Manager, Special Projects

About the role

Seeking a ruthlessly efficient, 0-1, adaptable Special Projects Manager to join LatchBio!

LatchBio

The convergence of laboratory automation, high-throughput assays, and machine learning is moving the medium of biological discovery to silicon. At LatchBio, we are building AI and data infrastructure to accelerate biopharma R&D.

Present snapshot

• We are 80 engineers and operators in San Francisco solving the data bottleneck in biology.
• Data in biotech has increased 10,000x over the past 10 years.
• AI in biopharma will 20x in 7 years. $200m to $4b, 54% CAGR.
• We build ubiquitous software, storage, pipelines, & machine learning for all of biology.
• 50+ new biotech companies onboarded in the past 12 months. $28M Series A from Lux Capital, Coatue, and General Catalyst.

Operations Manager

We are building a company at the intersection of biology and computation. The surface area of problems is expanding fast: finance, compliance, legal, hiring, vendors, product development, AI partnerships, infrastructure cost, real estate, internal systems.

Your job is to be a force multiplier with the COO and Chief of Staff. You will operate as their true body double: sit in the ambiguity, size up messy problems, impose structure, and move them to resolution without waiting for permission.

You are not here to do discrete tasks. You are here to absorb, think, decide, and solve to conclusion with autonomy.

Who you are

• Quick study. You can quickly learn how to redline a customer contract, model complex finances, optimize an infrastructure bill, or figure out a plan to hire 60 engineers in 90 days.
• Think in terms of bottlenecks. Bug. Solution. Deadline. Nothing gets prioritized unless it’s an active or impending company bottleneck.
• Executive mindset. You can crush tiny details, but you never lose sight of how interconnected each detail is to the unified strategy of every team in the company.
• High-agency and independent, with integrity. You don’t wait for direction. You propose. You execute. You update. You close loops. You know when to outsource thinking and when we can handle stuff on our own.
• You know your audience. Technically literate and able to communicate ideas, plans, and details with engineers, salespeople, scientists, ops people, designers, product people, etc.
• Magician? The best operators can create something spectacular out of some messy context. You should love that and be able to pull off the trick.

What you should excel at

• 0>1 Operational Architecture. You can build the first version of anything, especially things you don’t really know much about. Something exists but is fragile? You optimize it properly.
• Financial Ownership. You track burn, forecast runway, pressure-test EBIT margins, analyze, and create real-time clarity on tradeoffs and bottlenecks.
• Risk and Compliance Navigation. You can read contracts (MPAs, DPAs, SOWs, partnerships), assess risk, redline, and maintain structured oversight of obligations. You evolve policies, controls, and documentation as we grow without slowing velocity.
• Scaling Without Bureaucracy. You understand how a 30-person company must operate differently than a 200-person company and you can design systems that add clarity and accountability without killing speed.
• Cross-Functional Leverage. You move fluidly across HR, hiring, finance, compliance, legal, product, and engineering. You connect dots others miss and prevent silos from forming.
• Adaptive Execution. When priorities shift (and they will), you recalibrate quickly.

What we look for

• Experience operating in a human data, AI, or SaaS startup
• Technical, finance, or intense operational background
• Extremely concise communication
• Bias toward action and iteration over perfection
• Genuinely enjoying this kind of work and bringing your personality to the team

What it’s like to work at Latch

Benefits

• Salary: $160K - $200K
• Unlimited PTO policy
• $10,000 signing bonus
• $3,000 bonus for each new hire you originally sourced
• Every lunch and dinner is paid for ($18K annual value)
• 100% premium covered on Blue Shield’s platinum health plan ($0 premium, $0 deductible) and 50% premium coverage for dependents. 100% coverage for top-tier Guardian dental and vision plans. ($15K value)
• Ambitious equity incentives
• 401(k) plan options
• Company-sponsored professional development
• Work visa sponsorship ($15K value)
• Team-wide science reading groups

Who You’ll Work With the Most

This role is fully in-office Monday through Friday. You’ll work closest with:

• The Founders: Alfredo Kyle Kenny
• Ops Team: Jordan Daniel Saul and Rushil

You can learn more about us at any of these places!

• About Us
• Website
• Twitter Page
• Blog

Our hiring process consists of a few quick-moving steps, which should take no more than three weeks:

Hiring Process

• Round 0: Apply at the email above
• Round 1: Saul Talent Engineer
• Round 2: Daniel Chief of Staff
• Round 3: Jordan COO
• Round 4: onsite paid work trial ($1500) for three days to meet the rest of the team