Lab Supervisor, Histotechnology

Company Description

Guardant Health is a leading precision oncology company focused on guarding wellness and giving every person more time free from cancer. Founded in 2012, Guardant® is transforming patient care and accelerating new cancer therapies by providing critical insights into what drives disease through its advanced blood and tissue tests, real-world data and AI analytics. Guardant tests help improve outcomes across all stages of care, including screening to find cancer early, monitoring for recurrence in early-stage cancer, and treatment selection for patients with advanced cancer. For more information, visit guardanthealth.com and follow the company on LinkedIn, X (Twitter) and Facebook. 

The Lab Supervisor, Histotechnology is responsible for the general supervision and daily operations of the Histology Laboratory. The Lab Supervisor, Histotechnology will often be the first point of contact for histology technicians and histotechnologists during laboratory processing and will provide guidance while troubleshooting technical and non-technical problems. The Lab Supervisor must also act as a liaison between the Histotechnologists, Manager of Tissue Production, Quality Manager, and Laboratory Director. The Lab Supervisor will also be involved with scheduling, troubleshooting technical and nontechnical problems, coaching and mentoring the laboratory staff, building effective teams, managing projects and meeting project deliverables, and understanding and implementing laboratory goals. Given the wide variety of tasks involved in this position, the Lab Supervisor must demonstrate the ability to analyze complex issues and make sound decisions in a timely manner, commitment to helping and motivating employees, the ability to respond to difficult issues quickly, fairly, and ethically, outstanding organizational skills, the ability to respond to change with flexibility and to adapt quickly to evolving circumstances, excellent communication skills including utilizing various communication channels, proactively communicating team goals and priorities clearly, openly and objectively, and communicating changes, issues, and challenges in all directions of the organization. The nature of the work requires excellent attention to detail, effective written and verbal communication skills, the ability to multitask and be flexible with tasks and schedules, and the ability to work independently in a team environment.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

● Provide day-to-day supervision of laboratory personnel;

● Be responsible for the daily operations of the laboratory including but not limited to scheduling, independently troubleshooting and resolving technical and non-technical problems;

● Independently identify and troubleshoot problems that adversely affect pre-analytical processes;

● Perform administrative duties including but not limited to writing employee performance evaluations, writing and reviewing SOPs, protocols, QC forms, and equipment maintenance forms as assigned;

●Coach and mentor histotechnologists and/or histotechnicians including, but not limited to, providing guidance and constructive feedback and assisting with the development of the troubleshooting and judgment skills;

● Manage the testing and validation of new laboratory equipment and procedures;

● Participate in introduction of process improvements and validation;

● Participate in the inspection preparation activities as needed;

● Perform laboratory procedure according to the laboratory's standard operating procedures as needed;

● Perform, review and document laboratory quality control procedures, as needed;

● Document all corrective actions taken when there is a deviation from the standard processes as needed;

● Assist with the training of new laboratory personnel and training of new procedures with existing personnel;

● Participate in quality assurance activities;

● Effectively communicate technical information to technical and non-technical audiences;

● Perform competency assessment for laboratory personnel;

● Maintain stringent standards for quality, identifying any issues which might adversely impact the quality of down stream test results and/or employee safety, and communicating these to the appropriate management representatives as necessary for resolution;

● Lead a variety of other essential laboratory activities, including reagent qualification, inventory management, procedure writing, inspection preparation, assay validation and investigation.

● Perform and document reagent qualification per the approved protocols as needed;

● Perform biennial review of Standard Operating Procedures; and

● Report all concerns of test quality and/or safety to the Manager of Tissue Clinical Operations, Laboratory Director, or Safety Officer.

Qualifications:

● Bachelor’s degree or equivalent in Biomedical Laboratory Science, Clinical Science or related field.

● Active ASCP Board of Certification in HTL preferred.

● Active license to operate as a Clinical Laboratory Technologist or Histotechnologist in NYS.

● Active Qualification in Immunohistochemistry through ASCP preferred.

● Must fulfill requirements stated in 42 CFR 493.1461 or 493.1462;

● Must fulfill requirements stated as described in 10 NYYCRR Parts 58-1.4;

● Must fulfill requirements stated in the College of American Pathologists Molecular Pathology Checklist;

● At least four years of licensed experience or equivalent in a Histology laboratory and high throughput laboratory production environment required.

● At least two years of supervisory experience preferred.

● Working knowledge of local, state, and federal laboratory regulations.

● Working knowledge of FDA QSR and ISO 13485 requirements a plus.

● Laboratory experience within the last year preferred.

● Experience in tissue processing techniques including sectioning, slide preparation, H&E staining, macrodissection, IHC processing and troubleshooting.

● Able to integrate and apply feedback in a professional manner.

● Ability to manage daily test processing needs with high emphasis on quality. ● Ability to analyze and problem solve basic issues that impact test performance.

● Ability to work as part of a team.

● Strong computer and automation skills.

● Ability to proactively communicate consistently, clearly, and honestly.

● Outstanding professionalism, leadership, and communications skills.

● Strong communicator with ability to maintain open communication with internal employees, managers and customers as needed.

● Ability to provide direct supervision to laboratory personnel; and

● Strong project management abilities.

AI & Digital Fluency

• Demonstrate curiosity, sound judgment, and the ability to critically evaluate and responsibly leverage AI-enabled tools in accordance with company policies, ethical standards, and regulatory requirements to improve the efficiency, effectiveness, and quality of work.

Hybrid Work Model: This section is applicable to onsite employees who are eligible for hybrid work location as specified by management and related policies.  Guardant has defined days for in-person/onsite collaboration and work-from-home days for individual-focused time. All U.S. employees who live within 50 miles of a Guardant facility will be required to be onsite on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays. We have found aligning our scheduled in-office days allows our teams to do the best work and creates the focused thinking time our innovative work requires. At Guardant, our work model has created flexibility for better work-life balance while keeping teams connected to advance our science for our patients. 

The annualized base salary ranges for the primary location and any additional locations are listed below. This range does not include benefits or, if applicable, bonus, commission, or equity. Each candidate’s compensation offer will be based on multiple factors including, but not limited to, geography, experience, education, job-related skills, job duties, and business need. Primary Location: Long Island City, NY (Laboratory) Primary Location Base Pay Range: $120,000 - $165,000 Other US Location(s) Base Pay Range: $102,000 - $140,250 If the role is performed in Colorado, the pay range for this job is: $108,000 - $148,500