Lead Clinical Laboratory Scientist - NGS

The Clinical Laboratory Scientist Lead is responsible for assisting the Laboratory Supervisor with the general supervision of Clinical Laboratory personnel and the daily operations of the Laboratory. The CLS lead is also responsible for performing high complexity laboratory testing (Next generation DNA sequencing) on patient specimens, performing quality control and quality assurance guidelines and complying with all applicable local, state and federal laboratory requirements.

The CLS Lead will often be the first point of contact for CLSs and Laboratory Associates during laboratory processing and will provide guidance while troubleshooting high complexity technical and non-technical problems. The CLS Lead must act as a liaison between the CLSs and Laboratory Associates and the Supervisors.  The CLS Lead will be involved with training, scheduling, troubleshooting, leading projects, meeting project deliverables, and understanding and implementing laboratory goals. The CLS Lead must exhibit leadership skills such as good judgment, decision-making, ability to remain professional and composed under pressure, effective interpersonal skills, the ability to analyze complex issues and make sound decisions, the ability to respond to difficult issues quickly, fairly and ethically, and the ability to adapt quickly to evolving circumstances.

The work requires keeping meticulous and organized records, excellent attention to details, effective written and verbal communications skills, the ability to multi-task and be flexible with tasks and schedules, and the ability to work independently in a team environment. The CLS Lead must also demonstrate excellent communication skills, proactively communicating team goals and priorities clearly, openly and objectively, and communicating changes, issues and challenges in all directions of the organization.

How you’ll contribute:

• Be responsible for the daily operations of the laboratory including but not limited to scheduling, independently troubleshooting and resolving technical and non-technical problems that may adversely affect the test performance
• Operate, maintain, document, and troubleshoot laboratory tests, samples, and equipment according to the laboratory’s standard operating procedures for the following but not limited to: centrifuges, freezers, refrigerators, pipettors, Thermomixers, Fragment Analyzer, Microplate Reader, NovaSeq, Hamiltons, and Workcells
• Lead and participate in introduction of assay improvements, new assay configurations and validation.
• Perform, review and document laboratory quality control procedures.
•  Assist with training of new laboratory personnel and training of new procedures with existing personnel.
• Participate in internal and external inspection preparation activities
• Prepare reagents required for testing and perform and document reagent qualification per the approved protocols
• Provide assistance to the Laboratory Supervisors including but not limited to:
• Delegate tasks and assignments to Clinical Laboratory Scientist and Laboratory Associates
• Managing staff schedules based on the number of staff and workload in the absence of a supervisor
• Supervise unlicensed and licensed personnel.
• Take charge of shift communication
• Provide updates to supervisors regarding any issues
• Monitor and oversee training schedule for new employees
• Perform annual review of Standard Operating Procedures and Work instructions.
• Review, interpret and report patient results, as needed
• Document all corrective actions taken when test systems deviate from the laboratory established performance specifications.
• Report all concerns of test quality and/or safety to the Laboratory Supervisor or Safety Officer.
• Ensure consistent compliance with all federal, state and local regulatory requirements and with all company policies and procedures.

What you’ll bring: 

• Must possess a valid California Clinical Laboratory Scientist license (Generalist preferred, CGMBS accepted)
• Bachelor of Arts or Science in Biomedical Laboratory Science, Clinical Science or related field
• Working knowledge of local, state, and federal laboratory regulations
• At least 4 years of Clinical Laboratory experience or equivalent
• Ability to integrate and apply feedback in a professional manner
• Experience managing clinical laboratory personnel preferred
• Laboratory testing experience within the last five years preferred
• High volume laboratory experience preferred
• Experience in molecular biology techniques preferred
• Strong automation and computing skills
• Ability to analyze and problem solve complex issues that may impact test performance

Freenome has adopted a COVID-19 vaccination policy to safeguard the health and well-being of our employees. As a condition of employment, our employees working on-site are required to be fully vaccinated for COVID-19, unless a reasonable accommodation is approved or as otherwise required by law.

About Freenome

Freenome is on a mission to empower everyone with the tools they need to detect, treat, and ultimately prevent cancer.

We have pioneered the most comprehensive multiomics platform for early cancer detection through a routine blood draw.  By combining deep expertise in molecular biology with advanced computational biology and machine learning techniques to recognize disease-associated patterns among billions of circulating, cell-free biomarkers, we are developing simple and accurate blood tests for early cancer detection and integrating the actionable insights into health systems to operationalize a machine learning feedback loop between care and science. 

Our recent $270 Million Series C brings our financing to over $500 million from investors, including;  Bain Capital, Perceptive Advisors, RA Capital, Polaris Partners, Andreessen Horowitz, funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc., GV (formerly Google Ventures), Roche Venture Fund, Kaiser Permanente Ventures, American Cancer Society’s BrightEdge Ventures, Data Collective Venture Capital, Novartis and Verily Life Sciences. 

Our Science

Freenome is building technology to advance the understanding of cancer through multiple analytes derived from blood. These signals include cell-free DNA, methylation of cell-free DNA, cell-free RNA, circulating proteins, and immune profiling derived from thousands of prospective samples. By developing novel statistical learning methods and applying them to integrate various -omics datasets, Freenome is a leader in modeling specific biological mechanisms to capture disease-dependent signatures, including gene expression, immune response, tumor burden, the tissue of origin, and 3D chromatin structure. 

By building comprehensive discovery datasets and modeling critical biological systems, Freenome is learning what biological changes are present within the blood between a variety of different disease states, including cancer, autoimmune disorders, infections, drug response, and aging. The synthesis of Freenome’s datasets, cross-functional technical expertise, and audacious mission to discover biological truth, we seek to improve the lives of millions through early detection and early treatment of disease.  

Our Culture

Freenomers are technical, creative, visionary, grounded, empathetic, and passionate. We build teams around divergent expertise, allowing us to solve problems and ascertain opportunities in unique ways. Freenomers are some of the most talented experts in their fields, joining together to advance healthcare, one breakthrough at a time. 

We value empathy, integrity, and trust in one another, and we respect the diverse perspectives of our colleagues and those we serve.  We assume positive intent and give each other the benefit of the doubt with the firm belief that we are a team working toward the same objectives.  We believe in empowering and supporting each other in a collaborative and dynamic environment. 

What does a successful person look like at Freenome?

Those who thrive at Freenome prioritize, manage, and execute their own goals with ownership and alignment with those of the company. They embrace our values of empathy, integrity, striving for greatness, servant leadership, trust, and holding themselves and their team accountable to these values. They crave collaboration with brilliant minds from disparate fields of study and believe that hiring and mentorship are fundamental to our success. Above all, they welcome and provide constructive feedback and criticism, trusting in others’ good intentions, and being secure in knowing that embracing mistakes is the best way to learn and grow. For those who pursue challenges, understudied problems, and want the opportunity to see their work impact the lives of millions of people affected by cancer every year, there’s no better place to be than Freenome.

Freenome is proud to be an equal opportunity employer and we value diversity. Freenome does not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, non-disqualifying physical or mental disability, national origin, veteran status, or any other basis covered by appropriate law.