---
title: 'Lab Manager, Robotics & Scientific Operations at Axiom'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/lab-manager-robotics-scientific-operations-axiom-south-san-francisco-wpczs0bx2vvw'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-11-01'
---

# Lab Manager, Robotics & Scientific Operations at Axiom

- **Company:** Axiom
- **Location:** South San Francisco, CA
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** onsite
- **Posted:** 2026-11-01
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-11-01
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/axiombio/0d8cde22-0146-45ae-a6ff-0354d3bcf476

## Job description

Description: Build and run the laboratory operations that enable the generation of massive, high-quality experimental datasets for AI agents that predict human drug outcomes. Own the systems, equipment, supplies, and processes that keep advanced cell biology and automated workflows running reliably at scale.

About Axiom: Axiom’s mission is to eliminate unexpected drug toxicity and unlock an abundance of ultra safe medicines. We are starting with the liver, where toxicity remains a leading cause of drug failure. Our high-throughput human liver safety platform combines advanced human cell systems with imaging, transcriptomics, mass spectrometry, and drug metabolism measurements. Our AI agents integrate these data with chemical structure, human exposure, and thousands of clinical reference compounds to predict whether a drug will be toxic in humans, why, and how to make it safer.

We work with seven of the world’s top twenty pharmaceutical companies to design safety into molecules from the earliest stages. This applied work feeds directly into our partnerships with leading frontier AI labs, turning real discovery challenges and experimental feedback loops into scientific skill trees and reinforcement learning environments that train increasingly superhuman scientists. We then deploy these frontier models to make cancer therapies safer, unlock treatments for chronic diseases that demand exceptional safety, revive promising drugs abandoned because of toxicity, and much more.

Our ultimate ambition is to build a superhuman AI agent that predicts how a drug will behave across all major human organ systems before the first patient receives it. With insanely accurate safety predictions, we aim to enable rapid, high-throughput testing of novel drugs in humans with zero risk of toxicity. This is the key to unlocking an abundance of ultra safe, effective medicines.

What you will do:

- Build and run Axiom’s laboratory operations, enabling scientists and robotics engineers to generate massive, exceptionally high-quality datasets for AI models that predict human drug outcomes.
- Help bring our new lab online, coordinating equipment installation, utilities, vendor services, commissioning, and operational readiness across cell culture, imaging, automation, and mass spectrometry.
- Own procurement, inventory, and supply planning for cells, compounds, reagents, labware, and consumables, anticipating demand and preventing shortages from interrupting experiments.
- Keep instruments and robotic workcells running reliably through preventive maintenance, calibration, service contracts, spare parts, and rapid coordination of repairs.
- Coordinate experiment schedules, instrument capacity, staffing, and material preparation to support continuous, high-throughput operations alongside new assay development.
- Establish rigorous systems for receiving, storing, tracking, and handling primary human cells, advanced cell systems, and sensitive reagents, with complete traceability across donors, lots, plates, and experiments.
- Own day-to-day laboratory safety and facilities coordination, working with EH&S specialists on permitting, biosafety, chemical handling, waste disposal, and emergency preparedness.
- Partner with software and automation engineers to build inventory systems, barcode tracking, environmental monitoring, dashboards, and agent-assisted workflows that reduce manual coordination and catch problems early.
- Track uptime, throughput, turnaround time, cost, and operational failures; investigate recurring problems and improve the systems that let the lab scale without sacrificing experimental quality.

What we look for:

- Exceptional laboratory operations experience, with a track record of keeping complex labs productive, organized, and reliable as they scale.
- High agency and ownership: you anticipate what scientists need, spot problems early, and drive them to resolution.
- Obsessive attention to detail, with strong judgment about how reagent handling, equipment performance, environmental conditions, and recordkeeping affect experimental quality.
- Experience supporting high-throughput workflows, laboratory automation, or integrated robotic systems, and enthusiasm for making increasingly autonomous labs work in practice.
- Familiarity with cell culture and the operational demands of primary human cells, organoids, or other advanced biological systems.
- Strong planning and quantitative skills: you can forecast demand, coordinate shared resources, manage budgets, and use operational data to improve throughput and uptime.
- A talent for building practical systems, SOPs, and training programs that make complex work reproducible and easy for others to execute.
- Hands-on resourcefulness with instruments and facilities, including troubleshooting problems and coordinating vendors, service engineers, and EH&S specialists.
- Clear communication and the ability to earn trust across scientists, engineers, technicians, and external partners.
- Technical curiosity and excitement about building a lab where robotics, software, and AI agents help scientists run better experiments at extraordinary scale.

Technical skills we value:

- Laboratory operations: Procurement, inventory management, demand forecasting, vendor coordination, budgeting, and laboratory setup.
- Automation and throughput: Liquid handlers, robotic arms, automated incubators, plate logistics, and integrated workcells.
- Cell culture operations: Aseptic technique, primary human cells, multicellular systems, cryogenic storage, and contamination prevention.
- Instrument reliability: Equipment commissioning, preventive maintenance, calibration, troubleshooting, and service management.
- Scientific workflows: High-throughput screening, high-content imaging, cell-based assays, and LC-MS sample preparation.
- Sample and data traceability: LIMS, electronic lab notebooks, barcode systems, compound and reagent tracking, and experimental metadata.
- Quality systems: SOP development, training, assay qualification support, deviation tracking, root-cause analysis, and corrective actions.
- Safety and facilities: Biosafety, chemical hygiene, hazardous waste, cold-chain monitoring, laboratory utilities, and EH&S coordination.
- Operational analytics and automation: Dashboards, advanced spreadsheets, workflow automation, and AI tools; Python or SQL experience is a plus.

