Laboratory Coordinator Job Description

Salary Range

Varies by employer

Experience

Early to mid-career

Work Environment

University teaching and research labs

What Does a Laboratory Coordinator Do?

What keeps a shared lab running is mostly small chores done on time. Laboratory coordinators handle them in teaching and research labs, ordering supplies, booking equipment fairly, keeping instruments working and leading safety checks for the scientists, instructors and students who use the space. An electron microscope shared by many research groups can be a coordinator's whole job.

Also known as: Senior Laboratory Coordinator, Laboratory Operations Coordinator, Electron Microscopy Lab Coordinator

Other Job Titles for This Work

Workers in this occupation report titles such as Lab Analyst, Lab Technician (Lab Tech), Laboratory Analyst, Microbiology Lab Analyst, QA Auditor (Quality Assurance Auditor), QA Lab Tech (Quality Assurance Lab Technician), QA Tech (Quality Assurance Technician), Quality Control Analyst (QC Analyst).

Laboratory Coordinator Duties and Responsibilities

The primary responsibilities of a laboratory coordinator include:

• Order chemicals, glassware and consumables, and keep inventory counts in the lab's tracking system.
• Schedule time on shared instruments such as electron microscopes and bill the hours to grant accounts.
• Prepare reagents, solutions and equipment for teaching lab sessions and clean up afterward.
• Arrange service contracts and repair visits, and keep a maintenance log for each instrument.
• Inspect fume hoods, eyewash stations and chemical storage, and fix problems before safety audits.
• Train new users on instruments and lab rules, and sign off on their access.
• Manage hazardous waste pickups and update the chemical inventory the campus safety office asks for.
• Supervise student workers and teaching assistants who set up and break down lab sections.
• Monitor the supply budget and flag overspending to the faculty director early.
• Coordinate lab moves, renovations and new equipment installs with facilities staff and vendors.

Required Skills and Qualifications

To succeed as a laboratory coordinator, you will need the following skills and qualifications:

• Lab safety rules for chemicals, biological materials and compressed gases
• Ordering and inventory systems, plus Excel
• Care of instruments, from balances to microscopes
• Core facility booking software such as iLab
• Budget tracking against grant and department accounts
• Patience when teaching students and new users
• Organized enough to juggle many small requests at once
• Basic troubleshooting before calling a service engineer

Education and Training

A few years as a lab technician is a common stepping stone to this post. Many coordinators hold a bachelor's in chemistry, biology or physics, although science technicians in general often start with an associate's degree. Training courses from instrument vendors are worth taking if you will look after shared equipment.

Salary and Job Outlook

Growth here is modest. In fact, employment in this catch-all group of life, physical and social science technicians is projected to rise about 4 percent from 2025 to 2035, according to BLS. The group still expects about 11,200 openings a year. In smaller departments, the coordinator often covers ordering, safety and teaching prep alone, which makes the job a good training ground for lab management.

Outlook source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment Projections, 2025 to 2035, Life, physical, and social science technicians, all other.

Laboratory Coordinator Pay Range

Highest-Paying States for Laboratory Coordinators

The states with the highest median pay for this occupation are Oklahoma ($86,260), District of Columbia ($79,230), California ($78,350), Washington ($73,530), Alaska ($70,700). Pay is lowest in Indiana ($48,650), Nebraska ($48,640), Wisconsin ($47,210).

What the Work Is Like

O*NET surveys people who work as life, physical, and social science technicians, all other about their daily conditions. Of those surveyed:

• 100% say being exact and accurate is very or extremely important
• 92% wear safety gear such as gloves, safety glasses or a hard hat every day
• 81% use their hands on tools, objects or controls for more than half the day
• 77% work indoors in a climate-controlled space every day
• 74% use email every day
• 64% usually work more than 40 hours a week
• 59% deal with loud or distracting noise every day

Education Workers Say the Job Needs

Tools and Software Laboratory Coordinators Use

Tools and equipment

• Absorbance spectrophotometers
• Adhesion testers
• Autosamplers
• Bolt tension meters
• Coating thickness gauges
• Copy machines
• Dew point meters
• Durometers
• Dynamometers
• Flowmeters

Software

• Microsoft Excel
• Microsoft Office software
• Microsoft Outlook
• Microsoft PowerPoint
• Microsoft Word
• SAP software
• Adobe Acrobat
• Atlassian JIRA
• C
• Extensible markup language XML
• Hypertext markup language HTML
• JavaScript

Is This Job a Good Fit for You?

People who do well in this job tend to enjoy organized work with data, records and clear procedures as well as analyzing problems and working with ideas.

Skills O*NET rates most important: Quality Control Analysis, Reading Comprehension, Monitoring, Active Listening, Complex Problem Solving, Writing.

Knowledge areas used most: Mathematics, Production and Processing, Chemistry, English Language, Administrative.

Related Careers

These jobs use similar skills, according to O*NET's related-occupation data:

• Research Laboratory Aide job description
• Laboratory Technician job description
• Electron Microscopy Technician job description
• Research Specialist job description

Applying for a Laboratory Coordinator Job

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