Flagship Pioneering is a bioplatform innovation company that invents and builds platform companies that change the world. We bring together the greatest scientific minds with entrepreneurial company builders and assemble the capital to allow them to take courageous leaps. Those big leaps in human health and sustainability exponentially accelerate scientific progress in areas ranging from cancer detection and treatment to nature-positive agriculture.   

 What sets Flagship apart is our ability to advance biotechnology by uniting life science innovation, company creation, and capital investment under one roof in a way that is largely without precedent. Our scientific founders, entrepreneurial leaders, and professional capital managers are each aligned around an institutionalized process that enables us to innovate and transform for the benefit of people and planet.   

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. 

Position Summary:

The Vice President, Digital Science, is a visionary and strategic leader responsible for shaping and driving the digital ecosystem across Flagship Pioneering’s portfolio of companies. This role focuses on designing and delivering scalable solutions that enable the launch of several digital biotech companies each year, while accelerating opportunities for innovation at the portfolio level.  

Key Responsibilities:

Enterprise Vision and Digital Strategy

• Set and Evolve Flagship’s Digital Vision: Define the long-term vision for Digital Science, shaping Flagship’s approach to scientific innovation through pioneering digital strategies that drive value creation across the entire portfolio.
• Architect and Enable Digital Biotech Launches: Lead the development of digital-first operating models that ensure Flagship companies are built to scale from day one, leveraging cloud, data, AI/ML, and emerging technologies.
• Align Digital Strategy with Business Outcomes: Partner with executive leadership, business units, and portfolio companies to align digital and data strategies with Flagship’s broader business objectives, including new company origination, portfolio growth, and scientific impact.

Executive Leadership and Organizational Development

• Build High-Impact Teams and Centers of Excellence (CoEs): Lead the development of specialized CoEs across key domains such as Software Engineering, Scientific Cloud Computing, Data Science, and Data Management to provide strategic and technical expertise to Flagship’s portfolio companies.
• Cultivate a Culture of Innovation and Collaboration: Foster a culture of open innovation and knowledge sharing across Flagship’s portfolio, ensuring non-differentiated digital solutions are reused and optimized for portfolio-wide success.

Data and Digital Ecosystem Leadership

• Establish and Govern the Flagship Data Exchange: Create and oversee the implementation of a portfolio-wide Data Exchange that enables secure, scalable, and compliant data sharing across Flagship companies, unlocking new scientific insights and business opportunities.
• Drive the Digital Backbone for Science: Oversee the continued development of Flagship’s Digital Backbone platform, ensuring a robust, reusable technology stack that accelerates scientific discovery and operational efficiency across all portfolio companies.

Innovation Leadership and Emerging Technologies

• Co-Lead AI Adoption Across Flagship: Partner with Pioneering Intelligence and other Flagship leaders to accelerate the adoption of AI in ways that deliver measurable scientific and business impact, focusing on practical applications and scalable solutions across the portfolio.
• Identify and Capitalize on Emerging Opportunities: Continuously evaluate emerging technologies and trends in cloud computing, bioinformatics, and AI/ML to identify opportunities that will enhance Flagship’s digital capabilities and competitive advantage.

Stakeholder Engagement and Business Partnership

• Influence at the Executive Level: Serve as a key advisor to senior leaders, providing thought leadership on digital and data strategies that shape company success and portfolio value creation.
• Strengthen Partnerships with External Vendors: Negotiate strategic vendor relationships to ensure Flagship and its portfolio companies benefit from cost efficiencies, state-of-the-art tools, and scalable technology solutions.

Operational and Financial Accountability

• Deliver Measurable Business Impact: Define and track key performance indicators (KPIs) that demonstrate the value delivered by Digital Science, ensuring continuous improvement in operational efficiency, cost savings, and scientific productivity.
• Optimize Financial Performance: Ensure that the Digital Science organization operates with agility and efficiency, balancing internal capabilities with external partnerships to maximize return on investment.

Building Teams and Culture

• Create and Scale High-Performing Teams: Recruit, retain, and develop top talent across Digital Science disciplines, ensuring a diverse and inclusive workforce capable of driving innovation and operational excellence.
• Foster a Digital-First Culture: Promote a culture that embraces digital innovation and data-driven decision-making, ensuring that portfolio companies are empowered to leverage technology to advance their scientific goals.

Qualifications:

• 15+ years of experience in digital strategy, technology leadership, or scientific computing, with a proven track record of leading large-scale digital initiatives in a life sciences or innovation-focused environment.
• Demonstrated success in building high-performing teams and cultivating a culture of innovation and collaboration.
• Experience driving technical change and delivering practical, scalable solutions across diverse business units.
• Strong understanding of cloud computing, data management, and scientific data ecosystems.
• Ability to influence at the executive level and build trusted relationships with senior leadership, portfolio company CEOs, and external partners.
• Proven ability to deliver measurable business impact through digital initiatives, including cost savings, operational efficiency, and scientific productivity.
• Excellent negotiation skills for managing vendor relationships and securing value for Flagship companies.
• Extensive track record of operating at the forefront of new technologies and rapidly applying them to large organizations.

Flagship Pioneering and our ecosystem companies are 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.

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