Senior Director, Technical Operations & Automation

<p><strong>Company Overview<br></strong>Our mission at Ansa Biotechnologies is to revolutionize the way we make DNA. Compared to<br>reading or editing life’s code, writing new code from scratch has remained one of the field’s most<br>elusive challenges. At Ansa, we are putting nature to work, creating novel enzymatic solutions<br>that will redefine how we build DNA. We believe that the biggest challenges our world faces will<br>be solved using biotechnology and that DNA synthesis is the fuel for that transformation. Our<br>enzyme-based approach (published in Nature Biotechnology) promises to dramatically accelerate<br>innovation in biological research and biotechnology, including therapeutics, diagnostics,<br>biomanufacturing, and synthetic biology. </p> <p><strong><br>Job Description</strong><br>Ansa is seeking a deeply capable, visionary leader to partner with the COO in scaling our<br>manufacturing organization and technical capabilities. This is a critical role for a company<br>moving from early commercial traction into industrial-scale operations.<br>This leader will be responsible for the architecture and execution of a world-class lab automation<br>ecosystem, process engineering, bridging the gap between R&D and high-volume<br>manufacturing. The ideal candidate combines strong scientific and engineering depth with<br>operational rigor, capable of leading a multidisciplinary team. The role spans sustaining<br>manufacturing operations support, process scale-up, automation, QA/QC partnership, transfer of<br>processes from R&D into manufacturing, and capacity expansion planning, including future<br>facility build-out.</p> <p>This is an on-site leadership role based in Emeryville, CA. Candidates must be in the Bay Area<br>or willing to relocate.<br>If you are energized by delighting customers and are stoked to help us ship DNA to world-<br>changing biotech companies and research labs, then we want to hear from you!<br><br><strong>Key Responsibilities</strong><br>Process Scale-Up & Industrialization:<br> Develop strategies to scale sensitive biological reactions into robust industrial processes.<br> Establish a disciplined framework for tech transfer from R&D into Manufacturing,<br>ensuring processes are controlled, documented, and scalable.<br> Drive initiatives to maximize first pass yields, reduce COGS through automation and<br>improve cycle time.<br>Automation &  Lab Ecosystem Architecture:<br> Architect and execute a multi-year automation strategy for custom enzymatic gene<br>synthesis, prioritizing modularity and extreme scalability.<br> Drive the Automation Index - increasing the percentage of hands-free synthes