Want to start a career helping our physicians make informed decisions by providing critical information? Northwell has a variety of clinical laboratory science opportunities available across our health system to help you kickstart your career. Candidates with a high school diploma can explore exciting careers in clinical laboratory sciences that require some certification and/or previous work experience.

Northwell is committed to ensuring our Truly Innovative laboratory team members have the best career experience while empowering career growth and development within our organization to help everyone reach their goals. We offer a career framework with roles structured into clear career paths, and a GROW model that enables managers and team members to discuss career aspirations openly.

Below, you will find some of the clinical laboratory science career opportunities Northwell has to offer that only require a high school diploma and either a certification and/or training program experience.

Take the first step toward a rewarding career at Northwell Health. Check out our clinical laboratory science positions across our health system.

As a pathology assistant at Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan, Cynthia Bender is responsible for receiving and sorting various specimens, including blood, skin cells and saliva, that are sent for laboratory testing. After each specimen is tested, Cynthia reviews the collected clinical data and shares the results with the clinician, so the clinician can identify what procedures may be recommended for treating the patient.

Cynthia started her career with Northwell more than 30 years ago as an evening, part-time phlebotomist. From there, she was able to continue her education and receive her associate’s degree in business administration before moving into a full-time phlebotomist role. In 1995, she transferred to Northwell’s Raisler Testing, Outpatient Center in Manhattan, one of the largest laboratory systems in the Northeast and assisted at the center until September 2005. That same year Cynthia transferred to her current position in the send out department at Lenox Hill Hospital, a 652-bed acute care hospital located on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. “I love that my work as a pathology assistant allows me to make a difference in the lives of our patients at Northwell. We help clinicians diagnose patients faster to better treat them. It brings a sense of fulfillment knowing that I am aiding in their treatment.”

Cynthia shared that she was attracted to Northwell long before she applied for her first job here because of our reputation as one of the best health systems in the nation. Throughout her career at Northwell, Cynthia has been able to serve in several different positions because she is always encouraged to learn more. “The support that I received to develop in my field encouraged me to take on new opportunities and grow within the organization,” Cynthia shared adding, “I have been able to take advantage of several programs, including our mentorship program that pairs new staff with different leaders.” Today, Northwell has over 60 mentorships programs to help prepare current and future employees through the support and guidance of seasoned Health Raisers who share their knowledge and experience.

When asked if she could offer any advice to those looking into the field of pathology, Cynthia advises anyone starting their career to take advantage of every opportunity that comes your way. “Where you are right now is not where you will end up at the end of your career. Hard work pays off, so take advantage of every opportunity that may come your way.”

Discover a career well cared for and learn more about clinical laboratory opportunities at Northwell Health

This week Northwell Health is celebrating Medical Laboratory Professionals Week! Our Medical Laboratory professionals play a vital role within our organization by providing crucial information for detecting, diagnosing, treating, and monitoring a patient’s disease. They are our healthcare heroes behind the scenes!

Meet some of our team members:

Since starting his Northwell Health career journey as a blood bank technologist at Lenox Hill Hospital (LHH) in 2009, Pierre Mouawad MBA, MT, has been able to grow tremendously within the clinical laboratory team. His growth, from technologist to lab director, is a story that continues to inspire the laboratory team members that he leads at LHH.

By 2013, Pierre was promoted to a transfusion safety officer and later became a performance improvement manager before his current title of director, all while at LHH. Pierre’s ambition and drive for growth was supported by the health system through leadership training programs at the Center for Learning and Innovation and through mentorships with several leaders and team members. And in 2017, Pierre was also able to earn his MBA with support from Northwell Health’s tuition reimbursement program.

Today as director of operations in Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Pierre oversees the laboratory services at LHH. The laboratory is comprised of 14 areas of specialization within Clinical Pathology, Anatomic Pathology, and Blood Bank. Pierre leads a team of 200 plus members including managers, supervisors, technologists, phlebotomists and administrative staff.

Last year, Pierre and his team were honored to be recognized on a national level with LHH being named Medical Laboratory Observer’s 2020 Lab of the Year. “This recognition made my team and me very proud of our excellent strategic outlook, culture and education, training and quality.” Pierre himself has also been recognized by Healthcare Performance Insider for his laboratory leadership throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I love working with talented scientists and hard-working individuals who are knowledgeable professionals and want to come to work every day,” says Pierre. “The laboratory world has grown so much, and I believe that innovation and culture are the key drivers to be successful in this industry”

Pierre’s hope is that his story inspires both students and other young technologists. “My passion is to mentor students to pursue a career in the laboratory field. Seventy percent of clinical decisions are based on lab results, so laboratory professionals are essential to the healthcare industry – even more so during this pandemic with all the COVID testing,” says Pierre. “I hope to continue inspiring colleagues to grow in the field by learning and being the best versions of themselves through excellent work ethic, challenging themselves, practicing kindness, and being passionate, emotionally intelligent, and empathetic.”

