
NMR Facility
Director for the past 15 years. I am currently earning
$39,000 per year. I am the only person directly involved
with the NMR's. We have an AC-250, a WP-270, an AM-360
and an AMX-500, all Brukers. I am also responsible for
several FTIR's, UV-VIS and AA Instruments. We do not
have service contracts on any of these instruments. I do
all of the maintainance, training of users and consult
and assist those that need more the routine spectral
acquisition. The funding come out of the departmental
budget and the occasional circuit board repair has been
covered with minimal problems. Our department does
maintain its own electronic shop for repairs and
development and they help occasionally when I have to
trouble shoot the instruments.
I feel that I should be earning more than I am. (Who
doesn't?) The two electronics technicians are in the
$45,000 to $55,000 range. I do only have a Master's
Degree in Chemistry and this seems to make a big
difference to their thinking. Does the degree or
experience make a difference for you?
I would like a copy of the results of your survey.
Maybe I can use it to pry a few more dollars out of my
department.
***************
If you presently have an NMR hardware expert on your staff, what is
their salary?
$65K to $75K per year
2. Do you have service contracts for your instruments?
Yes. We have service contracts on the whole body clinical NMR Imagers GE
SIGNA Systems 1.5T and 4 Tesla
The animal and spectroscopy systems 2T,4.7T ,7T 12T.Varian, Bruker , SIMIS,
supported by our tech.
2a. If so, what is the cost?
The GE Signa systems are Aprox $120K per year . The other systems (not
including cryogens cost) for care and feeding as a rule of thumb cost about
10% to 15 % of their original purchase price of the system per year for
repair, upgrades and replacements
3. If you do not have either, how do you cover the costs of instrument
repair and development?
Core research costs for instrument development is a seperate item and
should not be
considered part of the cost of maintaining the systems.
****************
We employ an engineer in our Instrumentation Center at. The job
qualifications are a BS in EE plus 5 years experience. The salary range
is $40,950-$63,200. With the above minimum qualifications the normal
maximum starting salary is $46,510. We do not have any service contracts.
Our engineer does all repairs. Let me know if you need more information.
****************
t has been our policy to perform all service on
major equipment after
the warranty period has expired. Our site has a DPX-300 (liquid and
solids) and AC-200 NMR
systems, a high resolution mass spectrometer and assorted
support equipment
(FTIR, UV-Vis and GC-MS) which comprise our major instrumentation facility.
The facility supports research, teaching and local industrial clients.
Funds generated from the last source
help to offset our repair and development costs.
As manager of the facility, I act as the first level of training and
troubleshooting. This usually
involves solution of simple problems such as bus hangups, software and
hardware resets,
printer/plotter failures, ie all the nagging day to day issues. For more
complex problems, I will attempt to identify failures at the board level
such as power supply and amplifier failures and then turn the repair job
over to our electronics support people.
We are blessed with excellent electronic and machine shop support. Our
electronics department
consists of a supervisor and three technical support staff and this group
supports the needs of the
Science division departments (Chemistry, Physics, Biology, Biochemistry,
Biotechnology, Earth
Sciences and Oenology/Viticulture).
In terms of NMR service support, this technical staff has been able to
solve a wide range of
problems and has designed and built MAS probes. Over the past fifteen
years, there have only
been three (one-day) service visits by the manufacturer. In consideration
of the level of instrument our new DPX-300 represents, it is much more cost
effective for us to be able to identify a fault and ask Bruker for a board
swap than to pay the high cost of routine service contracts. These are
typically priced at about 10% of the instrument purchase price per annum.
Even daily service from Bruker's local office is
about $1000. U.S. portal to portal!
After some discussion with the shop supervisor, we feel you should be
looking at a minimum of
$35K for a technical service person and even more ($50K+) if design
and development
Dr. Joseph Vaughn, NMR Facility Manager
Chemistry Department
Florida State University
Tallahassee, FL 32306
Phone 850-644-3334
Fax 850-644-8281