Strategic Operations Lead

Background

Symbrosia is a biotechnology and climate solutions company developing products derived from Asparagopsis seaweed to reduce methane emissions from livestock. After establishing and validating its technology and production systems in Hawai‘i, Symbrosia is developing an Indonesian operating platform focused on the production and commercialization of SeaGraze® Oil.

The Indonesia operation will require the establishment of a local corporate and operating structure, selection and development of appropriate facilities, recruitment of a high-performing local team, implementation of quality and traceability systems, and coordination across Indonesian vendors, regulators, consultants, research partners, and international leadership.

Role Summary

The Strategic Operations Lead will serve as a senior, on-the-ground operator supporting the establishment and execution of Symbrosia’s Indonesian operations. The role will translate strategic priorities into practical workplans, coordinate local stakeholders, maintain operational momentum, and ensure that decisions and risks are communicated clearly to the Managing Director, Indonesia. 

This position is designed for a resourceful, highly organized operator who can move comfortably between strategic planning and hands-on execution. The Strategic Operations Lead will support site development, permitting, hiring, procurement, vendor management, operational systems, quality implementation, and production-readiness activities.

The role will initially focus on launching the Indonesian operation and will evolve into broader responsibility for ongoing business and site operations as the organization moves toward commercial production.

Duties and Responsibilities

Site Identification and Development

• Support the identification, evaluation, and comparison of laboratory, pilot-production, office, storage, and future commercial-production sites.

• Coordinate site visits, technical assessments, landlord discussions, utility reviews, and vendor quotations.

• Evaluate prospective sites based on water access, power capacity, drainage, environmental conditions, logistics, security, workforce access, permitting feasibility, expansion potential, and cost.

• Support negotiations and due diligence for leases, service agreements, construction work, and facility-development arrangements.

• Coordinate architects, engineers, contractors, equipment suppliers, and other technical service providers.

• Track construction, renovation, laboratory commissioning, and site-readiness activities against approved scopes, schedules, and budgets.

• Confirm that completed work meets Symbrosia’s technical, safety, quality, and operational requirements.

Permitting, Corporate Administration, and Regulatory Coordination

• Coordinate with Indonesian legal, tax, immigration, environmental, regulatory, and corporate-service providers.

• Support the establishment and administration of Symbrosia’s Indonesian legal entity and operating infrastructure.

• Track required licenses, registrations, permits, visas, work authorizations, import permissions, and local reporting obligations.

• Maintain a centralized register of permits, deadlines, responsible parties, submissions, approvals, and outstanding actions.

• Coordinate import and export activities for equipment, laboratory materials, biological materials, samples, and finished products.

• Ensure that local activities are conducted within Symbrosia’s approved authority framework and corporate-governance requirements.

• Protect Symbrosia’s intellectual property, trade secrets, genetic materials, SOPs, technical information, and confidential business information.

Vendor, Procurement, and Supply-Chain Management

• Identify, evaluate, onboard, and manage local vendors, contractors, laboratories, consultants, logistics providers, and equipment suppliers.

• Obtain and compare quotations, negotiate commercial terms, and document vendor-selection recommendations.

• Confirm that purchasing activities are properly approved and remain within authorized budgets and decision thresholds.

• Establish procurement processes for laboratory supplies, production inputs, packaging, equipment, maintenance materials, and general operating needs.

• Track purchase orders, vendor commitments, delivery dates, installation requirements, warranties, and payment milestones.

• Build reliable local and international supply chains for critical materials and equipment.

• Identify supply risks and develop appropriate alternatives for long-lead, imported, or single-source items.

• Maintain accurate procurement, inventory, asset, and vendor records.

Quality, Compliance, and Traceability

• Support the implementation of Good Manufacturing Practices, HACCP-based controls, and food- or feed-safety systems appropriate to Symbrosia’s operations.

• Coordinate preparation for relevant quality certifications, including FAMI-QS, as directed by company leadership.

• Support the development of supplier-qualification, incoming-material, sanitation, maintenance, deviation, corrective-action, and training systems.

• Assist in implementing a batch-level traceability system covering raw materials, biological inputs, processing activities, quality results, packaging, inventory, and customer shipments.

• Coordinate internal readiness assessments, mock audits, document reviews, and corrective-action tracking.

• Ensure that operational records are complete, accurate, accessible, and maintained in accordance with company requirements.

• Escalate material quality, safety, contamination, compliance, or traceability concerns immediately.

Stakeholder and Partner Coordination

• Serve as a professional local representative of Symbrosia with vendors, landlords, government agencies, universities, research institutions, consultants, and prospective partners.

