Associate Director / Director of Program Management, Life Sciences

Your Impact at LILA

Lila Sciences is looking for an Associate Director / Director, Program Management, Life Sciences — a senior operator who will drive the planning, execution, and delivery of therapeutic programs on Lila's platform. This person will provide direct project management leadership to the internal science, engineering, and automation teams developing molecules for our partners, owning timelines, resourcing, and progress tracking across complex, multidisciplinary programs. They will also serve as a senior operational interface with our pharmaceutical and biotech partners, ensuring that deliverables, governance, and communication are running smoothly.

These programs carry significant scientific complexity and commercial stakes. This role requires someone who can drive execution across fast-moving, technically demanding programs from the inside while maintaining the partner-facing judgment and presence to keep external stakeholders informed and aligned.

What You'll Be Building

• Own end-to-end project management for active therapeutic programs, including timeline development, resource coordination, milestone tracking, and dependency management across product, science, machine learning and automation teams
• Drive day-to-day execution discipline; ensuring that internal teams have clear priorities, deliverables, and decision points, and that blockers are identified and resolved quickly
• Manage resource allocation discussions and trade-off decisions across a complex set of priorities (e.g., balancing experiments between AI model training and near-term partnership deliverables)
• Establish and maintain program-level reporting, including status updates, milestone tracking, and resource utilization views for internal leadership and external deliverables
• Proactively identify, communicate, and manage program risks, escalating appropriately and ensuring transparency with scientific and executive leadership
• Structure and facilitate effective internal program meetings, decision forums, and reviews; ensuring the right information reaches the right people at the right time

Partner-Facing Delivery

• Serve as the primary operational interface with partner organizations, coordinating joint governance, managing deliverable timelines, and driving alignment on milestones and expectations
• Translate internal program status into clear, structured updates for external partners, ensuring transparency without overexposing internal complexity
• Support alliance obligations including joint steering committees, milestone reporting, and deliverable handoffs
• Partner closely with scientific and product leadership to ensure that program plans reflect both Lila's platform capabilities and partner-specific program goals and business objectives

Process & Scale

• Lead the development of scalable project management practices, templates, and tools as Lila's partnership portfolio grows
• Help build repeatable operating models for how Lila plans, tracks, and delivers partner programs

What You’ll Need to Succeed

• 8+ years of experience in the pharmaceutical or biotechnology industry in roles associated with drug discovery or development, project management, or operations
• 5+ years in program management, project management, or a similar cross-functional coordination role with direct responsibility for timelines, resourcing, and tracking
• Demonstrated ability to independently drive execution across complex, multidisciplinary programs with significant scientific and commercial stakes
• Strong understanding of drug discovery and development processes; ability to engage credibly with scientific stakeholders and communicate at a high level across therapeutic and technical domains
• Experience managing programs with external partners, including milestone management, governance, and stakeholder communication
• Outstanding communication skills, with the ability to distill complex scientific and operational information for diverse audiences including executive leadership and external partners
• Proven ability to influence without authority and drive alignment across cross-functional teams

Bonus Points For

• Experience working at or partnering with AI-native or platform-based drug discovery companies
• Experience managing external collaborations in a discovery or preclinical setting (alliance management, CRO/CDMO oversight, or joint research programs)
• Familiarity with project management tools and methodologies (e.g., critical path analysis, scenario planning, resource management, portfolio reporting)
• Familiarity with the rapid evolution of LLMs and AI-driven science platforms and a perspective on how this will impact partnership models in drug discovery