Biosafety Consultant

Biosafety Consultant

Location: Somerville, Massachusetts

Country: United States

Category: Environmental

Workplace

Location

Onsite

Employment Type: Direct Hire/Perm

Posted Date: October 23, 2026

Job ID: 653119

Job Description

Our client supports leading institutions across higher education, life sciences, healthcare, and industrial manufacturing who cure diseases, teach the next generation of scientists, and manufacture the therapies patients depend on.

The role is onsite in the greater Boston area, and works alongside industrial hygienists, waste, and embedded services teams on multi-scope client programs.

Essential responsibilities:

• Inspect laboratories, vivaria, and containment spaces against NIH Guidelines, BMBL, and institutional biosafety requirements, and document findings with corrective actions.
• Evaluate containment practice and equipment through direct observation and conversation with bench personnel, including biosafety cabinet use and certification status, PPE selection for the agent and procedure, sharps handling, decontamination, and biological waste segregation.
• Identify exposure risks from infectious agents, recombinant and synthetic nucleic acids, viral vectors, and aerosol-generating procedures, and recommend controls spanning containment level, engineering controls, directional airflow, work practice, and PPE.
• Investigate exposure incidents, spills, sharps injuries, and containment near misses, identify root causes, and recommend corrective and preventive actions, including any required agency or IBC notification.
• Work with principal investigators, laboratory managers, and client EHS staff on biosafety concerns, and recommend corrective actions the bench will actually adopt.
• Independently deliver biosafety training, including new researcher orientation, bloodborne pathogens, BSL-2 practices and containment, biological spill response, and shipping of biological materials, along with general EHS topics such as hazard communication where clients require them.
• Prepare required documentation, including risk assessments, IBC protocol records, exposure and incident reports, biosafety cabinet certification records, and OSHA bloodborne pathogen and other regulatory recordkeeping.
• Develop and update biosafety manuals, exposure control plans, standard operating procedures, and related health and safety policies.
• Scope and plan engagements: translate a client request into a defined scope, deliverables, timeline, and level of effort, and say so when the stated ask will not solve the underlying problem.
• Run structured discovery with laboratory, facilities, and EHS stakeholders, then reconcile what people report with what site observations and data show.
• Produce client-ready written deliverables, including assessment reports, gap analyses, containment recommendations, and program roadmaps that lead with the recommendation and support it with evidence.
• Present findings to client EHS leadership and laboratory management, including the practical trade-offs behind each recommendation.
• Manage scope, schedule, and hours against the approved plan, and raise a change order rather than absorbing unplanned work.
• Quantify the financial case for recommendations: cost avoidance from prevented findings and incidents, savings from containment level and waste stream decisions, and the cost comparison between fractional credentialed coverage and a full-time hire.
• Track enablement outcomes alongside compliance outcomes, including faster protocol review cycles, shorter time to first experiment in new or renovated space, and fewer interruptions to active research.
• Surface observations and opportunities from the field, including new programs, new space, leadership changes, and unmet client needs, and relay them to the account team.
• Build the practice through reusable templates, training material, and mentoring of junior staff.

Basic Qualifications:

• 1-5 years of progressive professional experience in biosafety or a closely related field, including research compliance, research or diagnostic laboratory operations, or EHS with biological scope.
• Bachelor's degree in Biology, Microbiology, Biochemistry, or a related field such as Occupational Health and Safety, Chemistry, or Engineering.
• Professional knowledge of federal, state, and local regulations pertaining to CDC and NIH biosafety guidelines as they apply to infectious agents, recombinant DNA, and bloodborne pathogens.
• Demonstrated ability to apply core biosafety concepts, including criteria for establishing appropriate biosafety containment levels across diverse research and laboratory applications.
• Demonstrated knowledge of recombinant DNA technology, viral vectors, and biological hazards.
• Experience participating in or managing Institutional Biosafety Committees (IBCs).
• Strong written, verbal, and interpersonal communication skills, including the political acumen to communicate effectively within a diverse and multidisciplinary environment, plus excellent customer service skills.
• Strong attention to detail.
• Demonstrated problem-solving skills with the ability to remain calm and effective in stressful situations.
• Demonstrated ability to write for a client audience: reports, assessments, and recommendations a non-specialist decision maker can act on.
• Comfort in a client-facing, billable environment, including competing priorities across multiple sites and accounts.
• Must be eligible to work in the United States without future sponsorship.
• Must have a reliable form of transportation.

Preferred Requirements:

• Experience working in a BSL-2 and/or ABSL-2 laboratory environment.
• Completion of ABSA or other professional development coursework (e.g., ABSA Principles and Practices).
• Active membership in a national professional safety organization, preferably ABSA International, including participation in local chapters.
• Registered Biosafety Professional (RBP) or Certified Biological Safety Professional (CBSP), or documented progress toward one. A general safety credential such as ASP is also valued.
• Experience supporting cell and gene therapy, viral vector, or GMP manufacturing operations, where biosafety and quality requirements intersect.
• Experience administering or coordinating an IBC, including protocol review workflow and committee reporting.
• Experience building a business case or cost model for an EHS program change, covering savings, cost avoidance, or a staffing comparison.
• Prior experience in a consulting, contract, or multi-client environment.

EEO Statement

The staffing industry has seen an increase in people falsely representing themselves as recruiters to gather personal information from job seekers. For your safety, do not provide sensitive data to anyone you have not spoken with thoroughly, never provide banking information during the application process, and always double check the email address of the Recruiter to ensure it’s from an official Planet domain and not a domain with an alternative extension like .net, .org, or .jobs.

The Planet Group and our companies are equal opportunity employers. It is our practice not to discriminate against any employee or applicant based on any criteria, condition or basis protected by laws or regulations in the locations where we do business. All qualified applicants are encouraged to apply. We celebrate diversity and are committed to providing an environment of mutual respect. We believe that diversity, equity, and inclusion enable us to better meet our mission and values while serving our clients across the globe. If you have a disability or handicap and would like us to accommodate you in any reasonable way, please inform your recruiter, or contact us, so that we can discuss the appropriate alternatives available.