Microbiology Manager

Microbiology Manager (Founding) — Salt Lake City

Role Overview

We’re hiring a founding Microbiologist to build and own microbiology at our new Salt Lake City lab.

This is not a technician role. You are the first microbiology hire at this location, responsible for establishing how microbiology is done from method selection and validation to workflow design, quality systems, contamination control, and scaling throughput.

This lab is being built to support high-throughput microbiological testing for some of the largest manufacturers and brands in the United States. Within the first few months, workflows should support hundreds of samples per week, with a clear path to thousands per week as the lab scales.

Your work will support products distributed at national scale. The expectation is that results are accurate, consistent, and defensible, even under high volume and tight turnaround times.

You will operate with high agency and autonomy. You are expected to:

• Make judgment calls under uncertainty
• Design systems that scale under real commercial volume
• Identify failure modes before they become operational issues
• Hold a high bar for scientific rigor, speed, and reliability

You will work closely with leadership, but you are the owner of microbiology in this lab.

This role is ideal for someone who:

• Thinks in systems, not just protocols
• Has strong scientific fundamentals and operational instincts
• Wants to build something from zero to one
• Is excited by high-throughput environments where precision and speed both matter
• Takes pride in building processes that sophisticated manufacturers and brands can trust

This role is not a fit for someone who needs fully defined systems or tightly scoped responsibilities handed to them. You will be expected to create structure where it does not yet exist.

This is a full-time, in-person role in Salt Lake City.

What success looks like in the first 90 days

• Stand up core microbiology workflows for routine testing
• Validate initial methods and establish controls and acceptance criteria
• Successfully process and release results for initial customer samples with defined turnaround times
• Identify the first set of bottlenecks and implement improvements
• Establish baseline contamination control practices and documentation standards
• Create SOPs that are clear, repeatable, and ready for additional hires

Responsibilities

Own microbiology end-to-end for the Salt Lake City lab

• Establish and scale microbiological testing workflows across product categories
• Design lab layouts, workflows, and contamination control strategies for a high-throughput environment
• Build systems that can support demanding expectations from large manufacturers and brands

Method development, validation, and optimization

• Select, adapt, and validate microbiological methods such as USP, FDA BAM, and AOAC
• Define acceptance criteria, controls, and system suitability requirements
• Continuously improve methods for throughput, cost, reliability, and scalability

Operational excellence and throughput

• Design processes that scale from hundreds to thousands of samples per week
• Build workflows that maintain accuracy and consistency under heavy sample volume
• Identify bottlenecks and eliminate them proactively
• Balance speed and rigor without compromising data integrity

Customer-grade quality and reliability

• Produce work that stands up to scrutiny from leading food, supplement, and consumer goods companies
• Ensure microbiology operations are trustworthy, repeatable, and built for external credibility
• Recognize that testing quality, turnaround time, and consistency shape how customers experience Light Labs

Contamination control and root cause ownership

• Build contamination prevention systems instead of reacting to failures
• Lead investigations into deviations, out-of-spec results, and anomalies
• Implement corrective and preventive actions that are durable

Data integrity and quality systems

• Ensure all microbiological data holds up under regulatory scrutiny
• Build and enforce documentation, traceability, and audit readiness
• Partner with quality to align with ISO 17025 and relevant frameworks

Cross-functional collaboration

• Work with chemistry, operations, and software teams to integrate workflows
• Help shape how microbiology data is surfaced to customers
• Contribute to broader lab system design and product decisions

Build for scale

• Hire, train, and mentor future microbiology team members
• Turn tribal knowledge into systems, SOPs, and automation-ready processes

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s or Master’s in Microbiology or closely related field, advanced degree preferred
• 3 to 7 years of hands-on microbiology experience in a regulated or high-throughput environment
• Strong experience with plating, enumeration, and microbial testing workflows
• Demonstrated experience with method validation and development
• Deep understanding of contamination control and aseptic technique
• Experience operating under quality systems such as ISO, FDA, USP, and AOAC
• Proven ability to own systems, not just execute tasks
• Comfortable making decisions under ambiguity with limited guidance
• Strong documentation and scientific reasoning skills

Strong plus

• Experience setting up or scaling a lab function
• Experience in food, supplements, or consumer products testing
• Experience improving throughput or reducing turnaround time

Benefits and Compensation

• Top decile salary
• Meaningful equity ownership
• Health, dental, and vision insurance
• Paid time off and holidays
• Clear path to leadership as the lab scales

About Light Labs

Light Labs is building the modern lab testing platform. Faster, cheaper, and built for transparency.

We help brands test for purity, safety, and accuracy, then turn that data into a competitive advantage. Our platform connects testing, compliance, and customer-facing transparency into one system.

We believe consumers deserve to know exactly what is in the products they use. We are building the infrastructure to make that possible.

We have raised $32M from leading venture firms including 8VC and Valor, along with top CPG founders and operators. We are still early and building a category-defining company.

Who We Are

We are a team of founders and operators building the future of lab testing.

• Backed by leading venture firms
• Trusted by leading CPG brands
• Focused on speed, rigor, and transparency

We are building a small, high-agency team of founder-minded individuals.

This role is not for everyone.
But if you want to build something from zero and own it, this is the seat.

Assessment

To apply, complete the following assessment. This reflects the level of thinking and ownership required for this role.

Step 1: Contamination Scenario (Advanced)

You are overseeing a batch of 120 samples for total aerobic count across multiple product types.

After incubation:

• Negative control plates show low-level but consistent contamination between 2 and 5 CFUs across replicates
• Positive controls are within expected range
• Sample plates show a bimodal distribution, some clean and some unexpectedly elevated

In 250 words or less, outline:

• Your immediate containment actions
• Your hypothesis tree of potential root causes
• How you would differentiate between environmental, procedural, and sample-driven contamination
• What data you would collect before making a final call

Step 2: SOP and Systems Design

Below is a simplified SOP excerpt:

• Weigh 10g of sample
• Add 90mL diluent
• Mix thoroughly
• Perform serial dilutions
• Plate final dilution

Part A: Identify at least five critical flaws or missing elements

Part B: In 5 to 8 bullet points, redesign this into a robust, scalable SOP suitable for high-throughput operations

Step 3: Judgment Under Ambiguity

Answer each in 2 to 4 sentences.

• You observe a consistent upward drift in background contamination over two weeks that remains within acceptable limits. Do you act? Why or why not?
• Two operators follow the same SOP but produce systematically different counts. How do you diagnose the root cause?
• You can reduce turnaround time by 30 percent but introduce slightly higher variance. How do you decide whether to implement the change?

Step 4: Systems Thinking

In 200 words or less:

What are the first five systems you would put in place to ensure reliability, scalability, and audit readiness in a new microbiology lab?

Step 5: Mission and Ownership

In 150 words or less:

Why do you want to be the founding microbiologist at a new lab?

What does ownership mean to you in a role where you are responsible for building systems and ensuring data integrity from the ground up?

Pay: $90,000.00 - $120,000.00 per year

Benefits:

• Dental insurance
• Health insurance
• Paid time off
• Relocation assistance
• Vision insurance

Work Location: In person

Salary : $90,000 - $120,000