Lab Manager

Location: San Francisco (In-person)

Who We Are

Omen is miniaturizing lab-grade spectroscopy into field-deployable embedded

sensors. Our systems deliver PPM-level trace analysis reports on the fluids in

industrial machines and datacenters, allowing us to detect complex wear trends

like hydraulic cylinder failures or coolant contamination in real-time. With this

data we can automatically match anomalies with failure modes weeks to months

before catastrophic failure occurs.

Our team is a tightly knit group of ~20 builders, dropouts, and industry veterans.

We don’t build things that are good enough, we build things that are 100x better.

The Challenge

We are currently developing two primary systems:

 Omen Scout: for closed-loop hydraulic and lubricating oils.

 Omen Sentry: for direct-to-chip liquid cooling loops (typ. water/glycol

mixtures).

To validate our portable hardware and train our predictive machine learning

models, we need a high volume of ground-truth data. We are in the process of

building our lab; we need a tech-forward expert to own it and bring professional

analytical chemistry standards into our fast moving startup environment.

What You Will Do

 Establish Lab Standards: Bring the rigor of a professional analytical

chemistry lab to our R&D facility. Our machine learning and hardware

teams rely entirely on your results as their ground truth. You must

implement rigorous QA/QC practices, including running blanks, calibration

curves, spike recoveries, and monitoring for instrument drift.

 Integrate: Develop robust sample preparation methodologies for

challenging fluids (industrial oils and liquid cooling mixtures). You will

handle the day-to-day processing and testing of these samples while we

build out the automated pipeline.

 Automate: Collaborate closely with the R&D team to transition manual

sample prep and testing into a software-defined automated pipeline. You

will help define the analytical workflows and test plans that our SCARA

robots will execute.

 Supply Chain & Inventory: Manage procurement for all lab consumables,

reagents, specialty gases, and calibration standards. Assist in

management/procurement for adjacent equipment like resin 3d printers.

 Safety & Compliance: Establish and enforce safety protocols. You will

independently set up our hazardous waste management streams (acid

waste, solvent waste, oil disposal) and ensure compliance with local

environmental regulations.

What We Are Looking For

 A professional background in chemistry or analytical chem is strongly

preferred, with bio experience as a plus. We are open to candidates from a

primarily biology-oriented background provided you have some

experience with organic and/or physical chemistry.

Why Omen?

We take the physics seriously, but we don’t let red tape slow us down. If you want

to own a fascinating chemistry problem from the ground up and build something

that protects the most expensive infrastructure on the planet, we want to talk to

you.