About The Role

DTU BRIGHT is a vibrant and highly driven research environment dedicated to developing biotechnological solutions for a more sustainable future. With state-of-the-art infrastructure and a strong culture of collaboration, BRIGHT brings together motivated researchers working across disciplines to push the boundaries of microbial innovation, sustainable materials, and green food systems. The atmosphere is dynamic, ambitious, and supportive, offering an inspiring and engaging workplace where scientific curiosity and real-world impact go hand in hand.

This position is a part of BRIGHT's mission- oriented Microbial Food research programme (“referred to as Mission 2”), which aims to build an AI-powered framework for the rational design of microbial foods that meet four targets: consumer acceptance, health, sustainability and scalability. The first phase focuses on two fungal chassis, Aspergillus and Yarrowia, characterizing more than 500 prototypes through multi-omics, sensory analysis, life-cycle assessment and safety testing. Predictive models for flavor, texture, nutrition and process scale-up are trained iteratively through active learning. The scientific scope spans strain engineering, adaptive laboratory evolution, solid- and liquid-state fermentation, sensory and consumer research, and pre-clinical and clinical evaluation of safety, bioavailability and cardiometabolic health, in collaboration with national and international partners.

The job

This Lab Manager position is central to the daily functioning of a shared laboratory environment supporting three research groups (Microbial Foods, Sustainable Food Innovation, Fermentation Cultures) working on sustainable and healthy food innovation for the green transition. The role ensures that the lab operates at a consistently high level of safety, organization, and efficiency, enabling researchers to focus on high-quality scientific output.

You will be responsible for maintaining structure across shared resources, coordinating lab logistics, and ensuring that laboratory practices remain compliant, well-documented, sustainable and reproducible. A key part of the role includes the management and upkeep of fungal strain collections, ensuring proper storage, tracking, and accessibility for ongoing research activities.

In addition, you will oversee the maintenance and coordination of laboratory equipment, including routine checks, troubleshooting, and communication with technical support when needed. By ensuring that essential infrastructure and biological resources are well maintained, you will play a crucial enabling role in supporting cutting-edge research across multiple interdisciplinary projects.

Our expectations of you

In this role, you will be the key operational anchor for a shared laboratory environment supporting three research groups working on sustainable food innovation. You will ensure that the lab runs smoothly, safely, and in a highly organized and reproducible manner, enabling researchers to focus on science.

Your responsibilities will include

Conducting safety inductions and lab tours for students, new hires, and visiting researchers
Leading onboarding activities, including introduction to Benchling, Fusion, and internal group procedures
Acting as a central contact point for coordination across laboratory floors and research groups
Managing reordering of shared consumables (e.g., filter tips, pipette tips, media components, and other common goods)
Organizing lab duties, cleaning schedules, and shared responsibilities across users
Overseeing maintenance and servicing of equipment, including coordination of repairs and pipette calibration services
Implementing LEAF (Laboratory Efficiency Assessment Framework) activities and maintaining compliance across lab spaces
Maintaining and continuously improving structured fungal and bacterial strain collections and shared biological resources
Maintaining and re-culturing fungal strain collections that cannot be stored long-term frozen
Organizing freezer space, cold rooms, and other storage systems to ensure efficient and traceable use
Coordinating allocation and organization of lab space for staff and students in collaboration with group leaders
Ensuring that documentation in Benchling, protocols, and data management plans are complete, up to date, and aligned with institutional compliance standards
Supporting structured onboarding and offboarding processes, ensuring that all strains, data, and materials are properly documented, stored, and compliant

In addition, the role requires strong personal qualities. You should be highly structured, reliable, and able to follow tasks through to completion in a busy and collaborative environment. A proactive and solution-oriented mindset is essential, as is the ability to work with others in a firm but friendly and respectful manner, ensuring that lab rules, safety procedures, and shared responsibilities are consistently followed. You should be comfortable engaging with diverse researchers and be able to maintain both authority and approachability when coordinating shared lab practices.

This role is essential to maintaining a safe, efficient, and well-structured laboratory environment and is central to enabling high-quality, collaborative research across all participating groups.

As a formal qualification, you must hold a laboratory education.