## About Axiom

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Axiom builds an AI platform that predicts human drug toxicity from lab data, helping pharmaceutical companies develop safer medicines with less animal testing.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Seed round, April 2025)
- **Headquarters**: San Francisco, California, United States
- **Founded**: 2024
- **Founders**: Brandon White, Alex Beatson

## Core Business
- **Primary industry**: Biotechnology Research / Artificial Intelligence for Drug Discovery
- **Target customers**: B2B – pharmaceutical and biotech companies, drug discovery teams
- **Mission or purpose statement**: "Understand drug toxicity before it reaches humans" – using “frontier intelligence” to end unexpected drug toxicity and reduce clinical trial failures.

## Products & Services
- **Toxicity Prediction Platform**: An agentic AI system that connects experimental data (cell painting, mass spectrometry, metabolism assays) to clinical outcomes. Provides mechanistic, exposure-aware risk assessments early in discovery. (SaaS/API platform)

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not publicly disclosed
- **Key Metric**: Seed round (April 2025) with participation from at least three investors; total funding amount not disclosed.
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Amplify Partners, Abstract VC, Dimension Capital, Zetta Venture Partners, CRV; advisors include Jeffrey Dean (Google DeepMind), Yvonne Will (former Pfizer), Nicholas Meanwell (medicinal chemistry leader).
- **Growth Signals**: Headcount grew 108% YoY (22 employees); LinkedIn followers grew 287% YoY; website traffic up 277% YoY; actively hiring for ML, data, and platform engineering roles.

## Competitive Advantages
- **Human-relevant data core**: Models trained on primary human hepatocytes and clinical outcomes rather than animal models, directly addressing the 90% clinical failure rate.
- **Mechanistic AI**: Provides interpretable, exposure-aware risk profiles instead of black-box hazard flags, enabling chemists to modify compounds.
- **World-class advisory board**: Deep expertise from pharma safety, medicinal chemistry, and ML (e.g., Nicholas Meanwell, Yvonne Will, Jeffrey Dean).

## Strategic Focus
- Replace traditional animal-based toxicity tests with AI-driven, human-relevant predictions.
- Expand from liver toxicity (DILI) to other organ systems and broader safety readouts.
- Scale customer integrations via enterprise SaaS and collaborative research partnerships.

## Why Work Here
- **Culture**: Fast-growing startup (founded 2024) with a tight-knit team of ~22, emphasizing both scientific rigor and engineering excellence.
- **Work environment**: Hybrid/remote-friendly (roles listed as “In-Office or Remote”); offices in San Francisco with remote team members in Canada and Israel.
- **Engineering culture**: Strong ML and platform engineering focus; stack includes Python, PyTorch, React, Typescript, and scientific libraries.
- **Open roles** (as of mid-2026): Platform Engineer, Data Engineer, ML Researcher, Product Engineer, Computational Scientist (Mass Spectrometry) – posted on [jobs.ashbyhq.com](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/axiombio) and [Built In](https://builtin.com/company/axiom-bio/jobs).

## Sources
1. [axi.om/company](https://www.axi.om/company)
2. [linkedin.com/company/axiombio](https://www.linkedin.com/company/axiombio)
3. [axi.om/mission](https://www.axi.om/mission)
4. [builtin.com/company/axiom-bio/jobs](https://builtin.com/company/axiom-bio/jobs)

## Other roles at Axiom

- [Data Operations Manager, Scientific Data](https://feeny.ai/job/data-operations-manager-scientific-data-axiom-south-san-francisco-f2svqkhwfb64) — South San Francisco, CA
- [Scientist, Mass Spectrometry](https://feeny.ai/job/scientist-mass-spectrometry-axiom-south-san-francisco-t7a4yc7j7w8z) — South San Francisco, CA
- [Scientist, Cell Biology](https://feeny.ai/job/scientist-cell-biology-axiom-south-san-francisco-vwtbg7msjthp) — South San Francisco, CA
- [Robotics Engineer, Laboratory Automation](https://feeny.ai/job/robotics-engineer-laboratory-automation-axiom-south-san-francisco-8fqb0vw1j6zf) — South San Francisco, CA
- [Computational Scientist, Biology](https://feeny.ai/job/computational-scientist-biology-axiom-south-san-francisco-7n00xg8hq0wm) — South San Francisco, CA
- [Computational Scientist, Chemistry](https://feeny.ai/job/computational-scientist-chemistry-axiom-south-san-francisco-c27pzs9krq15) — South San Francisco, CA
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- [Drug Discovery Scientist](https://feeny.ai/job/drug-discovery-scientist-axiom-south-san-francisco-djnwasb78tjn) — South San Francisco, CA