Procurement & Finance Operations Manager

Location: Menlo Park, CA (Onsite) Education: Bachelor's Degree or equivalent experience Relocation Assistance: Available for qualified candidates. About The Role We are seeking a highly analytical and systems-oriented Procurement & Finance Operations Manager to build and scale the procurement, inventory, and operational finance infrastructure that supports a rapidly growing R&D organization. This role sits at the intersection of scientific operations, supply chain, and finance. You will partner with world-class scientists and technical leaders to ensure critical materials, equipment, and operational resources are available to support aggressive experimentation goals while maintaining financial discipline and operational efficiency. The ideal candidate is a high-performing operator who enjoys building processes from the ground up, thrives in fast-paced environments, and is equally comfortable discussing sourcing strategies, inventory planning, budgeting, and operational forecasting. This is a hands-on role requiring a "roll up your sleeves" mentality and a willingness to develop scalable systems as the organization grows. You will own the full lifecycle of procurement and operational finance activities, including purchasing, supplier management, inventory strategy, budgeting, forecasting, spend analytics, and cost modeling. You will also help create the infrastructure necessary to understand and optimize the true cost of experimentation across materials, equipment, compute resources, and operational overhead. Key Responsibilities Lead procurement operations across laboratory consumables, specialty materials, chemicals, gases, capital equipment, software, and operational supplies. Develop strategic sourcing initiatives and creative supplier solutions to support evolving scientific and technical requirements. Build inventory forecasting and material planning processes that support rapidly increasing experimental throughput while minimizing stockouts and excess inventory. Manage supplier and vendor relationships, including pricing negotiations, contract discussions, lead-time management, and purchasing agreements. Own purchasing workflows including purchase orders, invoice reconciliation, approvals, and procurement controls. Partner with finance teams to develop budgets, forecasts, and long-range operational planning for laboratory and R&D activities. Track operational and capital expenditures against budget and provide ongoing spend analysis and reporting. Develop systems to understand and monitor the true cost of experimentation, including materials, equipment utilization, compute costs, and operational overhead. Design and implement scalable procurement, inventory management, and operational finance processes to support company growth. Identify automation opportunities and improve workflows through dashboards, reporting tools, inventory tracking systems, and process optimization initiatives. Collaborate closely with scientists, engineers, laboratory operations, and leadership teams to ensure operational needs are met efficiently and effectively. Identify operational bottlenecks and implement solutions that enhance reliability, scalability, and organizational efficiency. Support future organizational growth, including the potential management and development of procurement and operations personnel. Required Qualifications 5+ years of experience in procurement, supply chain, operational finance, laboratory operations, or related operational roles. Experience supporting scientific, technical, engineering, manufacturing, or R&D-focused organizations. Strong understanding of budgeting, forecasting, financial planning, spend management, and operational analytics. Experience managing procurement activities, vendor relationships, purchasing operations, and sourcing strategies. Experience working with purchase order, accounting, ERP, or spend management systems. Demonstrated ability to build or improve operational processes and systems.…

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