Director/ Senior Director, Product, Materials Chemistry

The role

You will lead product strategy and delivery for platforms that accelerate the discovery and development of new materials. This includes shaping the vision, roadmap, and execution across synthetic and materials chemistry, simulation, lab automation, and ML.

What you will do

• Set the long-term product vision, roadmap, and portfolio priorities for the materials-chemistry portfolio.
• Translate organic and polymer chemistry capability into commercial materials programs.
• Define target product profiles across synthesis, formulation, characterization, and scale-up.
• Drive product execution from concept to launch across chemistry, simulation, automation, data engineering, and ML.
• Represent product to executives, scientific leaders, partners, and customers.
• Own commercial outcomes including opportunity shaping, proposal development, deal closure, and revenue.
• Define success metrics and milestones and report progress to leadership.

Required qualifications

• MS, PhD, or equivalent experience in synthetic organic or polymer chemistry.
• Bench fluency in retrosynthesis, mechanisms, named transformations and reactions (e.g., Suzuki and Buchwald-Hartwig couplings, RAFT, ATRP, etc.).
• Bench fluency in characterization (NMR, LC-MS, HPLC, GPC, DSC, rheology).
• Track record of translating organic/polymer chemistry from molecules to commercialized materials products.
• 7+ years of product leadership (PM, Group PM, Product Lead) building and launching complex technical products.
• Deep understanding of chemistry and materials R&D workflows.
• Strong executive communication.
• Highly collaborative leadership style.

Nice to have

• Track record defining and executing TPPs and product strategies for scientific platforms.
• Experience building products at the intersection of LLMs / agentic systems and chemistry or materials R&D workflows.
• Direct experience with external partners or customers in materials-intensive sectors.
• Deep domain knowledge in homogeneous catalysis and ligand design, organic electronic materials, surfactant and formulation science, non-PFAS coatings, or membranes.

Benefits

• Medical, dental, and vision coverage
• Employer-paid life and disability insurance
• Flexible time off with generous company wide holidays
• Paid parental leave
• Educational assistance program
• Commuter benefits, including bike share memberships for office based employees
• Company subsidized lunch program

About the company

Lila Sciences is building Scientific Superintelligence™ to solve humankind's greatest challenges. The company combines advanced AI models with proprietary AI Science Factory™ instruments into an operating system for science.