Pierre’s vision is emblematic of the leadership throughout the health system. Growth opportunities similar to those in his journey are available to all employees. The support he received through learning opportunities, benefits such as tuition reimbursement, and the encouragement for sharing ideas are not unique experiences but rather the values that have made Northwell Health once again a Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For® and 2021 Best Health System for Diversity by DiversityInc.

Discover a career well cared for as a clinical laboratory professional at Northwell Health. Apply today!

Discover a career well cared for as a phlebotomist at Northwell Health. Apply today!

Joseph Castagnaro has grown in his laboratory services career at Northwell Health from being the laboratory administrative director at Southside Hospital (soon to be South Shore University Hospital). From overseeing the pre-surgical testing and patient experience departments at Southside to being promoted to senior lab administrative director and overseeing all of our community hospital labs, Joseph’s well-rounded experience has given him the skills he needs to be successful. Today as vice president, of Lab Services Integration and Operation, he is responsible for all hospital lab operations, including our health system owned labs and non-system labs we manage in other local communities. We sat down with Joseph to discuss the variety of careers in clinical laboratory and what makes working in Northwell’s labs so unique.

This past year has been one of the biggest challenges the laboratory services teams have ever seen. The COVID-19 pandemic was, and continues to be, at the forefront of every person and patient in every community nationwide. Luckily we had the fortune of building a brand-new, state-of-the-art lab a year earlier in Lake Success, NY, which ultimately gave us the ability to enhance and expand our molecular department this year in order to meet the COVID-19 testing demands in our area. Our health system has always had a great lab team and has always worked well together. This past year we had to work together in a fashion unlike ever before. The pandemic brought out the best in all of our laboratory healthcare heroes. The resiliency and teamwork of our lab staff across the health system was unprecedented.

We are in the process of developing a Medical Technology program with Hofstra University. Recruiting and finding laboratory staff has been difficult industry wide across the nation so we decided to grow our own. We’re also constantly upgrading our lab equipment system wide. This coming year we’ve selected new blood gas analyzers to roll out across our entire health system. The remainder of this year and well into next year, we will be addressing the probable collision of influenza and COVID-19 and how we will best be prepared to ensure we meet all of the clinical care patient needs related to laboratory testing.

Interested in joining our laboratory team? Get moving and explore clinical laboratory career opportunities today.

Northwell Health Labs has been at the forefront of innovative care before and during COVID-19. Our labs quickly established itself as a leader in processing COVID-19 tests, being the first with manual tests, and later automated testing processes. As the fight against COVID-19 evolves, so does the work of our laboratory teams. Today their focus has shifted to include antibody testing, a test that allows patients to see if they previously had the novel coronavirus.

To perform these vital tests for our communities, our laboratory team members have been working in new ways. Former laboratory technologists have volunteered to return to the floor to help meet increased testing volume while our phlebotomists have been working outside the labs at COVID-19 testing sites. The teamwork displayed has been endless as they work together behind the scenes to keep our communities safe and our clinicians informed.

Recognizing the needs in this unprecedented time, many lab professionals continue to go above and beyond to deliver care. Merissa Ashrafalli, a lab technologist in Diagnostic Immunology/Serology at Northwell Health’s Core Lab, even returned early from her paid family leave bonding time to help support the fight against the virus. “I returned early to help on the front lines during this critical time because my team needed me. Our patients are our priority. Many think of a specimen as just a sample, but that is someone’s family member.”

And her work in Serology has never been more vital as her team works to get COVID-19 samples processed in a timely manner while dealing with new testing platforms and new assay material. “Without our staff in Serology, testing could not happen,” says Merissa. “As a team we are all working and learning together in this fight.”

Serology professionals aren’t the only ones essential to the Northwell Labs. Phlebotomists play the important role of collecting the samples – the first step in getting a diagnosis so patients can receive the care they need. As part of the initial battle, phlebotomists like Amber LaGuerre, volunteered to work at the New Rochelle COVID-19 testing site, the first in the country.

“Being a part of the New Rochelle drive-thru was a once-in-a-lifetime experience,” says Amber. “I jumped at the opportunity to volunteer because I knew it was my way to rise to the occasion and make a difference in this pandemic.” As the first testing site, the work of Amber and the other team members changed daily to ensure their testing would be as accurate as possible as the nation’s knowledge of the disease grew. It was their dedication, ability to adapt, and skills that helped make the site a success.

