Lab Manager

About Transcripta Bio

At Transcripta Bio, we're redefining the possibilities of transcriptional regulation to unlock new therapeutic frontiers. Our mission is to bridge the gap between deep biology and scalable science to discover novel drug targets and accelerate their path to the clinic. Based in Palo Alto, we're a multidisciplinary team of scientists, technologists, and innovators who thrive on collaboration, curiosity, and a commitment to scientific integrity.

About the role

We're hiring a Lab Manager to keep our lab running and to run science in it. This is a hybrid role: roughly half lab operations (safety, inventory, purchasing, equipment, SOPs) and half hands-on research (automated high-throughput screening, cell-based assays and protocol development).

You'll own the lab's day-to-day health — EH&S, ordering, vendor and facilities issues — while also serving as the go-to person for our liquid-handling automation and running screens that feed the Drug-Gene Atlas. It's a great fit for someone who loves the bench but is equally energized by making a lab work well for everyone in it.

What you'll do

Lab operations

• Serve as the lab's EH&S lead: maintain safety programs, chemical and biohazard waste, training records, and inspections, and onboard new lab members.
• Manage inventory and purchasing in Quartzy, including project tagging, stock levels for reagents, consumables, and compounds, and vendor relationships.
• Review and approve lab bills in Bill.com within your approval scope, and help track lab spend against budget.
• Coordinate equipment maintenance, service contracts, and repairs; submit and follow up on facilities work orders.
• Write, maintain, and enforce lab policies and SOPs; keep the lab organized, clean, and audit-ready.
• Report on lab status, issues, and improvement ideas to leadership.

Research and automation

• Run and troubleshoot automated workflows on liquid-handling systems (e.g., Hamilton STARlet) for high-throughput compound screening in 384-well format.
• Transfer manual protocols — cell culture, genomics, cell-based assays — onto automated platforms, optimizing for reproducibility, throughput, and data quality.
• Design and run validation experiments for new or updated automated protocols.
• Support screens and disease-modeling work, including iPSC-derived cell types (e.g., neurons, astrocytes) and fibroblasts, from plating through sample prep for sequencing.
• Document protocols, validation results, and technical guides; train scientists and new hires on instruments and methods.
• Evaluate and recommend new automation tools and lab technologies.

Qualifications

Required

• BS or MS in biology, molecular biology, biotechnology, or a related field.
• 3+ years of hands-on lab experience in biotech or academic research, including cell culture and molecular or cell-based assays (e.g., qPCR, NGS library prep, imaging or functional assays).
• Experience running and troubleshooting automated liquid handlers (Hamilton, Tecan, Agilent, or similar).
• Lab operations experience: ordering and inventory, safety compliance, equipment upkeep, and SOP writing.
• Highly organized, detail-oriented, and comfortable switching between operations and bench work in a fast-paced startup.
• Clear written and verbal communication; proactive about raising issues.

Preferred

• Familiarity with high-throughput screening, iPSC-derived cells, or transcriptomics workflows (e.g., DRUG-seq, RNA-seq).
• Formal EH&S responsibility or training (biosafety, chemical hygiene, hazardous waste).
• Familiarity with Quartzy, Benchling, and Bill.com.
• Experience designing validation studies and working with large datasets.

Pay range: $100,000-$105,000 annually