Lab Operations Lead

Junction

United States

On-site

USD 125,000 - 175,000

Full time

14 days+

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Benefits offered by this job

Equity grant

Company offsites

Learning budget

Wellness budget

Remote-friendly with $1K home office

Coworking budget

36 days paid time off

Premium healthcare

Pension/401k

Annual blood test

Enhanced parental leave

Job summary

Junction is hiring an experienced operations leader to run a distributed Lab Operations team, ensuring lab orders move smoothly from order to result.

You will coach the team, manage capacity, and improve SOPs, SLAs, and workflows while partnering with Product, Engineering, Customer Success, and external lab partners.

The role offers remote-first work across the US with equity and strong benefits, supporting growth and impact.

Qualifications

5+ years hiring and managing operations teams through growth.
Led teams that solve exception-heavy operational problems.
Built or significantly improved SOPs, SLAs, quality frameworks, or operational processes.
Managed people across multiple time zones and built team rhythm for alignment.
Handled direct vendor relationships and acted as escalation point for customers.
Experience in healthcare operations, diagnostics, or healthcare logistics.

Responsibilities

Manage, coach, and develop a distributed Lab Operations team, supporting both individual contributors and team leadership as the organization grows.
Plan team capacity and staffing as order volume increases based on demand trends.
Own the team's day-to-day operation across lab result review, order investigations, and proactive issue resolution with labs and customers.
Make sure SLAs, quality standards, and productivity targets are consistently met.
Interface with vendors and ensure good working relationships, troubleshoot issues, and set up streamlined processes for day-to-day interaction.
Step into complex operational issues, coordinating with Product, Engineering, Customer Success, and external lab partners where needed.
Improve SOPs, quality standards, and team workflows for consistency and scalability.
Identify recurring operational issues and partner with Operations Systems & Tooling on workflow improvements and automation.
Build a team that can solve problems independently, with clear ownership and fewer escalations over time.

Skills

People leadership

Operational judgment

Process improvement

Distributed team management

Customer and vendor management

Healthcare or operational experience

Job description

Healthcare is in crisis and the people behind the results deserve better. With more and more data coming from wearables, lab tests, and patient–doctor interactions, we’re entering an era where data is abundant.

Junction is building the infrastructure layer for diagnostic healthcare, making patient data accessible, actionable, and automated across labs and devices. Our mission is simple but ambitious: use health data to unlock unprecedented insight into human health and disease.

If you're passionate about how technology can supercharge healthcare, you’ll fit right in.

Backed by Creandum, Point Nine, 20VC, YC, and leading angels, we’re working to solve one of the biggest challenges of our time: making healthcare personalized, proactive, and affordable. We’re already connecting millions and scaling fast.

Short on time? TL;DR

You: An experienced operations leader who enjoys running teams that solve real operational problems every day. You're comfortable managing people, improving processes, and stepping into complex issues when things go wrong.

Us: A growing Lab Operations team responsible for keeping every lab order moving smoothly from order to result.

Salary: $125,000 - $175,000

Location: Fully remote (US-based, EST timezone required)

Why we need you

Every lab order that moves through Junction eventually becomes something physical. A kit ships, a lab runs a test, and results make their way back to providers and patients. Lab Operations is the team that makes sure that process works reliably. When they do their job well, customers barely notice. When something goes wrong, they're usually the team that fixes it.

As order volume continues to grow, we need someone who can lead the day-to-day operation, coach the team, and make sure quality keeps pace with scale.

This role is equal parts people leadership and operational ownership. You'll manage a distributed team, help people make better decisions independently, and improve the systems and processes that support the work. A lot of today's operation is still manual, so there are genuine opportunities to simplify workflows and remove recurring problems over time.

You'll also work closely with Product, Engineering, Customer Success, and our Support teams whenever operational issues need a cross-functional solution or a longer-term fix.

What you'll be doing day to day

Manage, coach, and develop a distributed Lab Operations team, supporting both individual contributors and team leadership as the organization grows
Plan team capacity and staffing as order volume increases based on demand trends
Own the team's day-to-day operation across lab result review, order investigations, and proactive issue resolution with labs and customers
Make sure SLAs, quality standards, and productivity targets are consistently met
Interface with vendors and ensure we have good working relationships, troubleshoot issues as they come up, and set up streamlined processes for day-to-day interaction
Step into complex operational issues when the team needs support, coordinating with Product, Engineering, Customer Success, and external lab partners where needed
Improve SOPs, quality standards, and team workflows so the operation becomes more consistent and easier to scale
Identify recurring operational issues and partner with our Operations Systems & Tooling team on workflow improvements and automation
Build a team that can solve problems independently, with clear ownership and fewer escalations over time

How we measure success

SLA attainment across Lab Operations
Operational quality and accuracy as order volume grows
Fewer escalations requiring support from senior leadership
Team engagement, development, and retention
Operational improvements that reduce manual work and recurring issues

What we're looking for

People leadership: 5+ years hiring and managing operations teams through growth. You've coached people to become more independent, handled performance conversations, and built a team that doesn't rely on you for every decision.
Operational judgment: You've led teams that spend their day solving exception-heavy operational problems rather than simply following scripts. You're comfortable making decisions when situations don't fit neatly into a process.
Process improvement: You've built or significantly improved SOPs, SLAs, quality frameworks, or operational processes.
Distributed team management: You've managed people across multiple time zones and know how to build a team rhythm that keeps everyone aligned without constant oversight.
Customer and vendor management: You've handled direct vendor relationships in business-critical operations and are comfortable being the escalation point for customers.
Healthcare or operational experience: You've worked in healthcare operations, diagnostics, logistics, or another operational environment where accuracy matters.

You don’t need to tick every box to fit in here. If the problems we’re solving genuinely interest you and you know you can contribute, we’d love to talk.

Nice to have

Experience managing distributed operations teams based in the Philippines
Experience in lab operations, diagnostics, or healthcare logistics
Experience partnering with an internal systems or tooling team to automate operational workflows