Histology Manager

Breakout Ventures; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

Breakout Ventures is seeking an experienced Histology Manager to lead histology operations and a dedicated team, ensuring consistent, high-quality, and timely tissue sample preparation to support various research workflows.

The role blends deep histology expertise with strong operational leadership, mentoring the team, establishing high standards, and driving continuous workflow improvements with scalable automation as volumes grow.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in biological sciences, histotechnology, or related field.
• Extensive hands-on histology experience including FFPE preparation and sectioning.
• Ability to troubleshoot complex histology issues across tissue types.
• Experience leading a histology team and managing workflows in high-throughput settings.
• Familiarity with laboratory information management systems (LIMS).

Responsibilities

• Lead day-to-day histology operations including FFPE reembedding, sectioning, H&E staining.
• Serve as technical resource for complex histology issues and standards.
• Ensure high-quality tissue sections for downstream assays.
• Collaborate with downstream assay teams to meet requirements.
• Evaluate new histology equipment and automation to scale operations.

Skills

Histology experience

Team leadership

Communication skills

Organizational skills

Education

Bachelor’s degree in biological sciences, histotechnology, or related field

Job description

THE OPPORTUNITY

We are seeking an experienced Histology Manager to lead our histology operations and team. This role will be responsible for ensuring consistent, high-quality, and timely preparation of tissue samples supporting an evolving range of research and data generation workflows.

This role combines deep technical expertise in histology with strong operational and people leadership. This role will oversee day-to-day histology operations, develop and mentor the histology team, establish and maintain high quality standards, and continuously improve laboratory workflows with an eye for automation as our sample volumes and technical capabilities scale.

ROLE AND RESPONSIBILITIES

The Histology Manager will work closely with colleagues across Biosample Operations, Pathology, Platform Innovation, Engineering, and other functions. The ideal candidate is an experienced histotechnologist who excels at building high performing teams, solving difficult tissue processing and sectioning problems, and developing robust laboratory operations in a fast-paced and dynamic environment. Success in this role will require a determination to push the boundaries of histology operations to creatively scale workflows.

Responsibilities include:

Histology operations and technical leadership

• Lead day-to-day histology operations, including FFPE reembedding, sectioning, H&E staining, and related tissue processing workflows
• Serve as technical resource for difficult or complex histology issues
• Establish and maintain standards for each step of the histology workflow, troubleshoot all aspects of the histology workflow, lead root cause investigations where appropriate
• Ensure consistent production of high quality tissue sections for downstream assays including H&E, immunostaining, and spatial transcriptomics
• Partner with downstream assay teams to understand requirements and ensure appropriate tissue preparation
• Communicate capacity constraints, technical risks, and sample quality issues to stakeholders
• Evaluate and implement new histology equipment, consumables, technologies, workflows, and cutting edge automation to enable histology operations at scale

Team leadership

• Manage, mentor, and develop the histology team
• Establish clear expectations for technical performance, quality, productivity, and laboratory procedures
• Provide regular feedback, coaching, and career development for team members
• Develop onboarding and training programs for new histology team members
• Foster a collaborative, quality-focused, and continuous-improvement culture

REQUIRED EDUCATION & EXPERIENCE

• Bachelor’s degree in biological sciences, histotechnology, or related field
• Extensive hands-on experience in histology, including FFPE tissue preparation and sectioning
• Demonstrated expertise sectioning a broad range of human tissue types, including challenging specimens
• Strong understanding of common histology workflows and artifacts, including tissue microarrays, with ability to troubleshoot complex issues
• Experience managing a histology team supporting high throughput tissue workflows
• Experience managing laboratory workflows, priorities, and capacity, including working with laboratory information management systems
• Strong organizational skills and attention to detail, particularly when working with high value or limited tissue samples

QUALIFICATIONS AND SKILLS

• Strong track record in exceeding expectations, with a drive for efficiency
• Demonstrated ability to work effectively in a fast paced, highly collaborative and dynamic environment
• Strong written and verbal communication skills
• Team player, eager to unblock bottlenecked steps and lead continuous process improvement