Principal Chemist

About Us:

Light Labs is building the modern lab testing platform — faster, cheaper, and built for transparency. We help brands test for purity, safety, and accuracy, then turn that data into a competitive edge. Our lab is fully integrated with software that streamlines everything from sample intake to result sharing, so brands can not only meet regulatory requirements, but also show their customers what’s in their product — and what’s not.

Role Overview:We’re hiring a Principal Scientist to lead and scale method development across our GCMS and LCMS platforms. This is a strategic role focused on accelerating how quickly our lab can validate and launch new testing methods. You’ll design and implement a scalable system that improves time-to-launch for new tests, reduces limits of quantification (LOQs), and cuts overall method development costs.

You’ll also serve as a technical mentor to our senior chemists, helping them troubleshoot, optimize, and ship faster. This role is ideal for someone who wants to architect scalable processes, thinks in systems, and has a passion for building lab capabilities from the ground up.

This is a full-time, in-person role based in Ann Arbor. It comes with top decile pay and a high-impact seat at the table.

Responsibilities:

• Build and implement a scalable process for LCMS and GCMS method development that accelerates time-to-launch across analytes and matrices.
• Work cross-functionally with senior chemists to compress development timelines by 30% through training, templates, and troubleshooting support.
• Identify and implement method optimizations that improve turnaround times, lower LOQs, and deliver at least 10% in testing cost savings.
• Act as the technical lead on new method development projects, ensuring robustness, repeatability, and transferability.
• Develop SOPs and method validation templates that can be reused across platforms and teams.
• Review and improve current testing methods to align with business goals, regulatory requirements, and evolving customer needs.
• Support instrument troubleshooting and performance optimization across LCMS and GCMS systems.
• Stay current on new technologies and approaches that can accelerate method development or improve cost and sensitivity.
• Serve as a technical sounding board for both the Lab Director and company leadership on priorities, process bottlenecks, and future capabilities.

Qualifications:

• PhD or MS in Chemistry, Biochemistry, or a related field with 10 years of hands-on experience in method development, preferably in a high-throughput lab setting.
• Deep expertise in LCMS and GCMS method development, optimization, and validation.
• Proven track record of shipping new testing methods efficiently and at scale.
• Experience developing methods for trace-level detection with low LOQs across complex matrices.
• Familiarity with ISO 17025 and other relevant regulatory or quality frameworks.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills; able to troubleshoot instrument and method issues quickly.
• Systems thinker who can design processes, workflows, and reusable templates to speed up method development.
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills; able to coach and support chemists while working cross-functionally with leadership and operations.
• Comfortable in a fast-paced, startup-like environment with shifting priorities and high standards.

Benefits:

• Top decile salary
• Health, dental, and vision insurance
• Paid time off and holidays
• Promote from within approach – career growth opportunities

Who We Are

Light Labs is building the modern platform for lab testing, starting with consumer goods brands. We help companies test more cheaply, quickly, and enable them to use lab results to automate regulatory compliance and grow revenue.

We believe consumers deserve to know the purity and accuracy of every product that affects their families’ health. Improving our food system starts with increasing transparency and creating a more informed customer. Not only are we building a lab that makes testing faster, cheaper, and easier, but also the infrastructure that allows brands to:

• Market and highlight their lab results by making it easy to push lab data directly to product display pages. Here, brands will highlight what’s in their product (active ingredients they meet their claims) and what’s not in their product (heavy metals, environmental toxins, PFAs, etc)
• Automatically comply with regulations like Prop 65, CA AB 899, Amazon testing requirements, etc.

By integrating the full experience – from testing to the data sharing with customers – we’re building a more efficient and streamlined process. Brands can now differentiate themselves and become the no-brainer choice in their category through testing and great transparency.

We’re a team of experienced founders that have raised $12M from top VCs (8VC and Valor), with top CPG founders and strategics also coming into the round. Whether you’re lab tech, engineer, sales, marketing, or customer support, you’ll have a seat at the table as we work to increase transparency in the food system.

Our Mission

Almost everything people consume is becoming increasingly toxic (and bereft of nutrition) which leads to massive health dysfunction while simultaneously destroying our planet. No one knows about it because you can’t see, taste, smell, or quantify the problem:

• Cinnamon Apple Puree pouches, marketed for children and labeled as preservative-free, kosher, and gluten-free, contained lead levels 200 times greater than the FDA’s proposed guidelines
• Over 1300 chemicals are banned in cosmetics in the EU, while only 11 are in the United States
• The US also allows thousands of food additives which are banned in other countries
• A study of 168 baby foods revealed that 95% contained at least one heavy metal (arsenic, lead, mercury, cadmium), with a quarter containing all four
• Seven out eight samples of kale contained ‘disturbing’ levels of PFAs, with organic kale containing higher levels of the toxic compounds

Today, even if consumer brands or manufacturers wanted to test for purity of their products, the experience is slow, cumbersome, expensive, and nearly impossible to interpret or share the lab results unless you have a PhD in the area you’re testing for.

Because there is no feedback loop or standardized transparency that brands offer, there is no consumer pressure on change of practices and sourcing. If people knew what was in their food, they’d be shocked. They would shop differently.

Our mission is to bring this transparency to the food system. Allow customers to buy products and brands that are free of toxic ingredients. Transparency is the first step in creating demand for cleaner products, and ultimately a cleaner supply chain

Values We’re Looking For

• First Principles: we’re looking for team members who can deal with ambiguity, deconstruct problems, and build the optimal solution. Question every requirement → Delete any part or process you can → Simplify and optimize → Accelerate cycle time → Automate.
• Standard of Excellence: High standards are contagious. A talent attracts A talent. There’s a glut of mediocrity in the world. We’re chasing after the products and people that strive for excellence.
• Bias for Action: take initiative, make decisions quickly, and have a willingness to experiment and learn from failures. Customer expectations are not static. They rise over time, which means we have to continuously improve every single day
• Low Ego: coachability; it’s not about being right, it’s about getting to the right answer. Reacts calmly to criticism or negative feedback, and has a “feedback is an opportunity for information and improvement” mindset. Respectfully challenges decisions when you disagree, even when doing so is uncomfortable. Once a decision is made, even if you still disagree, commit wholly and move forward.

How to Apply:

Please submit your resume and a cover letter detailing your qualifications and experience to .

Job Type: Full-time

Pay: $130,000.00 - $150,000.00 per year

Benefits:

• Dental insurance
• Health insurance
• Paid time off
• Relocation assistance
• Vision insurance

Schedule:

• 8 hour shift

Work Location: In person

Salary : $130,000 - $150,000