Our Mission
At Element Biosciences, we are passionate about our mission to empower the scientific community with more freedom and flexibility to accelerate our collective impact on humanity. We have built a highly efficient product-driven organization where employees can learn, grow, and thrive in a challenging but encouraging environment. We are committed to scientific integrity, collegiality, honesty, objectivity, and openness.
Staff Product Owner
We're hiring a Staff Product Owner to lead software development for our multi-omic data generation instruments. You'll own the product surface where instrumentation, cloud analytics, bioinformatics, and user workflows converge.
This is a senior individual contributor (IC) role. While you won't manage direct reports, you will set direction across multiple scrum teams and act as the connective tissue between bioinformatics, hardware, chemistry, cloud, and instrument control. You should be comfortable getting hands-on prototyping, writing scripts, and running test suites—not just writing tickets.
Role Overview
- Reporting To: Associate Director, Software Product
- Location: San Diego, CA (Onsite)
- Job Type: Full-time, Exempt
- Travel: Up to 10% or as needed
- Base Compensation: $144,000 - $190,000
What You'll Do
Essential Functions & Responsibilities
- Backlog Ownership: Own and prioritize backlogs across multiple scrum teams; translate company initiatives into epics, user stories, and clear acceptance criteria.
- Product Capability Definition: Define and ship product capabilities spanning instrument control, cloud analytics, ML pipelines, and emerging LLM/agent-based user workflows.
- Cross-Functional Partnership: Partner with bioinformatics, cloud, and instrument software teams to design scalable data pipelines, analysis workflows, and control interfaces.
- Technical Subject Matter Expert (SME): Understand the system architecture and interfaces well enough to make sound trade-off calls and unblock teams technically, not just procedurally.
- Hands-on Validation: Prototype, write scripts, and run test suites to validate ideas, reproduce issues, and pressure-test specs before they reach engineering.
- Requirements & Risk Management: Lead requirements gathering, requirement analysis, and risk analysis; own the Software Requirements Specification (SRS) and risk documentation.
- User Experience (UX) Advocacy: Champion UX and human-centered design so scientists, lab techs, and bioinformaticians can seamlessly use what we ship.
- Execution & Support: Drive cross-team coordination, surface dependencies early, keep delivery on track with minimal oversight, and support troubleshooting during development and sustaining.
What You'll Bring
Education & Experience
- Education & Domain Expertise: Bachelor’s degree in Bioengineering, Computer Science, or a related field with 8–12+ years in life sciences software. Working knowledge of cell biology, multi-omic analysis, and DNA sequencing is required.
- Proven Track Record: Experience shipping software that successfully spans instrumentation, cloud SaaS, and data analysis.
- Technical Chops: Strong requirements engineering and solution architecture skills. Ability to read and write code, prototype quickly with AI tools, run/interpret test suites, and engage substantively in technical design reviews.
- Leadership Through Influence: Experience owning product across multiple scrum teams as an IC; leading through vision and technical credibility rather than formal authority.
- AI/ML Product Experience: Experience with traditional ML pipelines (model training, evaluation, deployment) and/or LLM/agent-based features (RAG, tool use, evals).
- Regulated Workflows: Familiarity with regulated software workflows (e.g., IEC 62304, FDA 21 CFR Part 820, ISO 13485, or IVDR) including design controls, traceability, and verification/validation documentation for SaMD (Software as a Medical Device) or instrument software.
- Adaptability: Strong analytical and communication skills; ability to thrive in ambiguity and fast iteration.
Our Technical Stack & Tools
- Core Infrastructure: Go, React, MongoDB, Redis, gRPC, AWS, Ubuntu Core
- AI Productivity Tools: Cursor, Claude
Physical Requirements
- Ability to lift up to 20 pounds.
- Flexibility in working hours, as this position may occasionally require customer support during non-regular business hours.
Total Rewards & Compensation
In addition to the base salary range of $144,000 - $190,000 (dependent on geographic location, qualifications, and experience), Element Biosciences offers a comprehensive benefits package:
- Stock options
- Discretionary annual bonus
- No-cost health insurance plans
- 401(k) with company match
- Flexible paid time off (PTO)
Equal Opportunity Employment
We foster an environment such that all people are afforded the freedom to pursue their passions without regard to race, color, religion, national or ethnic origin, gender (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, disability, veteran status or any other characteristics protected by law.
