Senior Principal Product Leader

The Opportunity

As the Senior Principal Product Leader for AI & Lab Automation within the Data and Digital Catalysts (DDC) department of the Computational Sciences Center of Excellence (CS CoE), you will drive the global product strategy that bridges artificial intelligence, intelligent robotics, and scientific workflows across gRED and pRED. In this role, you will shape the digital backbone of our research laboratories today while architecting autonomous, closed-loop labs for tomorrow.

• Own the multi-year product vision, strategy, and roadmap for AI-orchestrated laboratory workflows and automation globally
• Identify high-value opportunities where AI, intelligent automation, optimization, and agentic capabilities can improve experiment planning, laboratory execution, scientific throughput, and researcher experience.
• Partner closely with scientists and laboratory teams to understand existing workflows and determine where automation, AI, or workflow redesign can remove bottlenecks and improve experimental outcomes.
• Guide emerging capabilities—including experiment planning, intelligent scheduling, agentic execution, and anomaly detection—from prototype to production-scale scientific adoption.
• Lead multidisciplinary global teams spanning product, scientific SMEs, AI/ML, software and data engineering, automation engineering, UX, laboratory operations, security, quality, and external vendors.
• Establish quantifiable OKRs and product telemetry to track improvements in experimental cycle times, scientific throughput, reproducibility, and data quality.
• Drive human-in-the-loop operational frameworks and safety guardrails, balancing autonomous execution with scientific oversight and validated laboratory protocols.

Who you are

• You bring 12+ years of experience in product leadership, scientific technology, laboratory automation, or research informatics with deep accountability for complex scientific platforms.
• You demonstrate a proven track record of conceptualizing, deploying, and scaling AI/ML-driven products, optimization engines, or autonomous systems in physical or laboratory execution environments.
• You hold a deep domain understanding of wet lab workflows, instrument robotics, integrated work cells, scheduling systems, and scientific data architectures (metadata, provenance, ontologies, and FAIR data principles).
• You possess proven experience leading cross-functional matrixed initiatives and aligning multidisciplinary teams (software engineering, wet lab scientists, AI specialists, and operations).
• You exhibit exceptional executive communication and storytelling skills, with the ability to translate complex AI and physical automation concepts into actionable strategy for diverse scientific and technical audiences.

Preferred

• Advanced degree (Master’s or Ph.D.) in Life Sciences, Bioengineering, Robotics, Computer Science, AI/ML, or an adjacent quantitative discipline.
• Hands-on technical familiarity with high-throughput laboratory automation ecosystems (e.g., automated liquid handlers, plate readers, robotic arms, scheduling software).
• Prior domain exposure to automated experimentation within high-throughput screening, genomics, protein sciences, bioanalytics, or synthetic chemistry.

Location

• This role is based in South San Francisco and offers a hybrid schedule working 3 day per week on campus
• No relocation benefits are available for this posting