Laboratory Director

Laboratory Director, IVF & ART

DiRezze Family Office — South Florida (premium IVF network, hub-and-spoke)

The opportunity

DiRezze Family Office is building a premium IVF network in South Florida, anchored by a flagship hub clinic now in site selection in the Brickell-to-Hallandale corridor, with a spoke already operating in Bay Harbor Islands. The Laboratory Director will own the design, build, accreditation, and ongoing operation of the flagship lab — and will set the technical standard that future spokes inherit.

This is a founding role. The Laboratory Director is on the critical path of the build, reports directly to the founding partner, and is expected to have a defining voice on facility design, equipment selection, staffing, SOPs, and the long-term technology roadmap.

Engagement model

We are open to two paths and invite candidates to self-select:

• Full-time, Day 1. Hired as the founding Laboratory Director with executive-level compensation and meaningful equity. Begin with facility feasibility and design; transition into operational leadership through accreditation, opening, and scale.
• Consulting-to-hire. Begin with a paid feasibility and design engagement (typically 8–12 weeks) covering site walk-through, technical memo, facility spec, and equipment plan. Convert to full-time Laboratory Director ahead of construction kickoff. This path is designed for candidates currently in director roles who want to validate the opportunity before transitioning.

Both paths lead to the same destination. The recruiter can route candidate preferences.

What you will own

Phase 1 — Facility design and pre-construction (months 0–6)

• Walk candidate sites and produce technical feasibility memos covering floor-to-floor height, floor load, HVAC capacity, electrical service, LN2 routing, medical gas infrastructure, and adjacent-tenant risk.
• Define the lab program: square footage, room adjacencies, ISO classification targets, equipment footprint, cryostorage capacity, andrology and procedure room layout.
• Select and brief the IVF facility consultant; review schematic and construction documents from the architect of record; sign off on HVAC, air quality, and cryostorage engineering.
• Build the Day 1 equipment plan, including time-lapse incubation (EmbryoScope+ or equivalent), electronic witnessing (RI Witness or Matcher), LIMS (eIVF or equivalent), and andrology workstation specifications.
• Design the lab to be automation-ready for future robotic IVF deployment (e.g., Conceivable/AURA) without committing premature capital.

Phase 2 — Construction, commissioning, and accreditation (months 6–12)

• Oversee construction, commissioning, equipment installation, and validation.
• Recruit and onboard senior embryology and andrology staff (the Laboratory Director chooses these hires).
• Author all SOPs, quality systems documentation, and the QA/QC program.
• Drive CLIA, CAP, and Florida licensure; lead the SART membership application.
• Establish PGT outsourcing relationships for Years 1–2, with a defined pathway to in-house NGS at 600+ cycles/year.

Phase 3 — Operations and scale (months 12+)

• Direct day-to-day lab operations: clinical outcomes, staffing, quality, regulatory compliance, vendor management.
• Set the technical standard for spoke lab integrations and future acquisition diligence.
• Lead the Year 2–3 evaluation of automation partnerships and PGT in-sourcing.
• Mentor junior embryologists; build a pipeline that supports network expansion.

Required qualifications

• Certification: HCLD (High-complexity Clinical Laboratory Director) through ABB, or equivalent PhD-track credential with ELD. Required for CLIA Lab Director of record.
• Greenfield build experience: Has commissioned at least one IVF lab from shell space through CAP/CLIA accreditation. We will ask for specifics: square footage, cycle volume at launch, lease-to-first-transfer timeline.
• Technology fluency: Direct operating experience with time-lapse incubation (EmbryoScope+ specifically), electronic witnessing (RI Witness and/or Matcher), and a modern LIMS. Informed opinions on tradeoffs, not brand familiarity.
• Volume scaling: Has run a lab through the 200 → 600+ annual cycle inflection, with the staffing, equipment redundancy, and quality systems that come with it.
• Quality systems leadership: Has authored SOPs from scratch, led CAP inspections, and operated under current witnessing and traceability standards. Familiar with post-Alabama regulatory environment and lessons from recent IVF mix-up incidents.
• Automation literacy: Familiar with the current automation landscape (Conceivable/AURA, CHLOE, Life Whisperer, ALife) without being a true believer. Builds automation-ready, not automation-dependent.

Preferred

• Florida operating experience, including familiarity with Office Surgery Registration pathway.
• Prior tenure at a premium-segment network (CCRM, Shady Grove, RMA, Boston IVF, Spring Fertility, or equivalent).
• Direct experience opening or scaling a network lab (multi-site, hub-and-spoke).
• Published research or society leadership (ASRM, SART, ABB).