• Coordinate meetings, site visits, inspections, technical discussions, and follow-up actions.

• Support the development of relationships with Indonesian research, biotechnology, aquaculture, manufacturing, and agricultural organizations.

• Prepare meeting materials, agendas, minutes, action registers, and follow-up correspondence.

• Ensure that external communications accurately reflect Symbrosia’s approved strategy and do not create unauthorized commercial, legal, or technical commitments.

• Support non-binding partner discussions and draft materials for review by authorized company representatives.

Decision-Making Authority

The Strategic Operations Lead operates under the direction of the Managing Director, Indonesia and may make routine coordination and administrative decisions within approved workplans, budgets, policies, and written delegated authority.

The role may:

• Coordinate day-to-day schedules, meetings, site visits, vendor communications, document collection, and follow-up activities.

• Request quotations, gather information, and clarify preliminary terms without making a binding commitment.

• Prepare comparisons and recommendations regarding vendors, sites, contractors, candidates, and operating approaches.

• Approve routine purchases only when expressly authorized and within written financial thresholds.

• Draft non-binding scopes of work, operating documents, meeting materials, and partner communications for management review.

• Implement approved SOPs, workplans, budgets, and policies and escalate deviations or delays.

The role may not independently:

• Execute leases, land agreements, financing arrangements, commercial contracts, intellectual-property agreements, employment agreements, or material consulting agreements.

• Commit Symbrosia to expenditures, payment terms, project scopes, or timelines outside approved plans or delegated thresholds.

• Make final hiring, termination, compensation, promotion, or headcount decisions.

• Transfer, license, disclose, distribute, or authorize access to Symbrosia’s intellectual property, strains, genetic materials, SOPs, or confidential technical information.

• Make material changes to approved technical processes, quality requirements, facility specifications, or SOPs.

• Represent that a commercial, regulatory, investment, technical, or partnership decision has been approved without written authorization.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in business, operations, project management, supply-chain management, engineering, science, international development, or a related field, or equivalent relevant experience.

• At least three years of relevant experience in operations coordination, project coordination, procurement, site development, manufacturing, biotechnology, aquaculture, food or feed production, or a related environment.

• Demonstrated ability to coordinate projects involving vendors, consultants, internal teams, and external stakeholders.

• Strong organizational and project-coordination skills, including maintaining schedules, trackers, action registers, budgets, and status updates.

• Experience requesting quotations, coordinating procurement, tracking vendor deliverables, and supporting contract administration.

• Strong written and verbal communication skills in both Bahasa Indonesia and English.

• Ability to prepare clear reports, meeting materials, recommendations, and concise management updates.

• Sound judgment and discretion when handling confidential, technical, personnel, financial, or intellectual-property information.

• Ability to work independently on assigned responsibilities, manage competing priorities, and escalate issues appropriately.

• Strong proficiency with spreadsheets, shared-document systems, project-management tools, and standard business software.

• Legally authorized to work in Indonesia and able to work on-site in Bali.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience supporting the setup, renovation, commissioning, or operation of a laboratory, facility, manufacturing site, or new business location.

• Experience in biotechnology, marine science, algae, aquaculture, agriculture, animal nutrition, feed, food manufacturing, or environmental technology.

• Familiarity with Indonesian permitting, import/export, labor, immigration, tax, or corporate-administration processes.

• Exposure to GMP, HACCP, FAMI-QS, ISO, laboratory-quality, or comparable compliance systems.

• Experience using inventory, procurement, traceability, quality-management, or ERP systems.

• Experience coordinating contractors, utilities, equipment installation, or laboratory commissioning activities.

• Relevant project-management, quality, safety, engineering, or supply-chain training or certification.

Core Competencies

• Operational coordination and follow-through

• Project tracking and organization

• Vendor and stakeholder communication

• Practical judgment and problem solving

• Risk identification and timely escalation

• Clear written and verbal communication

• Documentation and process discipline

• Confidentiality and intellectual-property stewardship

• Adaptability and resourcefulness

• Teamwork and accountability

Work Environment

This is a full-time, primarily on-site position based in Bali, Indonesia. The role will require regular travel within Bali and may occasionally require travel to other areas of Indonesia for vendor assessments, government meetings, site evaluations, or partner coordination.

The position will involve work in office, laboratory, construction, warehouse, and future production environments. Some activities may require personal protective equipment and adherence to laboratory, construction-site, biosecurity, food- or feed-safety, and workplace-safety procedures.

The Strategic Operations Lead should be comfortable working in a developing operation, taking ownership of assigned workstreams, and seeking management direction for material decisions, changes in scope, or issues outside delegated authority.