Senior Director / Vice President, Product Engineering

Location: Remote, United States
Compensation: $200,000 to $250,000 base salary, plus additional performance-based incentives
Industry: Life Sciences Technology, Clinical Informatics, eClinical Software

The Opportunity

A growing life sciences technology organization is seeking a Senior Director or Vice President of Product Engineering to lead the architecture, development, delivery, maintenance, and continued evolution of its software platforms.

This executive will oversee product engineering across eClinical, clinical informatics, data integration, analytics, and biometrics-focused solutions. The position requires a leader who can establish long-term engineering strategy while remaining close to system architecture, technical design, product delivery, and software quality.

The successful candidate will lead a multidisciplinary engineering organization and partner closely with Product Management, Quality Assurance, Validation, Cloud Operations, Security, Implementation, Biometrics, Clinical Data Management, and business leadership. The role is particularly well suited to an engineering executive who understands the technical and regulatory demands of software used in clinical research and life sciences environments.

Key Responsibilities

Engineering Strategy and Product Delivery

• Lead and scale the product engineering organization responsible for enterprise software supporting eClinical, clinical informatics, data integration, clinical data review, analytics, reporting, and biometrics workflows.
• Define and execute the engineering strategy, technical roadmap, delivery model, organizational structure, and resource plan.
• Translate product, customer, and business priorities into scalable technical solutions and executable engineering plans.
• Oversee software architecture, system design, coding standards, release management, performance optimization, platform maintainability, and technical debt reduction.
• Guide the development of enterprise-grade software using secure, modern, and scalable engineering practices.
• Drive predictable delivery across multiple products, platforms, and concurrent development initiatives.
• Establish engineering KPIs covering release predictability, product quality, system reliability, development velocity, security, and operational performance.

Technical Leadership

• Provide technical direction across Java-based enterprise applications, SAS-supported clinical and statistical environments, and R-based analytics and data science workflows.
• Maintain sufficient technical depth to participate in architecture reviews, design decisions, technical problem-solving, and critical product escalations.
• Guide the development of cloud-based, API-driven, and data-intensive software platforms.
• Champion engineering excellence across Agile development, CI/CD, automated testing, code review, documentation, observability, and secure software development.
• Partner with Cloud Engineering, DevOps, and Security teams to improve platform scalability, reliability, disaster recovery, monitoring, and production support.
• Lead modernization initiatives involving legacy applications, platform consolidation, cloud migration, and API-first architecture.
• Provide executive oversight during critical production incidents, technical investigations, and customer escalations.

Clinical Technology and Regulatory Alignment

• Partner with Biometrics, Clinical Data Management, Statistical Programming, Regulatory, and Product teams to develop software supporting clinical trial and regulatory workflows.
• Support capabilities related to EDC, clinical data integration, data review, SDTM, ADaM, TLF generation, analytics, reporting, and regulatory submissions.
• Ensure products meet applicable expectations for security, privacy, auditability, traceability, validation readiness, controlled releases, and quality.
• Collaborate with Quality Assurance and Validation teams to establish appropriate testing, documentation, traceability, and audit-readiness practices.
• Embed quality and compliance into the software development lifecycle without compromising product innovation or delivery speed.

Organizational and People Leadership

• Lead multiple engineering teams that may include software developers, architects, engineering managers, technical leads, and other senior contributors.
• Recruit, develop, mentor, and retain a high-performing, globally distributed engineering organization.
• Build leadership capability among engineering managers, architects, and senior individual contributors.
• Lead workforce planning, organizational design, succession planning, hiring, and performance management.
• Foster a culture centered on technical excellence, accountability, transparency, continuous learning, collaboration, and customer impact.
• Serve as a trusted partner to executive leadership on engineering investment, product scalability, organizational capacity, and technology risk.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Bioinformatics, Information Systems, or a related technical discipline.
• At least 12 years of progressive software engineering experience, including significant responsibility within a commercial product-development organization.
• At least 5 years of leadership experience overseeing multiple engineering teams, engineering managers, or a comparably complex product-engineering function.
• Demonstrated success delivering complex, enterprise-scale software platforms with demanding requirements for security, scalability, reliability, maintainability, and compliance.
• Strong technical knowledge of Java, including enterprise application architecture and modern development practices.
• Practical understanding of SAS and R environments, particularly as they relate to clinical data, statistical programming, analytics, or life sciences workflows.
• Significant experience within life sciences technology, eClinical software, clinical informatics, biometrics, clinical data, regulatory technology, or an adjacent healthcare software environment.
• Experience working with cloud infrastructure, distributed systems, APIs, databases, CI/CD pipelines, automated testing, and modern software delivery practices.
• Strong understanding of software quality systems, validation expectations, SDLC controls, audit readiness, and regulated product environments.
• Experience leading globally distributed or remote engineering teams.
• Strong executive communication, stakeholder management, organizational leadership, and decision-making capabilities.
• Ability to operate at both strategic and technical levels, balancing long-term platform direction with immediate delivery and customer priorities.

Preferred Qualifications

• Master's degree or PhD in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Bioinformatics, Medical Informatics, Data Science, or a related field.
• Leadership experience with an eClinical, clinical informatics, biometrics, or life sciences software provider.
• Experience in environments comparable to companies such as Medidata, Veeva Systems, Medpace, Clario, Signant Health, IQVIA Technologies, Oracle Health Sciences, or other clinical technology organizations.
• Familiarity with platforms supporting EDC, CTMS, RTSM/IWRS, eCOA, eConsent, safety systems, clinical data review, integration hubs, or regulatory analytics.
• Knowledge of clinical trial data standards and biometrics workflows, including SDTM, ADaM, TLFs, metadata-driven design, and statistical reporting.
• Experience supporting validated software used in regulated clinical trial environments.
• Experience with AWS or another major cloud platform.
• Track record of modernizing legacy platforms and leading significant product or technology transformation initiatives.
• Familiarity with enterprise integration, microservices, data platforms, and API-first product architecture.
• Experience introducing artificial intelligence or machine learning capabilities into enterprise software products or engineering workflows.

Leadership Profile

The ideal candidate is a technically credible and commercially minded engineering leader who can:

• Set a clear product-engineering vision and convert that vision into measurable execution.
• Balance near-term business priorities with sustainable architecture and long-term platform health.
• Engage meaningfully with architects and developers while communicating effectively with executive leadership and customers.
• Build accountable, high-performing teams across a distributed environment.
• Navigate the quality, validation, security, and regulatory expectations associated with clinical technology.
• Promote disciplined execution while creating space for innovation and continuous improvement.
• Make thoughtful decisions involving technology investment, organizational design, product risk, and delivery trade-offs.

Compensation and Benefits

The anticipated base salary range for this position is $200,000 to $250,000, depending on experience, qualifications, leadership scope, and geographic market. The successful candidate will also be eligible for additional performance-based incentives and a competitive employee benefits package.

Benefits are expected to include:

• Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision insurance options
• Paid vacation, sick time, and company holidays
• 401(k) participation
• Employee assistance and health advocacy programs
• Additional corporate perks and discount programs

Specific compensation and benefits may vary based on the final level of the appointment and applicable employment terms.

Location

This is a fully remote position, but candidates must be currently located and authorized to work in the United States. Occasional travel may be required for leadership meetings, customer engagements, or team collaboration.