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Crime Lab Employment Opportunities

The scientific staff of the Kern Regional Crime Laboratory includes a Laboratory Director, Assistant Laboratory Director, Supervising Criminalists, a DNA Technical Leader who manage the laboratory sections, and caseworking criminalists and forensic technicians within each operational unit and program. The laboratory also relies upon other laboratory support staff.

Our caseworkers are scientific professionals who perform forensic examination and scientific analysis of physical evidence collected from the scenes of various crimes. These individuals possess at a minimum a bachelor's degree from an accredited university in a physical, natural, or life science. The Kern Regional Crime Laboratory also actively seeks individuals with advanced (graduate) degrees in science and technology to help keep pace with current scientific demand, and the laboratory currently employs scientists at the Master’s (M.S.) level.

Due to the volume of public requests, laboratory personnel cannot answer questions related to career opportunities within the forensic field. However, we encourage those who are interested to consult the American Academy of Forensic Sciences and the California Association of Criminalists for more detailed information.

County Jobs

The Crime Lab staff includes a variety of technical and non-technical job classifications. While laboratory personnel cannot answer questions related to career opportunities within the forensic field, we encourage those who are interested in positions at the Crime Lab to consult the following job-related links:

County Job Openings FAQ
Job Interest Cards – Sign up to receive email notifications when positions open up with Kern County that match your selected category.
Human Resources Home

Internship Program

The Kern Regional Crime Laboratory is committed to promoting quality forensic science education, and to building and enhancing researcher-practitioner partnerships with university research groups – especially those institutions that have active research programs in the forensic sciences.

Internships are evaluated in January for either the summer or fall session, for a minimum period of 10 weeks. The application process is competitive, and applicants are encouraged to apply well in advance of their intended start date. A criminal background investigation, which generally takes a minimum of 4 weeks to complete, is required.

Interested applicants should compile the following:

current curriculum vitae;
university transcripts (official copies are not required) of all work completed to date;
letter of intent; and
names and contact information of three academic references.

and send to:

Kern Regional Crime Laboratory
1300 18th Street, 4th Floor
Bakersfield, CA. 93301
Attention: Internship Committee

All materials must be received together as a single information packet in order to be considered.