Engineering Lab Operations Lead

Castelion Corporation

Torrance (CA)

On-site

USD 110,000 - 160,000

Full time

14 days+

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Job summary

Castelion is seeking an Engineering Lab Manager in Torrance, CA to oversee daily operations, readiness, and continuous improvement of engineering labs supporting rapid hardware development and testing. You’ll ensure safe, reliable lab environments, manage equipment, tooling, and infrastructure, and collaborate across engineering, facilities, safety, IT, and supply chain.

The role emphasizes development of lab procedures, preventive maintenance, and metrics to maximize availability and

Qualifications

Bachelor’s degree in engineering, science, operations, facilities, or a related technical field with 3+ years of relevant professional experience; or 6+ years of relevant professional experience in engineering laboratory operations, test operations, manufacturing, facilities, or a related technical environment.
Hands‑on experience operating or managing engineering laboratories, test facilities, manufacturing environments, or other technical workspaces.
Experience managing laboratory equipment, instrumentation, tooling, facilities, or test infrastructure.
Experience working in an environment requiring strong adherence to safety, operational, and technical procedures.

Responsibilities

Own the day-to-day operation and readiness of assigned engineering laboratories, ensuring facilities, equipment, tooling, utilities, and supporting infrastructure are available and capable of meeting engineering requirements.
Establish and maintain lab operating procedures, standards, and processes that enable safe, efficient, and repeatable engineering development and test activities.
Coordinate lab scheduling and resource allocation across multiple engineering teams, balancing competing priorities and maximizing utilization of shared equipment and facilities.
Own the acquisition, installation, commissioning, maintenance, calibration, and lifecycle management of laboratory equipment, instrumentation, tooling, and test infrastructure.
Develop and maintain equipment and lab readiness metrics, identifying constraints, capacity gaps, maintenance requirements, and upcoming resource needs before they impact engineering schedules.
Partner with engineering teams to define laboratory requirements for new development programs, including equipment, instrumentation, facilities, utilities, environmental requirements, test capabilities, and supporting infrastructure.
Coordinate with facilities, EHS, IT, quality, security, and other support organizations to ensure laboratories meet applicable safety, regulatory, environmental, cybersecurity, and operational requirements.
Establish and maintain relationships with equipment manufacturers, calibration providers, service organizations, contractors, and other external suppliers to support lab operations and minimize equipment downtime.
Manage laboratory inventory, consumables, spare parts, tooling, and other resources required to maintain continuous engineering operations.
Develop and implement preventive maintenance, calibration, and equipment health programs to maximize equipment availability and reliability.
Identify, prioritize, and drive closure of lab operational constraints, including equipment failures, facility limitations, utility issues, material shortages, vendor delays, and resource conflicts.
Support rapid development and test activities by coordinating lab resources and enabling engineering teams to quickly configure, modify, and validate test environments as requirements evolve.
Develop and deploy opportunities to automate, standardize, and improve laboratory processes, reducing manual effort and increasing lab utilization, reliability, and engineering throughput.
Establish systems for equipment documentation, configuration control, calibration records, maintenance history, operating procedures, and lab asset tracking.
Lead investigations into equipment or lab‑related failures that impact engineering activities and drive corrective actions to prevent recurrence.
Support capital planning and budgeting for laboratory equipment, facilities, tooling, and infrastructure based on current and projected engineering demand.
Support continuous improvement initiatives focused on safety, equipment availability, engineering velocity, cost reduction, quality, and overall lab efficiency.
Where applicable, lead and develop laboratory technicians, contractors, and other lab support personnel, establishing clear expectations for safety, execution, responsiveness, and technical capability.