PROJECT MANAGER-Automated Synthesis Facility

ABOUT US:

Scripps Research is a nonprofit biomedical institute ranked as one of the most influential in the world for its impact on innovation. We celebrated our 100-year legacy in 2024. This significant milestone marks a century of seminal discoveries in immunology, infectious diseases (such as COVID-19, flu, HIV), neuroscience, heart disease, cancer, and more. Located in La Jolla, California, the institute houses six research departments, multiple Nobel laureates, a top-ranked graduate school and a leading postdoctoral training program. Scripps Research encompasses two elite and highly innovative institutes, the Calibr-Skaggs Institute for Innovative Medicines and Scripps Research Translational Institute, which merge foundational studies in biology, chemistry and computer science with translational science to produce pioneering drugs and advances in digital and precision medicine. Together, we cultivate new scientific leaders and expand the frontiers of knowledge to deliver medical breakthroughs impacting human health around the globe. If you have a passion for making a difference, this could be your opportunity to join our transformative team.

POSITION TITLE: Project Manager

POSITION SUMMARY:

The Automated Synthesis Facility (ASF) at Scripps Research hosts the Chemistry Node of the U.S. National Science Foundation Programmable Cloud Laboratory (PCL) Test Bed, a four-year NSF Cooperative Agreement. The Node is turning ASF from a supervised shared-use facility into a remotely accessible, closed-loop, AI-driven chemistry platform: instruments exposed through open standardized interfaces, experiments planned and refined by machine-learning models, and results captured against FAIR-compliant metadata schemas. The work spans three institutions: Scripps Research, UCLA, and Sunthetics, Inc. with several institutional and industrial partners.

We are looking for a full-time Project Manager to serve as the Node’s dedicated project management professional. Working with the Principal Investigator/Node Director, the Project Manager assists in managing the budget, schedule, and scope of the award; drives the Node against NSF’s fixed implementation gates; leads reporting to NSF; and coordinates the Node’s role in Test Bed-wide governance, standards development, and user recruitment. The position is named Node-level Key Personnel under the award’s Cooperative Agreement Programmatic Terms and Conditions and sits on the Node Management Team. The role is a fixture of both operations: approximately 90% of effort supports the NSF award, with the balance supporting day-to-day administration of the Automated Synthesis Facility.

DUTIES & RESPONSIBILITES:

• Assist the Node Director in managing the budget, schedule, and scope of the project, including expenditures against the approved budget, subaward invoicing and deliverables (UCLA; Sunthetics, Inc.), and coordination with the Scripps’ Office of Sponsored Programs and financial teams.
• Maintain the Strategic Implementation Plan and Project Execution Plan (PEP) as living documents and keep the Instrument Inventory Table current in a form satisfying 2 CFR §200.313 equipment use requirements.
• Drive execution against the PCL Implementation Timeline — Alpha (≤12 months), Beta (≤18 months), Robust User Service (≤24 months), and Post-Award Continued Operation (≤48 months) — maintaining the Node risk register and surfacing schedule risk early for re-planning with the Node Director.
• Lead reporting to NSF: quarterly project reports (quarterly in year one, thereafter as requested by the cognizant Program Officer) plus annual and final reports via Research.gov, covering timeline progress, cross-node standards, workshop outcomes and user onboarding, research security and safety, and data and AI operations.
• Provide project management support to the Node Executive Committee and the three Technical Integration Working Groups: set agendas, coordinate the biweekly integration and Science Driver meetings and the monthly all-hands, and track decisions and action items to closure.
• Coordinate instrumentation procurement, installation, and vendor engineering engagements with the Node Director, vendor project teams, ASF staff, and institutional Facilities and Environmental Health & Safety.
• Coordinate cross-node and NSF-facing engagement: Test Bed working groups on protocols, instrument validation, metadata standards, and AI model practices; site and reverse-site reviews; and the annual in-person PCL PI meeting, including logistics for the meeting the Node hosts.
• Facilitate communication across a distributed technical team — ASF staff, academic co-Investigators, industrial AI/ML engineers, and instrument vendors — and between the Node, its users, and the cognizant NSF Program Officer.
• Coordinate Recruitment and On-Boarding Workshops and the user-access pipeline, including solicitation, the feasibility and alignment review with the User Access Committee, and tracking of safety, export-control, and responsible-AI onboarding requirements.
• Track and report Node metrics — operational robustness, scientific impact, and structured user-satisfaction surveys — maintain the response strategy for user requests and run the quarterly continuous-improvement cycle.
• Support compliance and administrative requirements of the Cooperative Agreement, including Key Personnel prior-approval notifications, participant-support cost handling, Build America Buy America and CHIPS and Science Act §10636 provisions, Bayh–Dole and knowledge-sharing agreements, and NSF acknowledgement and brand standards.
• Maintain project documentation and version-controlled records and keep current the Node’s public-facing information on capabilities, onboarding, reproducibility practices, and training materials.
• ASF facility administration (approximately 10% of effort). Support day-to-day operation of the Automated Synthesis Facility alongside the Node: user billing and recharge through Idea Elan Infinity, purchase-order reconciliation and laboratory ordering, travel coordination for the ASF/Node Director, and correspondence with ASF external partners and service clients.

REQUIREMENTS:

• Bachelor’s degree in chemistry, Biology, Engineering, Computer Science, Information Systems, or related field.
• Project Management Professional (PMP) certification, or equivalent qualification, as required by the award’s Cooperative Agreement Programmatic Terms and Conditions.
• Minimum of four years’ experience in project management and/or leadership, coordinating scientists and engineers to develop technical solutions to scientific problems.
• Demonstrated experience managing budget, schedule, and scope on a multi-institutional project, tracking deliverables, progress, and metrics against a defined roadmap and work plan.
• Demonstrated experience working with a diverse set of colleagues, including chemists, engineers, and data scientists with a variety of backgrounds.
• Strategic and analytical thinking.
• Strong oral and written communications skills coupled with effective interpersonal and collaboration skills.

PREFERED SKILLSTET:

• An advanced degree (Master’s or Ph.D.) in a scientific or engineering domain.
• Experience working with federally-funded research, particularly NSF cooperative agreements or center- and facility-scale awards, including Research.gov reporting, subaward administration, and prior-approval processes.
• Familiarity with synthetic or analytical chemistry, high-throughput experimentation, laboratory automation, or shared research-instrumentation facilities.
• Working familiarity with instrument APIs, FAIR data and metadata standards, and AI/ML-assisted experimentation.
• Experience supporting research security, export control, or laboratory safety programs.
• Experience organizing workshops, training programs, or user-facility onboarding.
• Experience mentoring others.
• Proactiveness, to identify potential issues and develop preemptive solutions.
• Experience with core-facility recharge and billing platforms (e.g., Idea Elan Infinity) and with institutional purchasing, purchase-order reconciliation, and travel reimbursement workflows.

LOCATION: La Jolla, California. This position is on-site at the Scripps Research California campus and requires regular in-person presence in the Automated Synthesis Facility. Periodic travel is required for partner-site engagement, NSF-organized meetings and workshops, and the annual in-person PCL PI meeting.

PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS: This position works in an office environment with regular presence in an active laboratory environment. Further details of the physical requirements of established essential functions for this position will be addressed/discussed during the interview process.

COMPENSATION: The expected hiring range for this position is $77,200 to $96,500 per year, commensurate with experience. Consideration will be given to experience that exceeds the listed requirements.

COMPREHENSIVE BENEFITS INCLUDE: