Project Manager - Automation & R&D Delivery

Relation is a sector defining TechBio company developing transformational medicines, with technology at our core. Our ambition is to understand human biology in unprecedented ways, discovering therapies to treat some of life’s most devastating diseases. We leverage single-cell multi-omics from patient tissue, functional assays, and machine learning to drive disease understanding, from cause to cure. We are scaling rapidly and building a team of exceptional individuals to push the boundaries of drug discovery.

You will work in highly interdisciplinary teams where biology, computation, and engineering come together to solve complex problems that have not been solved before. Our state-of-the-art wet and dry labs in the heart of London are designed to accelerate this integration and translate insight into impact. We are committed to building diverse and inclusive teams.

The opportunity Relation is offering an outstanding opportunity for a Project Manager to play a key role in Morgan, our recently announced research collaboration, aiming to scale the automated experimental capabilities that generate proprietary, large-scale multimodal datasets — the data that powers MORGAN, our foundation model of cellular behaviour. Morgan underpins our recently announced research collaboration with GSK to generate large-scale datasets of how human cells respond to genetic and chemical perturbation, training AI models that identify therapeutic targets with greater confidence, and you'll help drive its delivery forward.

You will be joining a team with access to cutting-edge multi-omic and interventional datasets, advanced computational infrastructure, and deep interdisciplinary expertise, and a culture that embraces modern ML tooling, including agentic workflows, to accelerate research iteration.

The role has two distinct dimensions:

• As Project Manager, you will translate scientific and strategic objectives into actionable plans, coordinating delivery across an interdisciplinary team spanning wet and dry lab, owning cross-team dependencies and prioritisation, managing timelines and milestones across a complex matrix, and surfacing risks before they affect delivery.
• As the operational go‑to, you will also establish governance and decision‑making forums, maintaining documentation and reporting to a standard that supports a multi‑year, partnered effort, coordinating resource and operational support across teams, and continuously improving how the programme delivers.

Day to day you will:

• Work with appropriate leaders and Project sponsors to understand the strategic objectives and delivery requirements.
• Working in partnership with Project leadership, orchestrate the matrix team to deliver project objectives and requirements, motivating all team members with clear direction and communication.
• Working with functional leads to ensure appropriate resource allocation and onboarding supplementary resources for support of migration efforts.
• Proactively manage the project plan, budget, risks, and issues, escalating to senior management when appropriate.
• Support leadership in addressing substantial risk, high impact situations with clear analysis, high transparency, and a sense of partnership; even if faced with significant adversity or major obstacles.
• Translate scientific and strategic objectives into integrated project plans, timelines, and milestones.
• Coordinate execution across the wet lab, lab automation, ML research, data science, and engineering teams; own cross‑team dependencies and prioritisation including actively monitoring interdependencies across teams as the project evolves.
• Identify and manage risks across the Project, working with team leads to mitigate blockers before they affect delivery.
• Coordinate governance bodies (steering committee, working groups, technical committees) - agendas, materials, minutes, and follow‑ups - and ensure decisions are documented and actioned.
• Communicate Project status clearly to internal leadership decisions and trade‑offs as they arise.
• Maintain Project documentation, decision logs, and operational hygiene to a standard that supports a multi‑year, partnered effort.
• Coordinate resource allocation and operational support across the computational and wet lab teams where required.
• Identify and embed improvements to Project operations as the work evolves.

Professionally, you will have:

• A degree in life sciences, project management, or a related field; advanced degree or equivalent industry experience welcome.
• Significant project or Project management experience in biotech, pharma, or comparable scientific R&D settings sufficient to operate as the senior Project manager for a major, multi‑year effort.
• Scientific literacy sufficient to engage credibly with discussions spanning wet lab biology, single‑cell omics, and machine learning, without needing to do the science yourself.
• Fluency with modern project management methodologies, artifacts and tools (e.g. MS Project, Smartsheet, Asana, Jira; Gantt, RAID logs).
• Strong organisational skills with a record of managing complex, interdependent workstreams in matrixed environments.
• Excellent written and verbal communication, including the ability to write clearly for senior audiences.

Personally, you:

• Are comfortable working in a matrixed environment, balancing multiple stakeholders and contributing effectively across teams.
• Take ownership of your work, proactively seek opportunities to contribute, and enable others to do their best work.
• Communicate openly and directly, give and receive feedback constructively, and handle challenging conversations with respect.
• Actively seek out diverse perspectives, build strong working relationships, and contribute to shared goals across teams.
• Embrace challenges with openness and resilience, set high standards for yourself, and strive to deliver meaningful outcomes.

At Relation, we operate in a matrixed, interdisciplinary environment, where impact is driven through collaboration across scientific, technical, and operational domains. We collaborate, and you will partner with colleagues across multiple teams and projects, contributing your expertise while aligning to shared company priorities. We work together and win together!