Director, Head of Product Development

What if… What if… you could join an organization that creates, resources, and builds life sciences companies that invent breakthrough technologies to transform health care? 

In today’s healthcare system, disease diagnosis often relies on invasive procedures, such as biopsies, which enable direct interrogation of cellular and tissue health at the suspected source of disease. Due to their invasiveness, cost, and inconvenience to patients, these procedures are often performed only after symptomatic disease has emerged, limiting the ability to intervene earlier in disease progression when therapies may be most effective. 

Flagship Labs 103, Inc. is a privately held early-stage company developing advanced molecular technologies designed to detect highly sensitive, cell-resolved biological signals from minimally invasive biospecimens. By combining novel molecular profiling approaches with next-generation assay technologies, FL103 aims to enable earlier disease detection, longitudinal disease monitoring, and improved patient stratification across oncology, neurodegenerative disease, and other major disease areas. 

FL103 was founded by Flagship Pioneering, an innovation enterprise dedicated to originating and developing companies that invent breakthrough technologies to transform health care, agriculture, and sustainability. Since Flagship’s founding in 2000, the firm has originated and fostered more than 100 scientific ventures including Moderna Therapeutics, Generate Biomedicines, and Indigo Agriculture. 

Position Summary: 

FL103 is seeking a highly hands-on scientific and operational leader to serve as Director of Product Development. This individual will play a foundational role in translating FL103’s early assay and biological discoveries into robust, scalable, and clinically meaningful diagnostic assays. 

Working closely with the company’s platform and discovery teams, this leader will drive development and optimization of highly multiplexed molecular assays designed for plasma-based applications. The role will focus on improving assay sensitivity, specificity, reproducibility, and overall analytical performance while establishing the operational and technical foundation for future clinical deployment. 

The ideal candidate will bring deep expertise in translational assay development within molecular diagnostics, liquid biopsy, or advanced biomarker platforms and will have experience converting complex biological signals into deployable diagnostic workflows. This person should thrive in highly collaborative, fast-moving environments and be excited to operate as a player-coach — remaining close to the science while building and mentoring a growing product development organization. 

This is a rare opportunity to join a Flagship-founded company at the earliest stages and help build a transformational diagnostic platform at the intersection of molecular biology, ultra-sensitive detection technologies, and translational medicine. 

Key Responsibilities 

Product Development & Assay Optimization 

• Lead development and optimization of highly multiplexed molecular assays for plasma-based applications  

• Translate early biological and assay signals into robust, reproducible, and clinically meaningful diagnostic outputs  

• Identify and resolve sources of technical variability, assay artifacts, and background signal  

• Drive improvements in assay sensitivity, specificity, multiplexing performance, and reproducibility  

• Develop analytical workflows, assay QC frameworks, and validation strategies to support future clinical deployment  

• Help establish scalable assay development pipelines and best practices across product development activities  

Translational Development 

• Partner closely with platform and discovery teams to prioritize and advance clinically actionable programs  

• Support development of assays across multiple disease areas including oncology and neurodegenerative diseases  

• Build the technical and operational foundation for future CLIA/LDT deployment and clinical validation activities  

• Collaborate cross-functionally with computational, clinical, automation, and external partner teams to advance product readiness  

Team Leadership & Culture Building 

• Build, mentor, and manage a high-performing assay and product development team  

• Operate as a highly engaged player-coach, contributing directly to experimental design, troubleshooting, and assay strategy  

• Foster a culture of scientific rigor, operational excellence, adaptability, and mission-driven execution  

• Help introduce structure and prioritization into a fast-moving, innovation-driven startup environment  

External Collaboration & Strategic Engagement 

• Interface with external collaborators, CROs, diagnostic partners, and technology vendors to accelerate assay development  

• Collaborate closely with founders, Flagship leadership, and internal business functions to align technical execution with company strategy  

• Contribute technical expertise and product development insight in discussions with current and future partners 

Qualifications 

• PhD in Molecular Biology, Bioengineering, Biochemistry, Biomedical Engineering, or related field  

• 10+ years of industry experience, with significant experience developing and optimizing molecular diagnostic or liquid biopsy assays  

• Proven experience translating early-stage biological discoveries into robust, deployable assay workflows  

• Deep expertise in one or more of the following:  

• Highly multiplexed molecular assays  

• Proximity-based assay technologies  

• qPCR and/or NGS-based assay readouts  

• Liquid biopsy and plasma-based diagnostics  

• Protein and/or RNA biomarker detection  

• Ultra-sensitive molecular detection platforms  

• Demonstrated experience improving assay reproducibility, sensitivity, specificity, and analytical robustness in complex biological samples  

• Experience developing assays intended for clinical studies, translational programs, CLIA/LDT environments, or diagnostic applications  

• Strong understanding of assay validation, analytical performance metrics, and product development workflows  

• Experience operating in highly cross-functional environments spanning biology, chemistry, automation, translational science, and computational teams  

• Prior experience building and mentoring scientific teams in high-growth biotech or diagnostics organizations  

• Entrepreneurial mindset with comfort operating in ambiguous, fast-moving startup environments  

• Strong organizational skills, scientific rigor, and problem-solving capabilities  

• Experience with extracellular vesicle biology or advanced cell-resolved diagnostics is a plus but not required 

 

About Flagship 

Flagship Pioneering is a biotechnology company that invents and builds platform companies, each with the potential for multiple products that transform human health or sustainability. Since its launch in 2000, Flagship has originated and fostered more than 100 scientific ventures, resulting in more than $90 billion in aggregate value. Many of the companies Flagship has founded have addressed humanity’s most urgent challenges: vaccinating billions of people against COVID-19, curing intractable diseases, improving human health, preempting illness, and feeding the world by improving the resiliency and sustainability of agriculture. Flagship has been recognized twice on FORTUNE’s “Change the World” list, an annual ranking of companies that have made a positive social and environmental impact through activities that are part of their core business strategies and has been twice named to Fast Company’s annual list of the World’s Most Innovative Companies. Learn more about Flagship at www.flagshippioneering.com. 

Flagship Pioneering is committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity or Veteran status. 

At Flagship, we recognize there is no perfect candidate. If you have some of the experience listed above but not all, please apply anyway. Experience comes in many forms, skills are transferable, and passion goes a long way. We are dedicated to building diverse and inclusive teams and look forward to learning more about your unique background. 

Recruitment & Staffing Agencies: Flagship Pioneering and its affiliated Flagship Lab companies (collectively, “FSP”) do not accept unsolicited resumes from any source other than candidates. The submission of unsolicited resumes by recruitment or staffing agencies to FSP or its employees is strictly prohibited unless contacted directly by Flagship Pioneering’s internal Talent Acquisition team. Any resume submitted by an agency in the absence of a signed agreement will automatically become the property of FSP, and FSP will not owe any referral or other fees with respect thereto. 

The salary range for this role is $179,000 - $236,500. Compensation for the role will depend on a number of factors, including a candidate’s qualifications, skills, competencies, and experience. FL103 currently offers healthcare coverage, annual incentive program, retirement benefits and a broad range of other benefits. Compensation and benefits information is based on FL103's good faith estimate as of the date of publication and may be modified in the future.