Senior Director, Product & Technology

Overview

The Senior Director of Product and Technology leads the strategic planning, development, and implementation of advanced technology platforms and products to support Dana-Farber Cancer Institute’s (DFCI) research community. Reporting to the Vice President of Research Informatics Operations (RIO), this role oversees the design, development, and continuous enhancement of systems that serve basic research labs, clinical trial informatics, research administration, and scientific computing.

This role requires expertise in product management, systems integration, IT infrastructure, and data acquisition, with a demonstrated ability to align technology solutions with the operational needs of researchers and the strategic goals of the Institute. The Senior Director manages a large team of product managers, developers, and infrastructure specialists, ensuring the successful delivery of innovative, scalable, and user-centered solutions. This position also collaborates with senior executives, faculty, and research leaders to address the complex needs of the DFCI research community.

Located in Boston and the surrounding communities, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute is a leader in life changing breakthroughs in cancer research and patient care. We are united in our mission of conquering cancer, HIV/AIDS, and related diseases. We strive to create an inclusive, diverse, and equitable environment where we provide compassionate and comprehensive care to patients of all backgrounds, and design programs to promote public health particularly among high-risk and underserved populations. We conduct groundbreaking research that advances treatment, we educate tomorrow's physician/researchers, and we work with amazing partners, including other Harvard Medical School-affiliated hospitals.

MINIMUM JOB QUALIFICATIONS:

Minimum

Education

• Bachelor’s degree required, ideally in a STEM field. Advanced degree, preferred, ideally in business administration, marketing, computer science, software development or a related field.

Minimum Experience:

• 15+ years of relevant professional experience, with 10+ in a biomedical or healthcare setting, preferred.
• undefined
• 10 years of experience in product management, preferably in leadership roles, with a track record of successfully managing and launching products/software platforms in a large-scale enterprise environment.
• 10 years of direct people management experience.
• 10 years of exceptional planning, strategy, project management, negotiation, and organizational skills, with the demonstrated ability to drive multiple concurrent projects in a complex, deadline-driven environment.
• 7 years of building and managing high-performance product management and software development teams.

PRIMARY DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Strategic Responsibilities

• Partners with VP of RIO to develop a clear product and technology strategy and vision, aligning the product roadmap and product goals with the overall Institute goals, market trends, and various client needs.

• Oversees the product planning process by leading matrixed, cross-functional teams to prioritize features, define requirements and create roadmaps for every product ensuring a successful product development lifecycle for all research systems and platforms.

• Leads a large department of directors, associate directors, product managers, developers, integration developers, quality assurance (QA) analysts, and infrastructure specialists. Ensures the department meets key Institute performance indicators (KPIs)s, identifies operational risks, and provides mitigation strategies.

• Determines the strategic value of utilizing sponsored and outsourced staff for specific talent needs. Directly manages technical development resources located in India.

• Develops and executes strategy for enterprise data stewardship with DFCI and I&A leadership. Acts as DFCI leader for democratization of data, tools, and analytics and enables stakeholders to embark on that journey.

• Collaborates regularly with the Senior Director of Architecture and Strategy to align the overall strategic direction for new product designs within the context of the entire research product landscape. Ensures product innovation initiatives are in harmony with the overall architectural vision and strategic goals of the organization.

• Ensures the team regularly identifies opportunities for leveraging AI technologies, including LLMs, to enhance product innovation and streamline research processes.

• Leadership Responsibilities

• Responsible for the design, development, implementation, scalability, and on-going enhancements of over 30 research systems and platforms with more than 14K users at DFCI and various internal and external research collaborating entities, including the DF/HCC.

• Provides solutions for all oncology-related work and activities for the DF/HCC.

• Oversees the entire lifecycle of the full suite of the product portfolio; from ideation and development to launch and continuous improvement.

• Collaborates closely with RIO Account Services leadership, who support the Basic Research & Research Administration, Translational Research and Clinical Trials Research domains, to identify and prioritize solution delivery across the entire research enterprise including multiple departments, labs, and external collaborators. Collaborates with other I&A client-facing leads to provide platform solutions for clinical and business operations, as needed.

• Oversees the integration of AI technologies into product management processes, ensuring continuous innovation and alignment with emerging technological advancements.

• Ensures the product management teams follow a standardized framework for product roadmaps, release management, security, integration, and hardware.

• Collaborates closely with the Bioinformatics, Artificial Intelligence and Data Science Operations (AIOS), Enterprise Analytics, Enterprise Data Warehouse I&A capability teams to provide comprehensive solutions delivery for products and services that require cross-functional support.

• Provides product leadership for all research-facing systems and services developed within the Bioinformatics and AIOS. Examples include: the Bioinformatics workbench platform, the AI platform for model development and deployment, and the internal DFCI ChatGPT4 platform.

• Assumes direct responsibility for the Engineering team’s efforts by overseeing product managers who are tasked with the development and management of DFCI in-house software solutions. Provides hands-on leadership to guide and support the product management team, ensuring that engineering projects align with organizational goals and deliver optimal results.

• Successfully leads enterprise product launches by ensuring the coordination of all key departments.

• Collaborates with Office of General Counsel (OGC) and the Belfer Office of Dana-Farber Innovation (BODFI) on creating and maintaining system use and data sharing agreements for outside collaborations.

• Leads the development of system architecture to provide rapid data findability and delivery of new data types for researchers.