Lab & Pilot Ops Manager

About Demolish Foods

Demolish Foods is reinventing meat for a planet-positive future. We are developing plant-based whole-cut meat products designed to deliver a compelling eating experience while reducing the environmental and animal welfare impact of conventional meat. Backed by investors with deep manufacturing expertise, we have commissioned our pilot line in Bangalore and are scaling toward commercial launch.

Know more: https://www.demolishfoods.com/

Role Overview

We are looking for a Lab & Pilot Ops Manager to ensure Demolish Foods lab and pilot operations run with discipline, cleanliness, preparedness, safety, and daily execution reliability.

This is a hands-on, floor-facing role responsible for coordinating people, materials, equipment, samples, documentation, and trial readiness across R&D and pilot activities.

The role will work closely with R&D, Engineering, Production, Quality, Supply Chain, and leadership to ensure trials, samples, and pilot work are executed smoothly and reliably.

Job Location: Bangalore.

Responsibilities

1. Own day-to-day lab and pilot operating discipline, including readiness of equipment, materials, tools, work areas, cleaning systems, samples, and documentation.
2. Coordinate with Product R&D, production associates, technicians, and support staff to ensure daily tasks are completed as planned.
3. Ensure readiness for R&D trials, pilot runs, internal reviews, external testing, and customer-related samples.
4. Manage inventory, material availability, expiry tracking, storage discipline, replenishment needs, and sample storage requirements.
5. Maintain hygiene, sanitation, food safety, cleaning discipline, traceability, sample labelling, and safe working practices.
6. Track equipment readiness, downtime, maintenance needs, and follow-up actions with internal teams or external service providers.
7. Maintain operational documentation, including batch records, trial records, cleaning logs, deviations, equipment issues, sample records, and handoff notes.
8. Prepare daily schedules, work allocations, material staging plans, cleaning plans, and trial-readiness checklists.
9. Identify and resolve operational gaps such as missing materials, unclear instructions, equipment downtime, weak handoffs, incomplete documentation, or readiness issues.
10. Support SOPs, trackers, checklists, and routines that make the lab and pilot environment reliable, clean, organised, and accountable.

Requirement

1. Bachelors degree or diploma in Food Technology, Food Science, Biotechnology, Microbiology, Chemistry, Engineering, Operations, Production Management, or a related field.
2. 5 - 10+ years of experience in lab operations, food production, pilot plant operations, R&D support, quality operations, manufacturing operations, or technical lab management.
3. Hands-on experience with lab discipline, sample preparation, hygiene, materials, equipment readiness, associates, cleaning routines, batch documentation, and daily execution.
4. Experience supporting pilot-scale food processing, small-batch production, R&D trials, batch records, cleaning systems, yield tracking, deviations, or production-style documentation.
5. Strong understanding of food safety basics, hygiene practices, material handling, storage requirements, traceability, sample labelling, and operational documentation.
6. Ability to coordinate with technicians, associates, R&D teams, production teams, quality teams, supply chain, engineering teams, external labs, and service providers.
7. Strong organisational skills, practical problem-solving ability, attention to detail, and willingness to enforce operating discipline consistently.
8. Comfortable working hands-on on the floor in a fast-moving environment while maintaining cleanliness, order, safety, documentation discipline, and reliability.
9. Strong alignment with Demolish Foods mission and willingness to help build a safer, kinder, and more sustainable food system.