IT/OT Specialist
About the role
The Mission Drug discovery has a translation problem: more than 95% of drugs that succeed in animal models fail in humans. We're building the alternative: human-first drug discovery, powered by organoids and AI, running on real human biology from the very first experiment. Our platform is 87% concordant with clinical patient data - a vast improvement over the 3% translational success rate of animals. We’ve demonstrated the ability to model immunotoxicology, immunogen stimulation, and two autoimmune diseases with more on the way. Numerous pharma partners including 3 Fortune 500 companies are already using the platform. We've raised ~$30M from AIX Ventures, Marc Benioff, Jeff Dean, and Y Combinator. With the FDA Modernization Act 3.0 and the FDA's March 2026 validation framework, the regulatory tailwinds only continue to get stronger. The opportunity ahead of the company is generational: build the first scaled engine for generating real human biological data, and use it to fundamentally change how medicines are discovered.
Responsibilities
- OT Support the network and connectivity needs of lab instrumentation and automation equipment (integrating devices onto secure, segmented networks)
- Partner with the Platform/Automation team, and with our Cloud Architect, to troubleshoot connectivity and data-flow issues between instruments, automation systems, and the cloud data platform
- Maintain an inventory of connected lab devices, their configurations, and their support/service status
- Help define and implement basic OT security practices (network segmentation, access control for instrument systems) in coordination with IT security
- Support integration of new instrumentation as the platform scales, working alongside automation engineers and platform leadership
- Own and maintain the equipment register: tracking owner, location, readiness, and service/calibration status for connected lab devices, and keep it current as new equipment comes online
- Follow lab safety and access protocols (including badge access and any PPE requirements) when working in or near BSL-2+ lab areas; you won't own EHS, but you'll need to operate safely within it
- IT Support day-to-day IT operations: user accounts, identity and access management, endpoint provisioning, and helpdesk support across our sites
- Support maintenance of core infrastructure: networking, servers, cloud accounts, backups, and security tooling, in close coordination with our Cloud Architect on architecture and cloud-side decisions
- Support implementation and enforcement IT security practices (access controls, patching, monitoring) appropriate for a company handling sensitive biological and customer data, working with Legal/Compliance to meet our infosec and data privacy requirements as they're established
- Support onboarding/offboarding for a growing, multi-site team
- Support evaluation, deployment, and maintenance of software tools used across the company (collaboration tools, LIMS-adjacent systems, etc.)
- Maintain documentation for IT systems, configurations, and processes
- Provide on-call support for critical IT/OT issues, including lab-impacting outages outside normal business hours
Qualifications
- Experience: 3 to 6 years in IT infrastructure, systems administration or a related role, including OT experience with industrial or lab device networking, or hardware integration.
- Technical Fundamentals: Solid grounding in networking, identity and access management, and endpoint management.
- Builder's Instinct: You have worked somewhere the processes were still being built rather than followed, and you are comfortable operating that way.
- Troubleshooting: You are at your best when something breaks, and you are comfortable being the person people come to.
- Clear Communication: You can hold a technical conversation about system design and explain the same issue to a scientist who does not need the detail.
- On-Site Commitment: You are willing and able to work on-site consistently and to be physically present for hands-on troubleshooting.
- Nice to have: Experience in a life sciences, biotech or lab environment, and familiarity with LIMS, instrument data systems or lab networks.