Senior Staff Lab Manager (R5090)

Job Description

We are seeking an experienced Senior Staff Lab Manager to lead the design, development, operation, and long-term strategy of our engineering laboratories. This is a highly technical leadership role responsible for creating world-class lab environments that enable hardware and software engineering teams to rapidly develop, integrate, test, and validate complex systems.

What you'll do

• Lab Strategy & Infrastructure
  • Own the overall vision, architecture, and roadmap for engineering laboratory infrastructure.
  • Design, build, and commission new laboratory spaces to support evolving engineering programs.
  • Define standards for laboratory layout, power distribution, networking, cooling, safety, security, and scalability.
  • Develop long-term modernization plans to ensure laboratory capabilities remain aligned with engineering needs.
  • Evaluate and implement new technologies, tools, and automation to improve laboratory efficiency and reliability.
• Lab Operations
  • Own day-to-day laboratory operations across multiple engineering disciplines.
  • Develop scheduling processes that maximize lab utilization while minimizing conflicts and downtime.
  • Plan and coordinate preventative maintenance, calibration, repairs, and equipment lifecycle management.
  • Manage laboratory uptime, availability, and operational readiness.
  • Establish operational metrics, KPIs, and reporting for lab performance.
• Engineering Systems & Integration
  • Support complex hardware-in-the-loop (HIL), software-in-the-loop (SIL), integration, and validation environments.
  • Develop laboratory standards for networking, compute infrastructure, storage, instrumentation, and data acquisition.
  • Partner with engineering teams to architect robust development and test environments.
  • Ensure laboratories support rapid system integration and reproducible testing.
• Laboratory Management
  • Lead and develop a multidisciplinary team of lab engineers, infrastructure engineers, and technicians.
  • Recruit, mentor, and grow high-performing technical staff.
  • Prioritize work across multiple concurrent engineering programs.
  • Establish standard operating procedures, documentation, and best practices.
  • Foster a culture of safety, ownership, continuous improvement, and technical excellence.
• Collaboration
  • Work closely with Hardware, Electrical, Mechanical, Software, Systems, Manufacturing, and Test Engineering organizations.
  • Partner with IT, Facilities, Security, and EH&S teams to deliver reliable and secure laboratory environments.
  • Manage vendor relationships for laboratory equipment, infrastructure, and service providers.

Required qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Systems Engineering, Computer Science, or a related technical discipline.
• 10+ years of experience supporting complex engineering laboratories or technical infrastructure.
• 5+ years of technical leadership or people management experience.
• Demonstrated experience designing and building engineering labs from concept through deployment.
• Strong understanding of laboratory infrastructure, including:
  • Power distribution
  • Network architecture
  • Server and storage systems
  • Instrumentation
  • Environmental controls
  • Safety systems
• Experience managing equipment lifecycle, maintenance, calibration, upgrades, and modernization.
• Experience supporting multidisciplinary engineering organizations.
• Laboratory infrastructure design and architecture
• System-level engineering and integration
• Networking (Ethernet, VLANs, managed switches, routing)
• Hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) and Software-in-the-loop (SIL) systems
• Asset management and inventory systems

Preferred qualifications

• Experience supporting robotics, aerospace, defense, automotive, or autonomous systems development.
• Experience with secure laboratory environments and classified or regulated development environments.
• Knowledge of systems engineering processes and system architecture.
• Experience implementing laboratory automation and infrastructure-as-code practices.
• Familiarity with cloud-connected engineering workflows and hybrid infrastructure.
• Programming and scripting experience: Python, MATLAB, C/C++, etc.