Lab Operations Associate

Job description

Adaptyv is building an automated lab that lets AI agents run biology experiments. We're entering the era of agentic science where AI models can now design novel proteins, propose hypotheses, and iterate on experimental results. But they can't run the experiments themselves - that's still a manual, months-long process. We're building the infrastructure that gives AI agents access to the physical world. We are one of the fastest growing biotech companies, trusted by leading biopharmas, frontier AI labs, and the techbio companies pushing the field forward. This is a rare chance to help advance some of the most important work happening in biotech today. Our automated lab is powered by a deep software + hardware stack: lab instruments worth millions of USD reverse-engineered into API-controllable hardware, dozens of devices orchestrated through complex workflows, full observability on everything that happens in the lab, processing pipelines for messy physical-world data, and AI systems that troubleshoot production results and accelerate assay development. We’re growing rapidly and are hiring for talented people to scale and support the massive demand for AI-driven wet lab experimentation. ABOUT THE ROLE Behind the API and the AI agents there is a real, physical lab in Lausanne: millions of francs of instruments, freezers full of reagents, deliveries arriving every day, and customer samples going out. When it runs smoothly, a customer gets their results in days. When it does not — a reagent runs out mid-run, a delivery sits unopened, an instrument goes down and nobody noticed the service contract lapsed — experiments stop, and customers feel it immediately. You are the person who makes sure that does not happen. What is on the shelves, what is on order, what is shipping, and what is about to break — that is yours, and you will run it. This is a hands-on, in-the-lab role, working closely with our Lab Manager and with the scientists whose experiments depend on you getting it right. This is a good role to be early in your career in. We are going from roughly 25 people to roughly 50 in the next year and multiplying the throughput of the lab, and the person who does this job well will not be doing the same job in two years. We are looking for someone who fixes things rather than reporting them. WHAT YOU'LL DO - Keep the lab stocked. Receive deliveries, unpack them, get them into the right freezer at the right temperature, and make sure our inventory system reflects what is actually on the shelf. Flag what is running low before anyone else notices. - Run the day-to-day ordering. Place the orders, chase the ones that are late, and sort out the ones that arrive wrong. - Handle shipping, in and out. Customer samples, reagents, equipment. Cold chain, dry ice, customs paperwork, and the courier relationships that make it all land on time. - Support the science team hands-on. Reconstituting and aliquoting target proteins, buffer prep, plate handling, and tracking materials in our lab software. You will be at the bench for part of your week. - Look after the instruments. Coordinate servicing, calibration, and repairs with vendors, keep the maintenance schedule honest, and get an engineer on site fast when something breaks. - Keep the lab safe and organized. Chemical inventory, waste disposal, safety compliance, and the general war against entropy in a shared space. - Keep the office and the team running. Supplies, workspace, new-starter setups, and the occasional team event. - Help build the new lab. We are expanding into new space. You will be involved in setting it up. WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR - Some hands-on lab experience. A degree, an apprenticeship, a technician role, or a couple of years in a research or biotech lab. We care much more about whether you are competent and reliable in a lab than about how many years you have logged. - Genuinely organized. You are tracking dozens of small things at once — what is on order, what expires next month, which instrument is due for service — and none of them drop. - You notice things before they break. The best people in this role are the ones who spot that we are three weeks from running out of a reagent, and quietly fix it, rather than the ones who report the stockout. - You are comfortable getting your hands dirty. This is not an administrative job. You will be unpacking boxes, moving dry ice, and reorganizing a freezer that has become someone's junk drawer. - You are tech-savvy, and you want to be more so. Our lab runs on our own software and we use AI tooling across the company, including for operational work. We would love someone who ends up automating the boring parts of their own job rather than doing them forever, and we will teach you how. Curiosity here counts for more than existing skill. - You want to be in a startup. Priorities move, nothing is fully documented yet, and you will regularly be the first person to do something. If you need a defined process to work inside, this will be uncomfortable. - You care about the mission. We are trying to make biology fast and cheap enough that AI can actually do it. - Based in Lausanne, or willing to relocate. This role is on-site, daily, by definition. - French and English both useful — many of our suppliers and couriers operate in French. SCOPE Nobody here has clean edges around their job. You will be in the lab, in the office, on the phone with a courier, and every so often doing something that is nobody's job simply because it needs doing. The centre of gravity is the lab. Office and team logistics come with it, but the lab is the point. You will be around the science constantly without designing the experiments, and you will have real influence over which vendors we use — you are the one who sees what works and what keeps arriving late — without running the negotiations yourself. WHY THIS ROLE IS INTERESTING Most lab operations jobs are in labs where nothing much changes. This one is inside an automated lab that is being rebuilt and scaled up while it runs, at a company used by the best pharma companies and the best AI labs in the world. You will learn how a real high-throughput protein pipeline works from the inside, in a company small enough that you will see the effect of your work the same week you do it. And if you turn out to be excellent, there is a lot of room above you: this team is going to be much bigger in two years than it is today. Application deadline We are reviewing applicants on a rolling basis.