Lab Operations Lead (Biotech)

Location: London, UK — on-site. Full-time role; candidates must already be in London or be ready to move.

Company

hirify.global is building an automated laboratory that enables AI agents to run biology experiments for biopharma, AI labs, and techbio customers.

What you will do

• Lead the operational fit-out of the London lab, including benching, ventilation, power, cold storage, extraction, safety systems, contractors, timelines, and readiness.
• Coordinate delivery, installation, qualification, and handover of array-SPR, BLI, and liquid-handling equipment with vendors and the Lausanne automation team.
• Establish inventory and procurement, shipping and cold-chain, maintenance, service contracts, chemical handling, waste management, and other lab operating systems.
• Own safety and compliance processes, documentation, risk assessments, notifications, and permits required for the London site.
• Hire and manage the lab operations team, then run day-to-day site operations after production starts.
• Continuously improve uptime, throughput, inventory, maintenance, safety, reliability, and operational capacity.

Requirements

• Experience building or expanding a laboratory through a fit-out, site move, major equipment installation, or new laboratory launch; experience running an established lab is valuable.
• Deep hands-on laboratory operations experience, ideally in a high-throughput, automation-heavy biotech, life-science, or similarly technical environment.
• A degree and/or significant professional experience in biology, biochemistry, bioengineering, or a related field is highly preferred, with an understanding of the scientific workflows supported by the lab.
• Previous ownership of laboratory safety, permitting, and compliance, with the ability to bring a new UK site into compliance from day one or learn local requirements quickly.
• Experience managing instrument manufacturers, service engineers, contractors, suppliers, and logistics providers while keeping complex installation and operational work on track.
• Strong operational skills, including building systems, identifying problems early, tracking details, and maintaining lab performance as complexity and throughput increase.
• Comfort working at startup pace in a small team where priorities change quickly and processes may not already be defined.
• Comfort using AI tools such as Claude Code and hirify.global's software to improve how lab operations are performed.
• Must be in London or ready to move to London for this on-site role.

Culture & Benefits

• Work on infrastructure for AI-driven wet-lab experimentation and protein engineering.
• Build a new London site using proven systems and playbooks from the Lausanne laboratory.
• Work with production projects for partners including Anthropic and Boltz, alongside R&D projects.
• Join a rapidly growing biotech startup operating at a fast pace with a small team.
• Start as soon as possible; the London lab is targeted to open in 2026.

Hiring process

• Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis.