LIMS Platform Lead

• Starting compensation: $144,000 to $178,000, depending on experience; we may make exceptions for outstanding candidates
• Work location: On-site in Cambridge, MA

• Division: Detection
• Team: Laboratory Science
• Start date: as soon as possible
• Status: Full-Time Secure Bio employee
• Starting compensation: $144,000 to $178,000, depending on experience; we may make exceptions for outstanding candidates
• Work location: On-site in Cambridge, MA

Role Overview

Secure Bio is a nonprofit working to protect the world from catastrophic pandemics. As advances in biotechnology lower the barriers to engineering pathogens, our mission is to ensure humanity’s detection and alert systems are ready. As part of this mission, our Detection team is building a pathogen-agnostic pandemic early warning system: we operate the world’s largest metagenomic biosurveillance network, which performs daily sequencing of wastewater samples and nasal swabs to screen for emerging pathogens.

Our laboratory processes hundreds of wastewater and nasal swab samples from intake to sequencing data handoff, so that our computational team can use detection pipelines responsible for rapid processing in order to flag potential threats.

In pandemic early detection, speed is critical: novel pathogens spread exponentially, so every day of delay means many more people are infected by the time of detection. To meet this challenge, Secure Bio Detection plans to significantly scale our operation and reduce turnaround, also integrating laboratory automation.

As our early warning system scales, we’re looking for a LIMS Platform Lead to own the design, architecture, and operation of the systems that track every sample and harmonize lab data across our pipeline, from intake through sequencing and handoff to the computational team. The focus is robust sample tracking, traceability, and turnaround-time visibility across a continuous stream of diverse samples from 50+ sources, each processed under a range of experimental conditions.

Benchling is our current platform, and this role owns the decision of whether to keep building on it or move to an alternative R&D/LIMS platform that better serves our needs.

The LIMS Platform Lead is expected to work both independently and collaboratively, serving as Secure Bio’s deepest expert on lab informatics while partnering closely with laboratory scientists and technicians, the Automation Lead, the computational biology team, and leadership. The role pairs system architecture with strong product management, UX sensibility, and clear communication, ensuring the platform is intuitive for the people who depend on it, traceable end to end, and continuously improving as the lab scales.

Responsibilities

• Manage and harmonize lab data across sample processing, molecular, and NGS workflows, with robust sample tracking and traceability as the central focus, including metadata, QC results, and timestamps at every stage transition.
• Own the Benchling platform.
• Design data models and schemas, including nested schemas that allow a single sample to be processed multiple ways, in close collaboration with the computational biology team.
• Configure inventory, storage, and barcode/labeling systems, partnering closely with the Lab Operations Manager and the Automation Lead to integrate barcode scanners and laboratory automation equipment so samples and plates are tracked accurately as they move between instruments.
• Build and maintain integrations across the platform, lab instruments, and AWS; own the standard integrations and partner with the computational team on more advanced engineering and a clean handoff to their analysis pipelines.
• Champion the end-user experience, keeping the platform genuinely easy for lab scientists and technicians to use day to day.
• Give on-demand visibility into sample status, turnaround time (TAT), and per-step pipeline efficiency through reporting and dashboards.
• Manage requirements and roadmap, prioritize across many competing requests, and flag risks or resource needs early and clearly.
• Manage third-party contractors, consultants, and software vendors for LIMS and sample management, ensuring their work fits the broader architecture.
• Serve as the front-line expert and escalation point for users who get stuck, continuously improving the system and enforcing conventions for data entry, naming, and permissions that keep data integrity high.
• Work in an AI-forward way, incorporating AI tools into day-to-day configuration, integration,…