Home Laboratory Manager Resume template
Laboratory Manager resume template
A clean starting structure with example content grounded in what laboratory managers actually do day to day, not generic filler. Download and replace the bracketed placeholders with your own details.
Which resume format should you use?
Reverse chronological
You have a steady work history. This is the format almost every recruiter and ATS expects by default.
Functional
You're changing fields or have gaps in your employment. Leads with skills rather than a job-by-job timeline.
Combination
You're early career or have worked consistently but for only a few employers. Blends a skills summary with a shorter chronological history.
This template uses the reverse chronological format: the one most laboratory managers should default to, since most Australian recruiters and ATS software expect it.
Professional summary
Laboratory Manager with a scientific background and a track record of keeping testing operations accurate, safe and on schedule. Experienced in leading multidisciplinary teams, maintaining accreditation to ISO/IEC 17025 and ISO 15189, and managing the budgets and equipment that keep a laboratory running. Comfortable carrying a technical workload alongside operational responsibility.
Key skills
- Laboratory analysis and method validation
- Operations management across testing schedules
- Regulatory compliance and accreditation readiness
- Risk assessment and internal controls
- Budgeting, forecasting and purchasing
- Project management for equipment and system upgrades
- Data analysis for turnaround and quality reporting
- People leadership and staff development
- LIMS administration and reporting (LabWare LIMS, Thermo Fisher SampleManager)
- Quality management software and Microsoft Excel
Experience: example bullet points
- Supervised a team of 14 scientific and technical staff across a multi-discipline testing laboratory, allocating work to meet daily turnaround commitments and prioritising urgent clinical or client samples.
- Led preparation for NATA surveillance audits, closing all corrective actions within agreed time frames and maintaining accreditation without interruption to testing services.
- Introduced a scheduling and tracking change in the LIMS that reduced average result turnaround from four days to two for routine sample batches.
- Managed the calibration and maintenance schedule for over 80 instruments, cutting unplanned downtime and avoiding repeat testing on affected runs.
- Rewrote 30 standard operating procedures and safety protocols in line with current WHS requirements, then delivered rollout training to all laboratory staff.
- Prepared monthly budget reports and capital purchasing cases for senior management, identifying consumable cost savings that were reinvested into staff training.
- Investigated a recurring contamination issue using quality management data, traced the root cause to a reagent storage practice and implemented a control that stopped further occurrences.
Education
Bachelor degree in science, biomedical science, chemistry or a related discipline is the most common entry path, often followed by a postgraduate qualification in a specialist field or laboratory management; some managers hold a diploma or advanced diploma combined with extensive bench experience.
Keywords an ATS is likely to scan for
Applicant tracking systems match your resume against terms in the job ad before a person ever sees it. Only include the ones that actually apply to your experience, but if a term below matches something you've done, use the same wording the job ad uses.
- NATA accreditation
- ISO/IEC 17025
- ISO 15189
- NPAAC requirements
- WHS legislation
- Safe Work Australia
- LIMS
- LabWare LIMS
- Thermo Fisher SampleManager
- standard operating procedures
- proficiency testing
- method validation
- equipment calibration
- chain of custody
- quality management system
- root cause analysis
- AIMS
- RACI
Getting past ATS screening
- Match the specific skills, certifications and terms used in the job ad, not just your own wording for the same thing.
- Keep formatting simple: no tables, text boxes, columns, headers/footers or graphics. Parsers frequently drop content placed in these.
- Submit as .docx or PDF unless the job ad specifies otherwise.
- Use standard section headings (Experience, Education, Skills) rather than creative alternatives.
- List your core skills and technical competencies in their own section so a keyword scan can find them instantly.
This is a starting point, not a guarantee of interviews. Tailor every bullet point to your own real experience and the specific job ad.