Director/ Senior Director, Product, Electronic Materials

About the role

Lila Sciences is hiring a (Senior) Director, Product, Electronic Materials: a strategic, cross-functional product leader who shapes the vision, roadmap, and execution for platforms that accelerate the discovery and development of new electronic materials (e.g., superconductors, semiconductors, magnets, photonics). Reporting to the Head of Physical Science Product, you will lead product strategy and delivery across capabilities at the intersection of condensed-matter physics, simulation and physics based modeling, device performance, lab automation, data and ML, and scientific intelligence. This role requires strong leadership, crisp prioritization, and the ability to translate complex physical phenomena into clear product direction and measurable outcomes for internal teams, partners, and customers. You will be deeply customer-facing, serving as a trusted technical and product voice with prospects and partners, shaping proposals, driving commercial conversations, and closing deals that bring Lila's electronic-materials platform to market. We are hiring a product-focused materials scientist or condensed-matter physicist fluent in component and device design, not an electrical engineer whose focus is circuit or system-level design divorced from the underlying materials.

Key facts

What you'll do

Define the long-term product vision, portfolio strategy, and multi-year roadmap for Lila's electronic-materials offerings, ensuring coherence across superconductors, semiconductors, magnetic materials, and photonics.

Translate cutting-edge materials-physics capabilities into coherent commercial programs, crafting target product profiles that span synthesis, fabrication, characterization, and device integration for semiconductor, quantum computing, aerospace and defense, telecommunications, and energy customers.

Lead cross-functional execution of product initiatives from concept exploration through launch, coordinating materials science, simulation, automation, data engineering, and machine learning teams to deliver validated solutions.

Serve as the senior external product voice for the electronic-materials domain, representing Lila to executives, scientific leaders, consortium partners, and prospective customers in high-stakes discussions.

Own commercial outcomes end-to-end, including opportunity shaping, requirements capture, proposal development, negotiation, deal closure, and revenue generation for the electronic-materials portfolio.

Define and own success metrics, technical milestones, and commercial KPIs, communicating progress, risks, and tradeoffs clearly to executive leadership and stakeholders.

Champion customer discovery and feedback loops, translating user needs and market signals into iterative product improvements and new capability priorities.

Partner with sales, business development, and scientific advisory boards to validate positioning, differentiate value, and expand into adjacent materials domains and application areas.

Ensure product requirements are translated into precise specifications for R&D, operations, and data teams, aligning experimental workflows, instrumentation strategies, and data standards.

Champion the integration of scientific intelligence, data, and model-driven workflows to accelerate materials discovery, process optimization, and device performance.

Define and manage the product lifecycle for hardware, software, and workflow offerings, balancing innovation exploration with delivery of reliable, scalable solutions.

Champion quality, reproducibility, and scale-up readiness across materials processes, collaborating closely with operations and manufacturing partners.

Build and mentor a product team focused on electronic materials, developing product managers, scientists, and engineers while fostering a culture of rigorous decision-making and customer obsession.

Establish strategic relationships with key partners and consortia, aligning Lila's platform with industry roadmaps, standards efforts, and joint development initiatives.

Requirements

Advanced degree (MS, PhD, or equivalent experience) in condensed-matter physics, materials science, or a closely related field, with genuine fluency across fundamental science including band structure and semiconductor physics, superconductivity theory, magnetism, and nonlinear or quantum optics.

Demonstrated expertise in materials and device characterization methods such as XRD, XPS, AFM, Hall-effect and four-point transport measurements, SQUID/VSM magnetometry, and photoluminescence or optical spectroscopy.

A track record of translating materials physics from fundamental science into commercialized electronic-materials products, with evidence of delivering measurable outcomes in real-world environments.

7+ years of progressive product leadership experience building and launching complex technical products, including materials systems, devices, scientific software or hardware, simulation platforms, data products, or ML-enabled systems.

Deep understanding of materials and device R&D workflows, experimental iteration, instrumentation, data quality, and scale-up constraints across laboratory and pilot-manufacturing environments.

Strong executive communication skills, with the ability to craft clear narratives and decisions that resonate with both technical and non-technical audiences.

Highly collaborative leadership style, with a proven ability to influence and align stakeholders across research, engineering, operations, and commercial functions.

Output- and impact-focused mindset, driven by delivered results against ambitious program goals and timelines.

Nice to have

A track record of defining and executing target product profiles and product strategies for scientific platforms, not only standalone applications.

Experience building products at the intersection of LLMs, agentic systems, and materials or device R&D workflows, with a point of view on how these tools change throughput and decision quality in the laboratory.