Lab Project Manager Jobs in Waltham, MA (NOW HIRING)

The Project Manager is responsible for managing grant compliance and reporting requirements for major federal funding agencies like the NIH, NSF, and DARPA. The role involves defining project scopes, timelines, budgets, and deliverables for internal lab initiatives and partner collaborations, while actively managing and promoting the DAMP Lab 'Membership' program to recruit and retain commercial partners. Additionally, the manager promotes the lab at industry conferences and events, collaborates with technical staff to engage partners, and assists leadership with sponsored research proposals and grant applications. The position also requires coordinating stakeholder meetings, working with legal and tech transfer teams to manage agreements like NDAs, MTAs, and Data Use Agreements, and tracking key lab performance metrics such as active memberships, project completion rates, and publication or patent outputs.

Essential Functions:

• Grant Management & Regulatory Compliance: Serves as the primary administrative point of contact for the DAMP Lab's federal grant portfolio, managing all technical and financial reporting obligations to sponsoring agencies including the NIH, NSF, and DARPA. Independently tracks award terms, deliverable schedules, and reporting deadlines across multiple concurrent awards, and prepares progress reports, no-cost extension requests, and other sponsor deliverables in coordination with lab leadership and BU's Sponsored Programs office. Partners with leadership on the development of sponsored research proposals and grant applications, coordinating budget preparation, subaward documentation, and other required components to ensure on-time, compliant submission. Monitors changes to federal funding regulations, agency guidelines, and institutional policy, and proactively adjusts lab documentation and reporting practices to maintain compliance and protect the lab's funding eligibility.
• Partner Engagement & Membership Program Management: Owns the day-to-day operation and growth of the DAMP Lab “Membership” program, the lab's principal mechanism for engaging commercial partners and generating recurring non-federal revenue. Develops and executes recruitment strategies to identify and cultivate prospective industrial members, leads introductory meetings and capability presentations, and manages onboarding from initial inquiry through executed agreement. Serves as the ongoing relationship manager for the active member portfolio, conducting regular check-ins, resolving service issues, tracking satisfaction, and coordinating renewals in order to maximize retention. Works closely with technical staff and scientific leadership to translate partner requirements into feasible laboratory workflows and to ensure that member-facing commitments align with the lab's technical capacity and scheduling constraints.
• Project Scope, Schedule, & Budget Oversight: Defines and documents project scopes, timelines, budgets, resource requirements, and deliverables for internal lab initiatives and externally sponsored partner collaborations. Builds and maintains project plans in the lab's project management systems, sequencing tasks across technical staff and automation equipment and monitoring progress against milestones to keep multiple concurrent projects on schedule. Tracks project-level spending against approved budgets, identifies variances and cost drivers early, and recommends corrective action or reallocation of resources to leadership. Exercises independent judgment in identifying risks, dependencies, and bottlenecks, and escalates issues with proposed mitigation plans when changes to scope, cost, or schedule are required.
• Event Planning & Outreach: Plans, coordinates, and executes DAMP Lab events, including workshops, training sessions, laboratory tours, stakeholder meetings, and recurring internal meetings. Represents the lab at community events, academic symposia, and industry conferences by staffing exhibits, delivering overview presentations, and cultivating new contacts and partnership leads. Manages event logistics from end to end, including venue and vendor coordination, scheduling, registration, budget management, and preparation of agendas and follow-up materials. Develops outreach and promotional content such as presentation materials, one-pagers, and web or social media updates to raise the lab's visibility within the broader academic and industrial biotechnology ecosystem.
• Legal & Contracting Support: Serves as the lab's liaison to institutional legal, technology transfer, and industry engagement offices for all partner-facing agreements. Initiates, routes, and tracks Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs), Material Transfer Agreements (MTAs), Data Use Agreements, and service-level agreements through institutional review and execution, following up with internal and external parties to keep the pipeline moving. Maintains a centralized, auditable repository of executed agreements and monitors key terms, expiration dates, and renewal obligations, alerting leadership in advance of upcoming deadlines. Reviews incoming partner requests against existing agreement terms and institutional policy, and flags intellectual property, confidentiality, or data-handling concerns to the appropriate institutional office for resolution.
• Performance Metrics & Data Reporting: Designs, collects, and maintains the operational metrics used to assess DAMP Lab performance, including active memberships, project completion and turnaround rates, equipment utilization, and publication and patent outputs. Establishes consistent data-collection practices with technical staff and maintains the underlying trackers and dashboards so that reporting is accurate, current, and reproducible. Synthesizes metrics into recurring internal reports, leadership briefings, sponsor updates, and outreach materials, presenting data in clear visual formats for both technical and executive audiences. Analyzes trends over time to surface operational insights, such as capacity constraints or membership growth patterns, that inform leadership decisions on staffing, pricing, and strategic direction.

We are an equal opportunity employer, and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, natural or protective hairstyle, religion, sex, age, national origin, physical or mental disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information, military service, pregnancy or pregnancy-related condition, or because of marital, parental, or veteran status. We are a VEVRAA Federal Contractor.