Technical Program Manager, R&D

Job description

ABOUT SANDBOXAQ SandboxAQ is a high-growth company delivering AI solutions that address some of the world's greatest challenges. The company’s Large Quantitative Models (LQMs) power advances in life sciences, financial services, navigation, cybersecurity, and other sectors. We are a global team that is tech-focused and includes experts in AI, chemistry, cybersecurity, physics, mathematics, medicine, engineering, and other specialties. The company emerged from Alphabet Inc. as an independent, growth capital-backed company in 2022, funded by leading investors and supported by a braintrust of industry leaders. At SandboxAQ, we’ve cultivated an environment that encourages creativity, collaboration, and impact. By investing deeply in our people, we’re building a thriving, global workforce poised to tackle the world's epic challenges. Join us to advance your career in pursuit of an inspiring mission, in a community of like-minded people who value entrepreneurialism, ownership, and transformative impact. THE OPPORTUNITY R&D teams solve problems nobody has solved before. That's exactly what makes them hard to ship: the scope shifts as the science reveals itself, and the roadmap you set in January may need to look different by June, due to new results changing what “done” means. We're looking for a Technical Program Manager who has run point on programs like this before.We’re especially interested in cases where the stakes were high enough that a missed milestone was expensive, publicly visible, or both. You've been the person who saw a bottleneck three weeks before it became a crisis. You've translated between scientists who need room to explore and finance/product stakeholders who need a defensible number. And, you know how to build a roadmap that's rigorous enough to hold people accountable and flexible enough to survive contact with real research. You'll partner directly with our R&D department head and Product and Engineering to set ROI-optimal strategy, then own the execution machinery that turns that strategy into shipped, on-time, drama-free, and defensible results. KEY RESPONSIBILITIES - Anticipate bottlenecks before they're bottlenecks. Work with R&D and Product to define requirements, surface technical dependencies, and build delivery schedules that account for trade-offs before they become fire drills. - Translate between three different languages. R&D needs room to be wrong in productive ways. Product and Engineering need specificity and commitments. Finance needs predictability against ROI. You'll build the shared vocabulary and cadence that lets all three coexist without anyone feeling boxed in or left in the dark. - Design execution rituals that fit a scientific team:sprints, checkpoints, and reviews that create accountability without forcing lab-paced work into a factory-paced cadence. - Own the roadmap end-to-end: build it, defend it, update it as the science evolves, and make sure it stays a living tool rather than a document nobody trusts. - Drive resourcing conversations with leadership and finance, making the case for what R&D needs and when, backed by a track record they can trust. - Get launches out the door cleanly. When a milestone, paper, or product moment is on the line, you're the person orchestrating the last mile. You’ll coordinate the handoffs, catch the loose thread, and make sure it lands without a scramble. - Play a critical role in reshaping drug discovery, advancing machine learning, and protecting humanity from disease. ESSENTIAL SKILLS & EXPERIENCE - 8+ years in technical program management or a similar role, with real experience sitting inside, rather than just tracking the status of, R&D or deep-science teams that shipped world-class products. - A track record, proven by specific moments you can point to, of stepping into a program mid-crisis (a stalled milestone, a resourcing gap, a scope blowup) and getting it back on track. - Demonstrated ability to build and defend ROI-generating roadmaps for teams doing genuinely novel, high-uncertainty scientific work. - Proven ability to get fluent in a new scientific domain fast enough to make good calls in it independently as demonstrated by either or both of: - An advanced degree in a technical field, or - Deep experience working within heavily scientific teams. - Experience partnering directly with finance and product leadership to tie technical delivery to investment decisions. - A bias toward asking "how might this plan break in six months?" before it does. You plan for your own team's disruption, not just external risk. HIGHLY DESIRED SKILLS & EXPERIENCE - Experience at a startup, or in another environment where the roadmap changed faster than the org chart could keep up. - Direct biotech or biopharma experience. - Degree in machine learning and/or a drug-discovery-related field. - Experience standing up program management tooling, dashboards, or automation pipelines that a scientific team actually kept using. WHY JOIN US? We offer a comprehensive and competitive benefits package designed to support your health, financial well-being, and life outside of work. - Compensation: Competitive base salary, performance-based incentives or bonuses (where applicable), and equity participation. - Benefits: Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage for employees and dependents with generous employer premium contributions, retirement savings with company matching, paid parental leave, and inclusive family-building benefits. - Work-Life Balance: Flexible paid time off, company-wide seasonal breaks, and support for flexible work arrangements that enable sustainable performance. - Career Development: Opportunities for continuous learning and growth through on-the-job development, cross-functional collaboration, and access to internal learning and development programs. SANDBOXAQ WELCOMES ALL We are committed to fostering a culture of belonging and respect, where diverse perspectives are actively sought and valued. Our multidisciplinary environment provides ample opportunity for continuous growth - working alongside humble, empowered, and ambitious colleagues ready to tackle epic challenges. Equal Employment Opportunity: All qualified applicants will receive consideration regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity, or Veteran status. Accommodations: We provide reasonable accommodations for individuals with disabilities in job application procedures for open roles. If you need such an accommodation, please let a member of our Recruiting team know. Read: Guidance for candidates on using AI Tools in interviews https://www.sandboxaq.com/ai-in-interviews