Director / Senior Director, Product, Physical Sciences

Your Impact at LILA

Lila Sciences is hiring a Director, Product, Physical Sciences: a strategic, cross-functional product leader who shapes the vision, roadmap, and execution for platforms that accelerate scientific discovery and product development. Reporting to the Head of Physical Science Product, you will lead product strategy and delivery across capabilities at the intersection of physical science, simulation and physics-based modeling, lab automation, data and ML, and scientific intelligence.

This role requires strong leadership, crisp prioritization, and the ability to translate complex technical and scientific work into clear product direction and measurable outcomes for internal teams, partners, and customers. You will be deeply customer-facing, serving as a trusted technical and product voice with prospects and partners, and shaping proposals, driving commercial conversations, and closing deals that bring Lila's Physical Sciences platform to market.

What You'll Be Building

• Set the long-term product vision, roadmap, and portfolio priorities for Lila's Physical Sciences portfolio.
• Define product strategy and target product profiles (TPPs) for physical-science workflows: materials design, formulation, characterization, reliability, scale-up.
• Drive product execution from concept to launch across physical sciences, simulation, automation, data engineering, and ML.
• Represent product to executives, scientific leaders, partners, and customers as the senior external voice for the domain.
• Own commercial outcomes end-to-end: opportunity shaping, proposal development, deal closure, and revenue for the domain.
• Define success metrics and milestones (technical, product, commercial) and report progress clearly to leadership.

What You'll Need to Succeed

• MS, PhD, or equivalent experience in physical sciences (materials science, chemistry, physics, chemical or mechanical engineering, related fields).
• 7+ years of product leadership (PM, Group PM, Product Lead) building and launching complex technical products: scientific software or hardware, simulation platforms, data products, ML-enabled systems.
• Deep understanding of physical-science R&D workflows: experimental iteration, instrumentation, data quality, scale-up constraints.
• Strong familiarity with one or more of:
• Strong executive communication: clear storytelling and decisions legible to technical and non-technical audiences.
• Highly collaborative leadership style; influences across research, engineering, operations, and commercial teams.
• Output- and impact-focused: driven by delivered results against mission and program goals.

Bonus Points For

• Track record defining and executing TPPs and product strategies for scientific platforms (software + hardware + workflows), not just standalone applications.
• Experience building products at the intersection of LLMs/agentic systems and technical or scientific workflows, with a point of view on where these tools actually change throughput and decision quality in physical-science R&D.
• Direct experience with external partners or customers in technical domains (materials, energy, aerospace, manufacturing, industrials).
• Deep domain knowledge in simulations, semiconductors, or formulations.