Interim Lab & Facilities Manager

Duration: Mid-June – Mid-October 2026 (~16 weeks)

Type: Fixed-Term Contract

Location: Astera Institute, Emeryville, CA (On-Site)

Astera is a private foundation on a mission to steer science and technology toward an abundant future for all. Our flagship Residency is a one-year program that supports extraordinary technologists who are producing public goods.With our Residency program, we aim to create new pathways for brilliant scientists pursuing discoveries that don’t fit neatly into academia or industry.

Astera is uniquely positioned to shape the course of rapid scientific and technological innovation: we are willing to deploy our $2.5B endowment to take on experimental projects that might fail, and we support projects and people that other organizations won't or can't.

Astera operations with a small, agile team: We are staffed much more leanly than other foundations, and aim to keep bureaucracy as minimal as possible. It's more accurate to think of us as a startup than a traditional foundation.

We are seeking a capable and proactive Interim Lab & Facilities Manager to cover a planned staff leave of absence from mid-July through early October 2026 (approximately 16 weeks). The successful candidate will step into an established, well-organized environment and ensure seamless continuity of laboratory operations, facilities management, safety compliance, and team coordination throughout the coverage period. This is an onsite Monday-Friday position based in Emeryville, CA.

We are seeking a mission- and culturally-aligned lab and facilities manager to support the evolving physical needs of our residents across diverse scientific disciplines. Cohorts rotate twice a year, and their needs can range from building a tissue culture space for a fermented foods project, to setting up optical experiments in a warehouse, to enabling a design studio.

The role includes frequent stakeholder management and communications, hands-on day-to-day facility management, equipment procurement, and management of vendors. Reporting to the COO, you’ll take ownership of two experimental spaces and partner closely with residents to help them succeed. This is a hands-on role requiring someone who is comfortable context-switching between lab-level detail and building-wide facilities oversight, and who can build quick rapport with researchers, staff, and external vendors.

This role is ideal for someone with laboratory and/or workshop experience who is eager to broaden their skillset, thrives on solving novel problems, and is energized by enabling ambitious science.

• Oversee day-to-day laboratory operations and ensure labs remain fully functional throughout the coverage period.

• Support new residents and lab members onboarding into lab space including desk/badge readiness, safety training, HR support, and member equipment/lab needs

• Negotiate space requirements between different residency teams within the lab space and understand core needs of each project

• Liaise with department leads to proactively identify and address facility and lab needs before they become issues.

• Manage equipment maintenance schedules, calibrations, and repair coordination with external service providers.

• Maintain inventory of lab consumables, reagents, and supplies

• Manage vendor relationships and service contracts relevant to lab operations.

• Ensure lab spaces are organized, clean, and appropriately equipped for ongoing research activities

• Perform daily lab support: daily washing and autoclaving of glassware

• General office support: work with snack/lunch vendors, order snack and office supplies, etc

• Support space planning, office logistics, and any moves or reconfigurations needed during the period.

• Act as the primary operational point of contact for researchers, administrative staff, and external contractors.

• Ensure ongoing compliance with applicable regulatory requirements, including laboratory safety and environmental health standards.

• Maintain, update, and implement safety protocols, SOPs, and emergency procedures.

• Manage hazardous materials handling, storage, and disposal in accordance with local, state, and federal regulations.

• Serve as the on-site safety resource and point of contact for any safety-related concerns or incidents.

• Excellent communication, organizational, and stakeholder management skills

• A track record of comfort learning about new topics and interest in expanding your facilities management experience to new disciplines

• Relevant work experience in facilities management in a specific discipline, such as life science and/or electrical engineering. We are open to considering candidates who didn't formally hold the facilities management title but did similar work

We expect that competitive candidates may have additional qualifications that make them especially well suited to this role, potentially including:

• Experience ensuring regulatory compliance and safety (e.g. hazardous waste handling, fire and electrical hazards, emergency response planning, etc).

• Knowledge of procurement and maintenance of lab equipment and consumables

• Workshop skills, e.g. 3D printing or assembling an Arduino project

• Hands-on ability and comfort with HVAC, electrical, plumbing, and maintenance

• Experience navigating Bay Area regulations

Example backgrounds that could be strong fit:

• Scientist that has found more energy in supporting the science than executing experiments

• Second-in-command in facilities that is ready to step up into full ownership

• Relationship orientation & communication skills: You assume best intent and develop positive working relationships. You use written and verbal communication as an effective and critical tool.

• Openness to feedback: You value giving and receiving respectful, direct feedback as a cultural multiplier.

• Creative, tenacious problem solving: You see options where others see constraints, and you are energized by delighting and surprising stakeholders with thoughtful solutions.

• Mission driven mindset: You are motivated by enabling science that could reshape the future.

• Prioritization: You are committed to the deadlines you set and adept at re-prioritizing independently in an environment of constant change

• Start-up mentality: You don’t expect to maintain strong boundaries around what “isn’t your job,” and recognize that the role you’re being hired for might evolve significantly over the course of a few months

• High standards & ownership: Your standards for excellence are exceedingly high and internally dictated. You find yourself asking, “can we do this 10x better than anyone else?” You take full responsibility of the spaces you own and for supporting the scientists that you support

• Experimentation & bias to action. You have the courage to launch and iterate on thoughtfully designed experiments rather than obsessing over perfect plans that never launch