While Amber’s time at the testing site may have ended, she’s still working tirelessly to help patients get the care they need. As a phlebotomist with LabFly, Northwell’s mobile app that lets patients schedule blood draws at home, she’s bringing the testing process directly to our patients. “I know the work I’m doing is impactful no matter the setting I’m placed in, whether it be a hospital, nursing home, or a patient’s home,” says Amber. “Patients are more at ease being tested at home and I’m glad that we’re able to offer the convenience of LabFly to make the testing process just a little more comforting in a time of such uncertainty.”

Though work of our laboratory teams continues to evolve during the pandemic, one thing remains consistent: these healthcare heroes should be proud of the vital role they’re serving in defeating COVID-19.

“I am prouder than ever to work with Northwell Labs because I’ve seen lab personnel finally be recognized beyond the organization for the work we do,” says Merissa. “It is in these times that those who work behind the scenes get the thanks that is needed.”

“It’s very humbling to know as a phlebotomist my work is directly combating the fight against COVID-19,” agrees Amber. “The amount of gratitude I receive not only from patients, but people on the street that see me in scrubs throughout my shift, is a daily reminder of why I chose to be in healthcare.”

Join our laboratory professional heroes today.

When Nathan Howell first started working at Northwell Health Labs in 2016, he accepted a position as a lab support associate after graduating college. Since then he’s grown his career working in our automated lab, becoming a lab technologist and specializing in Chemistry, Special Chemistry, and Serology.

For Nathan, Northwell Health Labs was the perfect start to his career to get the well-rounded experience he needed to grow as a lab technologist. “I’m glad that I made the leap to work in the automated lab straight from school because it’s an opportunity to work alongside an incredibly skilled and knowledgeable staff and to grow exponentially as a younger technologist,” says Nathan.

And working in the automated lab, Nathan enjoyed being able to continue learning thanks to the diversity of departments there. “I’ve had the opportunity to gain experience in everything from specimen processing and accessioning, to quality control validation and assay correlation, as well as extensive instrument maintenance and troubleshooting,” says Nathan. “The scale and depth of which I have learned these skills is something that can only be obtained here at Northwell.”

Northwell’s automated laboratory is a 101,000 square-foot facility with the largest Roche automated line of its kind in the U.S. and one of the largest in the world. This provides our clinical laboratory team access to the state-of-the-art equipment they need to help physicians deliver life-saving results to our patients.

With over 30 million tests performed at our 23 hospital-based labs and centralized laboratories, Nathan is able to gain experience with a variety of cases he might not see anywhere else. “Abnormalities or diseases that are typically very rare – such as 1 in 100,000 or 1 in 500,000 to even 1 in 1,000,000 – become more common. There’s something new to be seen and to learn on an almost day-to-day basis working at Northwell.”

Beyond developing his own career, working behind the scenes as one of healthcare’s “unsung heroes” is also extremely rewarding. “I take a lot of pride in knowing the work that I do and the care I put into the instruments that run our specimens has a direct impact on this lab’s ability to provide quick and accurate patient care,” says Nathan. “The level of detail and care that goes into our process to ensure we’re providing the best patient care possible is something that is unmatched anywhere else.”

Are you Made for making a big impact on a microscopic level? Join our clinical laboratory team today.

When it comes to how patients are diagnosed, cytology plays a huge role. At Northwell Health, laboratory technologists and technicians who work in our state-of-the-art laboratories are very instrumental in our success. They are responsible for preparing cytology specimens for microscopic evaluation by Cytotechnologists and Cytopathologists in detecting infections, premalignant and malignant conditions.

So, in preparing for a laboratory career in Cytology, what should you know? Here’s a shortlist of what you can expect your responsibilities would be:

Working as a laboratory technologist at Southside Hospital for 40 years, Emilie Moyse considers herself part of the evolution of lab. Emilie, or as her coworkers affectionately call her, Emmy, works 8am-4pm at Southside every Monday through Friday where her expertise and positive attitude have made her a staple to the clinical laboratory team.

To keep their skills sharp, Southside’s lab technologists rotate through the different departments on a weekly basis. This week, Emmy is working in Hematology where she’ll analyze blood samples and deliver lab results that will help doctors determine patient care. We followed her to see a day in a life as a Medical Laboratory Technologist (MLT) also known as a Clinical Laboratory Scientist (CLS) at Southside Hospital.

Join Emmy and the whole Clinical Laboratory team at Southside Hospital. Apply today!