Lab Operations Engineer

Light Labs is hiring a Lab Operations Engineer to build the Lab Operating System (Lab OS) for real-time visibility, predictable turnaround, and higher accuracy in a high-volume lab environment.

Responsibilities

• Spend the first month on the lab floor mapping each process end-to-end, including checkpoints and handoffs
• Stand up a single source of truth for how work moves through the lab
• Identify the first operational bottleneck and work to remove it
• Build and maintain the source of truth used for execution and visibility
• Make throughput and turnaround time (TAT) predictable through process and system changes
• Build proactive quality management practices to improve accuracy
• Make partner labs measurable so performance and outcomes are trackable
• Use lab data to inform staffing decisions
• Systematize method development so it can be repeated and improved
• Build the playbook for sustainable change, not only point fixes
• Work side by side with scientists, technicians, lab leadership, and collaborate with engineering and product to integrate Lab OS into the broader Light Labs platform

Requirements

• Real software or automation engineering background building systems, pipelines, and integrations that others can run and extend
• Experience working with real-time inside laboratory, scientific, manufacturing, or other complex physical-world operations
• Strong fit: pharma, biotech, analytical testing, laboratory automation, high-throughput environments
• Even stronger fit: bioinformatics, computational biology, scientific software, or hands-on instrumentation experience
• Track record of replacing manual workflows with software or automation, personally (not just adjacent), including instrument-heavy processes such as LC-MS and/or applying AI to a real scientific problem
• Ability to define and solve operational problems that are not yet specified, then prove impact with measurable results across throughput, turnaround time, quality, or efficiency
• Strong communication skills to explain the rationale for workflow changes and bring scientists and technicians along
• Ability to work full-time on-site in Ann Arbor, MI (not remote)

Technologies

• LLM-assisted workflows
• LC-MS

Benefits

• Top-decile salary plus equity for every employee
• Full health, dental, and vision coverage
• Generous PTO and company holidays
• Direct access to founders and a promote-from-within culture
• 401(k)
• Dental insurance
• Health insurance
• Paid time off
• Vision insurance

Values

• First Principles
• Standard of Excellence
• Bias for Action
• Low Ego

Mission

• Testing for purity today is slow, expensive, and nearly impossible to interpret without a PhD
• No feedback loop means the problem stays invisible, but measuring what is actually in food creates pressure to change purchasing behavior
• Nothing changes until it can be measured, published, and proven
• Everything consumed is getting more toxic and less nutritious, and the problem is invisible

Application Questions

• Have you personally built software or automation that replaced a manual workflow in a lab, scientific, manufacturing, or other physical-world operation?
• Can you work full-time on-site at the lab in Ann Arbor, MI?