What we offer in return

We offer a dynamic, versatile, and highly enthusiastic research environment at the forefront of food innovation, microbiology, sustainability science, and human health. You will gain unique insight into cutting-edge research taking place across multiple interdisciplinary groups, all working towards solutions for the green transition.

The role provides a central and highly trusted position within the research infrastructure, giving you significant responsibility and ownership over the daily functioning and long-term organization of shared laboratory facilities. You will work closely with researchers at all levels—from students to senior scientists—and become a key link across multiple projects and disciplines.

You will be part of a welcoming, collaborative, and international working environment with strong scientific ambition and a clear focus on real-world impact. The position offers extensive exposure to advanced laboratory workflows, state-of-the-art infrastructure, and best practices in laboratory management, quality control, and scientific data organization.

Beyond day-to-day operations, this role provides an excellent opportunity to develop professionally in areas such as laboratory coordination, research support strategy, compliance, and scientific infrastructure management, while contributing directly to high-impact research in sustainable food systems.

Salary and appointment terms

Salary and appointment terms are in accordance with the OAO-S Joint Agreement and the organization agreement for Office Clerks, Laboratory Technicians and IT staff (HK/stat). In addition, supplements can be negotiated in accordance with DTU’s salary structure for managers (TAP): https://www.inside.dtu.dk/en/human-resources/during-employment/salary/salary-structures

The position is a full-time position for 4 years.

Starting date is 01-01-2027 or according to mutual agreement.

Application and contact

Please submit your online application no later than Sunday, 27 September 2026. Open the “Apply now” link, fill out the form and attach your motivated application, CV and exam certificates.

Further information please contact group leader and senior researcher Leonie Johanna Jahn at [email hidden]

You can read more about BRIGHT below, and at www.bright.dtu.dk

Applications received after the deadline will not be considered.

All interested candidates irrespective of age, gender, disability, race, religion or ethnic background are encouraged to apply. As DTU works with research in critical technology, which is subject to special rules for security and export control, open-source background checks may be conducted on qualified candidates for the position.

BRIGHT – The Novo Nordisk Foundation Biotechnology Research Institute for the Green Transition

The Novo Nordisk Foundation Biotechnology Research Institute for the Green Transition (BRIGHT) is a major initiative based at DTU that aims to accelerate the development of biosolutions and strengthen the bio-based economy. BRIGHT serves as a hub for academic and industrial partners working together to unlock the potential of bioproduction. BRIGHT focuses on three main areas: Sustainable materials (Developing bio-based alternatives to fossil-derived materials), Microbial foods (Innovating food production through microbial technologies), and Microorganisms for net-zero agriculture (Creating solutions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in agriculture). The goal is to develop and scale innovative biosolutions within these areas, ultimately creating sustainable and competitive alternatives to fossil-based products and processes that can make significant contributions to reducing global greenhouse gas emissions.

BRIGHT Mission 2 aims to build an AI-powered framework for the rational design of microbial foods that meet four targets: consumer acceptance, health, sustainability and scalability. The first phase focuses on two fungal chassis, Aspergillus and Yarrowia, characterizing more than 500 prototypes through multi-omics, sensory analysis, life-cycle assessment and safety testing. Predictive models for flavor, texture, nutrition and process scale-up are trained iteratively through active learning. The scientific scope spans strain engineering, adaptive laboratory evolution, solid- and liquid-state fermentation, sensory and consumer research, and pre-clinical and clinical evaluation of safety, bioavailability and cardiometabolic health, in collaboration with national and international partners.

DTU – For the benefit of society since 1829

DTU is one of Europe's leading elite technical universities. Through research and education at an international top level, we create solutions to the major societal challenges of our time and help secure Europe's global leadership in sustainable technological development. Since Hans Christian Ørsted founded DTU almost 200 years ago, our mission has remained the same: We develop and create value through the natural and technical sciences for the benefit of society. DTU has 13,800 students, 1,600 PhD students, and 6,500 employees. We work in an international environment and have an inclusive, stimulating, and informal work culture. DTU has campuses in all parts of Denmark and in Greenland and collaborates with the best universities around the world.