Scientific Operations

Medra; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 80,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

Medra is seeking a Lab Manager to oversee the operation and performance of the lab facility in San Francisco, California. This hands-on role requires 5-10 years of experience in managing biology laboratories, strong organizational skills, and the ability to maintain lab readiness and safety compliance. The Lab Manager will work closely with scientists and engineering teams, ensuring smooth operations and adherence to protocols while developing maintenance programs and training new team members. Candidates should have a wet lab background and demonstrated experience with BSL-2 programs.

Qualifications

• 5-10 years of experience managing a biology laboratory in an academic core facility, biotech, CDMO, or pharma research site.
• Demonstrated experience running a BSL-2 program.
• Strong organizational skills and attention to detail.

Responsibilities

• Manage day-to-day lab operations to ensure instruments and consumables are ready.
• Develop and maintain preventive maintenance and calibration programs for lab equipment.
• Onboard new scientists and engineers on lab logistics and safety.

Skills

Organizational skills

Written communication

Verbal communication

Attention to detail

Education

5-10 years of experience managing biology labs

Hands-on wet lab experience

Experience running a BSL-2 program

Tools

LIMS

ELN

Job description

What are we doing?

Medra’s mission is to eradicate disease.

What We're Building:

We have been quietly building the foundational layers of our Physical AI Scientist platform:

• Physical AI that can operate scientific instruments with human-level dexterity.
• Scientific AI that can analyze results, reason about next steps, and close the loop autonomously.

This is an incredibly ambitious mission, but we believe that a team of ambitious people with high ownership can accomplish incredible things.

The Team:

• We’re a team of passionate, mission-driven people from companies like Tesla, Applied Intuition, SpaceX, Neuralink, Scale, Samsara, and Vercel. We’re collaborative and committed to moving fast with extreme prioritization.
• Our team is opinionated and straightforward. We don’t mind intense discussions about tradeoffs. If we have arguments or miscommunication, we resolve conflicts quickly and empathetically. Feedback of all types is not just welcome, but expected.
• As a team, we’re always looking for ways to grow and improve. We love learning new things and then sharing our new knowledge with each other.

Responsibilities

The Lab Manager is responsible for the operation, safety, and performance of ML001. This is a hands‑on role that owns lab readiness, asset management, inventory, safety and compliance, and lab-level facilities. The Lab Manager works closely with scientists, engineers, and the operations team to ensure ML001 runs as a high-utilization, audit-ready facility.

• Manage day‑to‑day lab operations to ensure instruments, consumables, and lab spaces are ready to support scheduled work.
• Develop and maintain preventive maintenance and calibration programs for all lab equipment, including detailed records and vendor service coordination.
• Build and operate the lab inventory program, including par levels, reorder triggers, audit cadence, and vendor management at the SKU level.
• Maintain the lab asset register, including warranty tracking, service contracts, and lifecycle planning.
• Develop, implement, and maintain SOPs and lab protocols.
• Manage lab-level facilities work, including HVAC, cold storage, BSL‑2 buildout, and equipment layout, in coordination with external facilities vendors.
• Continuously assess workflow and resource utilization, identifying bottlenecks and recommending improvements.
• Onboard new scientists, research associates, and engineers on lab logistics, safety, and operating norms.
• Partner with the operations and procurement teams on capital equipment requests, vendor contracts, and service agreements.
• Partner with science and engineering teams on workflow design, instrument requirements, and integration with automation systems.

Required Qualifications

• 5-10 years of experience managing a biology laboratory in an academic core facility, biotech, CDMO, contract research organization, or pharma research site.
• Hands‑on wet lab background.
• Demonstrated experience running a BSL‑2 program.
• Track record of building and maintaining SOPs, calibration and PM programs, and inventory systems.
• Strong organizational skills and attention to detail.
• Excellent written and verbal communication.

Preferred Qualifications

• Prior experience as a bench scientist.
• Experience supporting multi‑customer or contract research environments.
• Experience scaling a lab through a buildout or growth phase.
• LIMS or ELN implementation experience.
• Familiarity with lab automation and robotics platforms.
• Experience operating within ISO 9001, GLP, or comparable quality systems.