Logistics Manager

• Starting compensation: $116,000 to $144,000
• Work location: On-site in Cambridge, MA

Secure Bio Detection is a nonprofit working to protect the world from catastrophic pandemics. As advances in biotechnology lower the barriers to engineering dangerous pathogens, our mission is to make sure humanity’s detection and response systems are ready in time. Our Detection team runs one of the world’s largest metagenomic biosurveillance networks, sequencing wastewater and nasal swab samples daily to catch emerging pathogens before they reach outbreak scale.

The whole system depends on samples arriving. Every detection signal our computational team eventually produces starts with a physical sample, collected at a partner site somewhere in the world, packed correctly, shipped in time, and handed off cleanly to our lab. Right now, that flow is being held together by a handful of people across the Partnerships function and the Lab, alongside their other work.

As sampling volume grows, this needs a dedicated owner.

We’re hiring a Logistics Manager to own the movement of samples end to end: every one that comes in, where it came from, and getting it accurately into the hands of the people who process and analyse it. You’ll report to the Head of Partnerships and work in close collaboration with Lab Operations, sitting at an interesting intersection between the external facing partnership world and the internal facing precision of the lab.

The role is heavier on the internal side in its first few months. That means building the systems and processes for tracking samples reliably as volume increases, taking traffic from what today lives across email threads and spreadsheets into something coherent and scalable. You’ll also own the day-to-day relationships that keep the flow moving: sampling partners at the source, courier and shipping providers in the middle, and the lab at the receiving end.

Over time, there’s room for the external side of the role to grow, including helping identify and open up new sample streams. That’s a secondary priority to begin with, but a natural evolution as the systems you build settle into place.

This role is being created because Secure Bio’s sampling volume is about to grow substantially. Turnaround time targets are getting more ambitious. And the current setup (thoughtful people managing this alongside other responsibilities) doesn’t scale to what’s coming. The person who takes this role will build the operational foundation for a step change in sampling volume, and shape how logistics works at Secure Bio for years to come!

• You’ll coordinate day to day with vendors, sampling partners, and shipping and courier providers to keep samples moving reliably, managing shipping and cold-chain logistics, inbound scheduling, related supplies, and compliance with shipping regulations.
• You’ll serve as the operational point of contact for sampling partners, including onboarding new sites, communicating collection and shipping requirements, and keeping those relationships running smoothly. Some of these are long standing goodwill relationships (like our local wastewater treatment plant) that need care and attention to maintain.
• You’ll track deliveries against expected schedules, own the upstream sample metadata (time, date, location, sample type, and other relevant values), and identify and resolve issues such as delays, damaged or lost shipments, holding vendors and couriers accountable when things aren’t moving as they should.
• You’ll own logistics KPI tracking and reporting.
• You’ll coordinate closely with the Lab Manager and the data management team on sample handoffs, chain of custody, and associated metadata, keeping physical samples and their records in sync.
• You’ll maintain meticulous, accurate records and build the tracking systems, dashboards, and SOPs that give the team clear visibility into sample status and that scale as our sampling volume grows.
• You’ll establish and manage a kitting system, ensuring our partners receive a sampling kit.
• You’ll support the identification of new sample streams…