Associate Director / Director of Program Management, Life Sciences

About the role

Lila Sciences is looking for an Associate Director / Director, Program Management, Life Sciences. This role involves driving the planning, execution, and delivery of therapeutic programs on Lila's platform. The candidate will lead the internal science, engineering, and automation teams in developing molecules for partners, managing timelines, resources, and progress tracking.

Responsibilities

• 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
• 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
• 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

Requirements

• 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

Pay

We offer competitive base compensation with bonus potential and generous early-stage equity. Your final offer will reflect your background, expertise, and expected impact.

Benefits

• Full-time U.S. employees receive a comprehensive benefits program including medical, dental, and vision coverage; employer-paid life and disability insurance; flexible time off with generous company wide holidays; paid parental leave; an educational assistance program; commuter benefits, including bike share memberships for office based employees; and a company subsidized lunch program.
• International employees receive a comprehensive benefits program tailored to their region. USD salary ranges apply only to U.S.-based positions; international salaries are set to local market.

Expected Base Salary Range

$148,000 - $224,000 USD

About LILA

Lila Sciences is building Scientific Superintelligence™ to solve humankind's greatest challenges. We believe science is the most inspiring frontier for AI. Rather than hard-coding expert knowledge into tools, LILA builds systems that can learn for themselves.

LILA combines advanced AI models with proprietary AI Science Factory™ instruments into an operating system for science that executes the entire scientific method autonomously, accelerating discovery at unprecedented speed, scale, and impact across medicine, materials, and energy. Learn more at www.lila.ai.