Lab Operations Associate

About us

Vow is a food company - a very different one. We’re creating real meat products from animal cells instead of the animal itself.

We’re bringing together cutting-edge innovations in science, engineering, culinary and design to make sustainable food that’s both irresistible and available to billions of people worldwide.

The role:
We’re looking for someone who’s passionate, technically-minded, and data savvy to join our “Foundry Operations” team, a diverse team of scientists, engineers, and operators focused on improving every aspect of our R&D efforts. This interdisciplinary team supports, improves, and maintains the momentum of our incredible R&D spaces, tools, data and experiments.

You’ll manage R&D procurement for Vow, including inventory management, dashboarding, and supplier relationships, but we’ll also look to you to identify and proactively address other R&D challenges in collaboration with others on our Foundry Operations team.

If you’re a generalist with a technical side and are eager for the opportunity to create something that’s going to scale immensely and have a huge impact on the production of sustainable food, then this role is for you.

You have:

- 1-2 years of relevant lab and / or general operations experience.
- Keen interest in (or prior experience with) lab operations and broader R&D teams.
- Confidence in using data to create dashboards, reports, forecasting models, etc.
- Strong communication skills and a willingness to challenge and negotiate.
- Strong collaboration and interpersonal capabilities.
- An innate drive to organise things - you're detail oriented and like everything in its place
- A high ownership mentality. This area of the business will become yours to build.
- A keen interest in sustainability, science and food.
- Bonus**: Experience at another hyper-growth startup

You will:

- Conduct procurement and inventory management duties for our current (and future) R&D lab spaces, including day to day purchasing of R&D materials as well as negotiating long-term agreements with suppliers.
- Develop useful dashboards for a wide range of R&D activities using business intelligence tools to surface insights into lab-wide trends, stock usage, and future price negotiations.
- Manage our R&D warehouse, including coordinating storage and tracking, as well as receiving and triaging deliveries.
- Assist in laboratory operations tasks to support the smooth running of the lab where required.
- Continuously improve our approach to purchasing, inventory management, and other lab operations processes to make our R&D work as efficient and impactful as possible for every Vowzer.
- Engage with the rest of the Foundry Operations team on high priority projects as they arise, ranging from data and forecasting analyses to hands-on projects in the lab.

What success looks like:
In the first month, you’ll ramp up on all things Vow and cultured meat and will start to take ownership of our existing procurement and purchasing processes. You’ll also spend time in our lab and other R&D facilities learning more about how we work and our company wide objectives. By the end of this month, you’ll have a clear game plan in place to scale our procurement, purchasing, and inventory systems at Vow as we prepare for a year of massive growth.

Over the next few months, you’ll lead day to day management of all things procurement and purchasing for Vow’s R&D. You’ll negotiate new deals with our suppliers and will create efficient processes internally to help us better forecast and manage all of the R&D equipment and inventory. You’ll continuously work to automate and improve these processes - success will entail minimising the amount of day to day time you spend on this work so that you can begin to invest your efforts in building out BI and data capabilities for Foundry Operations, as well as helping to scale out other lab operations and R&D processes.

Vow, more than just a job.

Who we are and why join:

- ** We are building a diverse, mission-driven dream team of “Vowzers.”** Our mission is to make food products for everyone. To do that well we need a workforce that’s representative of the people we serve. We celebrate multiple approaches and points of view - so we’re building a culture to match. Be yourself and come as you are.
- ** Work on cutting-edge technology. **We’re bringing together cutting-edge innovations in science, engineering, and food, to recreate the world’s most tantalising and unique culinary experiences. All without compromising on ethics or our planet along the way. Since our inception in 2019, we have held the title of being the first startup to cultivate meat from the cells of an undomesticated animal, and have served up our exotic meats ranging from kangaroo dumplings to alpaca sliders in tastings with world-renowned chefs.
- ** Work with and learn from the best. **Our team includes some of the world’s leading scientists, inn