Director, Product Design

About Formation Bio

Formation Bio is a tech and AI driven pharma company differentiated by radically more efficient drug development. 

Advancements in AI and drug discovery are creating more candidate drugs than the industry can progress because of the high cost and time of clinical trials. Recognizing that this development bottleneck may ultimately limit the number of new medicines that can reach patients, Formation Bio, founded in 2016 as TrialSpark Inc., has built technology platforms, processes, and capabilities to accelerate all aspects of drug development and clinical trials. Formation Bio partners, acquires, or in-licenses drugs from pharma companies, research organizations, and biotechs to develop programs past clinical proof of concept and beyond, ultimately helping to bring new medicines to patients. The company is backed by investors across pharma and tech, including a16z, Sequoia, Sanofi, Thrive Capital, Sam Altman, John Doerr, Spark Capital, SV Angel Growth, and others. 

You can read more at the following links:

• Our Vision for AI in Pharma
• Our Current Drug Portfolio
• Our Technology & Platform

At Formation Bio, our values are the driving force behind our mission to revolutionize the pharma industry. Every team and individual at the company shares these same values, and every team and individual plays a key part in our mission to bring new treatments to patients faster and more efficiently.

About the Position

As Director, Product Design at Formation Bio, your primary focus will be translating business opportunities, user needs, and tech innovations into impactful design solutions that accelerate drug development. You'll collaborate closely with cross-functional teams, including product managers, engineers, and drug development experts, to turn strategic vision into tangible product & user strategy. Your ability to synthesize diverse inputs, from industry intelligence to business drivers to user research insights, will be crucial in shaping our product roadmap and driving innovation. This position offers a unique opportunity to leverage your strategic design thinking to solve complex challenges in biotech, ultimately contributing to our mission of bringing life-saving treatments to patients faster and more efficiently.

Responsibilities

In this role, you’ll operate along three dimensions to support business outcomes:

Product

• Collaborate closely with Tech leadership on vision, strategy, and roadmaps that align with Formation Bio's overall mission and business objectives
• Drive the execution of the Product roadmap by working closely with internal cross-functional stakeholders and users
• Ensure that our Product priorities are rooted in a deep understanding of drug development decisionmaking and workflows, tech/AI opportunities, and industry dynamics

Process

• Lead Product team in effective discovery and research to understand the complex drug development landscape, the role of humans and data in the process, and potential opportunities for tech/AI to transform the ways that development teams work
• Shape interactions, processes, and artifacts that validate assumptions and build alignment with partners and stakeholders
• Develop and implement best practices for Design productivity, quality, and cross-functional collaboration

People

• Lead the Product Design team in delivering high-impact, high-quality products
• Manage and develop the careers of a team of Product Designers
• Foster a culture of collaboration and continuous improvement among the Design team and its core partners (Product Management and Engineering, as well as scientific, data, and operational stakeholders)

About You

• You have 7+ years of experience in design/product roles, including 4+ years in roles driving product/business strategy decisions.
• You have a proven track record of partnering with technical stakeholders/users to turn complex ideas into realistic products, especially in innovative product development settings.
• You are a quick learner with a deep intellectual curiosity, including demonstrated ability to thrive in ambiguous and rapidly-changing environments.
• Your interests and passions aren’t limited to the products you build: you’re just as interested in the adjacent processes, the people and teams involved, and accomplishing the company’s objectives.
• You are following the rapid evolution of LLMs and other AI solutions and have thoughts and opinions on how this will impact the future of product development and user experiences.
• You’re the type of design leader who will roll up your sleeves and do what it takes to make your product and team successful
• You have a track record of leading high-performing teams and shipping successful products from genesis to launch and beyond.
• You have exceptional collaboration and communication skills to effectively engage and work with stakeholders from diverse disciplines, levels of seniority, and levels of technical expertise.
• You have experience developing solutions for internal users/stakeholders, or at least a strong desire to do so.
• You have pharmaceutical or life sciences industry experience or a deep interest in the space.

We offer competitive compensation because we want to hire the best people and reward them for their contributions to our mission. We pay all employees competitively relative to the New York City market, regardless of their location. In compliance with NYC’s pay transparency law and in pursuit of pay equity and fairness, we publish salary ranges for all open roles at Formation Bio. The target salary range for this role is $211,000 - $265,000.

On top of base salary, we also offer equity, generous perks, location flexibility, and comprehensive benefits – learn more about them and our compensation philosophy here.

If this range doesn’t match your expectations, please still apply because we may have something else for you.

#LI-hybrid

You will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, disability, age, or veteran status.