Procurement & Finance Operations Manager

Job description

ABOUT PERIODIC LABS We’re an AI and physical sciences company building state-of-the-art models to accelerate breakthroughs across materials, energy, and beyond. Backed by world-class investors and growing rapidly, we operate at the pace the frontier requires. Our team brings deep expertise, genuine ownership, and an insatiable drive to push the boundaries of what’s scientifically possible. 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. You will own the full lifecycle of lab procurement and financial operations — from vendor management and inventory forecasting to purchase order workflows, budgeting, spend analytics, and experiment cost modeling. A key responsibility of this role will be developing systems and processes that enable the company to understand and optimize the true cost of experimentation across materials, compute, capital equipment, and operational overhead. This is not a traditional procurement role. We are looking for someone who can think deeply about operational systems, financial rigor, automation opportunities, and scalable workflows in a rapidly evolving technical environment. WHAT YOU’LL DO - 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 ESPECIALLY STRONG CANDIDATES MAY ALSO HAVE - Experience in advanced materials, hardware, robotics, biotech, semiconductor, or scientific lab environments - Experience building procurement or inventory systems from scratch - Experience implementing inventory tracking systems (QR/barcode workflows, inventory software, etc.) - Experience with operational finance, manufacturing finance, or COGS analysis - Experience supporting high-throughput R&D or experimental environments - Familiarity with automation workflows, reporting systems, or operational tooling - Basic financial modeling and analytics skills QUALIFICATIONS - 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 MECHANICS Minimum education: Bachelor’s degree or similar 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. We’re building a team of the world’s best — the scientists, engineers, and problem-solvers who don’t just follow the frontier, they define it. If you’re driven to bring AI to life in the physical world and make discoveries that have never been made before, you belong here.