Procurement & Finance Operations Manager

About the role

We are seeking a highly analytical, systems-oriented Procurement & Finance Operations Manager to own procurement, inventory strategy, operational finance, and purchasing systems across our laboratory and R&D environments.

This role sits at the intersection of scientific operations and finance. You will help build the operational infrastructure required to scale experimentation volume dramatically while maintaining financial discipline, inventory reliability, and operational efficiency.

Responsibilities

• Own purchasing operations across lab consumables, specialty materials, gases, chemicals, equipment, and operational supplies
• Develop inventory forecasting systems and consumption tracking processes to prevent stockouts and support rapidly scaling experimental throughput
• Build systems to analyze and track the true cost of scientific experiments across materials, compute, equipment utilization, and operational overhead
• Own purchase order generation, invoice reconciliation, and three-way matching workflows across procurement and accounting processes
• Track operational and capital expenditures against budgets and support forecasting, reporting, and cost optimization initiatives
• Design and implement scalable procurement, inventory, and operational finance systems as the organization grows
• Improve workflows through automation, tooling, inventory tracking systems, dashboards, and process optimization initiatives
• Partner closely with scientists, engineers, lab operations, finance, and leadership teams to support evolving experimental needs
• Manage supplier and vendor relationships, including pricing negotiations, lead times, and purchasing agreements
• Identify operational bottlenecks and help build the infrastructure and processes required to scale high-throughput R&D environments

Requirements

• 5+ years of experience in procurement, operational finance, lab operations, supply chain, or related operational roles
• Experience supporting technical, scientific, manufacturing, hardware, or R&D environments
• Strong understanding of budgeting, forecasting, spend tracking, and operational analytics
• Experience owning procurement workflows, purchasing operations, and vendor management
• Experience with PO, accounting, and spend management systems (e.g., Ramp, QuickBooks, NetSuite, SAP, Coupa, Quartzy, etc.)
• Strong systems-thinking mindset with demonstrated process improvement experience
• Comfortable operating in ambiguous, fast-changing startup environments
• Highly organized with exceptional attention to detail
• Strong cross-functional communication skills and ability to work closely with technical teams

Qualifications

• Minimum education: Bachelor’s degree or an equivalent combination of education and training or experience
• Location: Our lab is located in Menlo Park, CA
• Term: 12-month fixed-term position with potential to convert to full time
• Compensation: The annual compensation range for this role is $80-$150 an hour
• Visa sponsorship: Yes, we sponsor visas and will do everything we can to assist in this process with our legal support