Lab Support Manager

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LAB SUPPORT MANAGER

Job Title: Lab Support Manager
Contract: Permanent
Type of Employment: Full Time
Hours: 37.5 hours per week
Salary: £40, - 42, per annum
Location: GSK, Shewalton Road, Irvine, North Ayrshire, Scotland, KA11 5AP

Are you an experienced laboratory professional with a passion for leadership, analytical instrumentation, and operational excellence?

Do you thrive in a fast-paced pharmaceutical environment where no two days are the same?

We're looking for a hands-on Laboratory Support Manager to lead a team delivering critical laboratory support services while maintaining strong technical involvement with analytical instrumentation, including HPLC, GC and associated laboratory systems.

This is not a desk-based management role. We're looking for a leader who enjoys being visible in the laboratory, supporting their team, troubleshooting technical issues, engaging with customers, and ensuring laboratories remain safe, compliant, and operationally excellent.

Due to the nature of the environment anyone with a Penicillin allergy will not be considered for the role.

About the Role

As Laboratory Support Manager, you will lead a multidisciplinary team providing laboratory instrument support and technical laboratory services within a highly regulated pharmaceutical environment. You'll be responsible for ensuring laboratory operations run smoothly while maintaining the highest standards of quality, compliance, safety and customer service.

You'll combine strategic leadership with practical technical expertise, helping to drive continuous improvement whilst remaining capable of providing direct laboratory support whenever required.

Working closely with scientists, quality teams, engineering teams and client stakeholders, you'll play a key role in enabling successful laboratory operations and supporting critical product release activities.

What You'll Be Doing

Leadership & Team Development

• Lead, coach and develop a high-performing laboratory support team
• Create a culture of accountability, engagement and continuous improvement
• Develop team competencies, training programmes and succession plans
• Ensure appropriate resource planning and service resilience
• Drive employee engagement and team performance

Hands-On Laboratory Support

• Provide practical laboratory support during periods of absence, peak workload or operational demand
• Carry out analytical laboratory activities when required
• Support troubleshooting and problem solving across laboratory operations
• Act as a technical subject matter expert for laboratory support services
• Promote best practice and compliance across the team

Instrumentation & Technical Expertise

• Maintain and support analytical instrumentation including: HPLC GC Laboratory support systems
• Troubleshoot instrument issues and coordinate maintenance activities
• Support preventative maintenance and qualification programmes
• Work with internal customers and specialist service providers to ensure maximum equipment uptime

Operational Excellence

• Deliver laboratory support services in line with KPIs and service commitments
• Ensure effective workload prioritisation to support laboratory throughput
• Manage laboratory housekeeping, asset management and operational standards
• Drive efficiency improvements and service enhancements

Compliance & Quality

• Ensure compliance with GMP, GxP and ALCOA+ data integrity requirements
• Maintain audit readiness at all times
• Support investigations, CAPAs and quality improvement activities
• Conduct management monitoring and support regulatory inspections

What We're Looking For

Essential

• Degree in a scientific discipline or equivalent experience
• Significant practical experience working with HPLC and GC instrumentation
• Strong troubleshooting and analytical problem-solving skills
• Experience working within GMP/GxP regulated laboratories
• Previous people management and team leadership experience
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills
• Experience managing operational performance, KPIs and service delivery
• Ability to balance strategic leadership with hands-on laboratory support

Desirable

• Experience with Empower CDS
• Knowledge of laboratory equipment maintenance and qualification
• Lean, Six Sigma or continuous improvement experience
• Experience with eQMS, SAP, CAFM or digital laboratory systems
• Client-facing operational management experience

Who Will Succeed in This Role?

You'll be a natural leader who enjoys coaching and developing people, but you're equally comfortable rolling up your sleeves and supporting technical laboratory activities when required.

You'll have the credibility that comes from real laboratory experience, particularly with HPLC and GC systems, and the leadership skills to inspire a team to deliver exceptional service

Our market-leading offering provides you with benefits that suit your lifestyle.

We have a virtual GP on hand for you and members of your household. So you can get expert advice by video or phone without having to leave your home. We offer financial wellbeing assistance through our Salary Finance scheme. For example, you could access 50% of your earned pay before payday for a small fee. Salary Finance also offers competitive loans.

When you join us, we’ll give you a link to our flexible lifestyle benefits platform, Choices. You might choose to purchase up to five extra days’ holiday each year. You might buy critical illness insurance, seek dental treatment or buy technology products at an affordable cost. There are many choices!

We give you access to high street discounts from thousands of well-known retailers, gyms and more through our MiDeals platform. And we have a cycle-to-work scheme. Life cover of up to four times your salary is available. We also offer enhanced pension contributions, a save-as-you-earn scheme, and a Mitie Matching Share Plan (you could even be awarded free shares in Mitie).

We award our employees with Mitie Stars as recognition for their hard work. There are cash prizes up for grabs each month and at the end of the year there’s a chance to scoop a top prize of £10,!

Our success is a direct result of the experience and quality of our people. Progressing your career is therefore a top priority for us. We offer a diverse variety of training and development avenues via a wide selection of learning resources to suit you.

We are committed to ensuring our recruitment process is inclusive and accessible to all. If you have a disability or long-term condition (for example dyslexia, anxiety, autism, a mobility condition or hearing loss) and need us to make any reasonable adjustments, changes or do anything differently during the recruitment process, please let us know by emailing at .