PROJECT MANAGER-Automated Synthesis Facility

Scripps Research • San Diego, CA

2d • Onsite

About The Position

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.

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.

Nice To Haves

• 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.

Responsibilities

• 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.
• 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.

Benefits

• Employer Contributed Retirement Plan – Depending on eligibility, employees receive an employer contributed retirement plan (no employee contribution required) and the option to contribute to a 403(b) (which is similar to a 401(k) using your own pre or post-tax dollars)
• Full Suite of Health and Welfare plans including three medical plan options (including an HSA available option), dental, vision, life insurance, disability, EAP and more
• Access to Flexible Spending Accounts (Medical/Dependent Care)
• Competitive vacation and sick leave policies
• Free, on-site parking

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level