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Chan Zuckerberg Initiative

Principal Technical Program Manager, ML/AI, Science

Hybrid

Redwood city, United states

$ 268,000 /year

Senior

Full Time

21-10-2025

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Skills

Communication Leadership Product Management Research Training benchmarking Organization Software Development Artificial Intelligence

Job Specifications

The Team

CZI supports the science and technology that will make it possible to help scientists cure, prevent, or manage all diseases by the end of this century. While this may seem like an audacious goal, in the last 100 years, biomedical science has made tremendous strides in understanding biological systems, advancing human health, and treating disease.

Achieving our mission will only be possible if scientists are able to better understand human biology. To that end, we have identified four grand challenges that will unlock the mysteries of the cell and how cells interact within systems -- paving the way for new discoveries that will change medicine in the decades that follow:

Building an AI-based virtual cell model to predict and understand cellular behavior
Developing state-of-the-art imaging systems to observe living cells in action
Instrumenting tissues to better understand inflammation, a key driver of many diseases
Engineering and harnessing the immune system for early detection, prevention, and treatment of disease

CZI's work in science includes grant-making programs, open-source software development, and close collaboration with the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub Network. The CZ Biohub Network includes the San Francisco, Chicago, and New York Biohubs as well as the Chan Zuckerberg Imaging Institute. CZI also collaborates with institutional partners like the Kempner Institute for the Study of Natural & Artificial Intelligence at Harvard University. Join us in accelerating science.

The Opportunity

As a Principal Technical Program Manager, ML/AI in the Science Technology organization, you will lead strategic projects focused on AI. This role will partner closely with Product Management and Engineering Leadership to be the glue between strategy and execution, driving the planning and execution and ultimately the delivery of novel AI-based products for our Virtual Cell Platform.

The person in this role will need to be able to influence across CZI at all levels of leadership and within the Science Technology organization.

You will work closely with a collaborative team of product managers, engineers, designers, user researchers, scientists, and computational biologists to create software products that accelerate the pace of biological science. You will also work across the CZI ecosystem, working with our scientific leaders across CZI and driving complex cross-functional projects with our Biohub network.

What You'll Do
Own, lead and drive large, and highly impactful programs; accountable for planning strategy and execution.
Coordinate multidisciplinary teams in the planning, execution, and scaling of complex AI engineering projects that bridge scientific discovery and translational application, with direct alignment to biological use cases.
Manage AI engineering's model roadmap and ensuring new models from across the CZI ecosystem are staffed with the appropriate AI engineering teams and have access to our GPU cluster.
Proactively identify scalability bottlenecks and dependencies, and implement mitigation plans to enable sustainable, widespread technology use.
Serve as a liaison between scientific researchers, product managers, research engineers, data scientists, and computational biologists to ensure successful technology transfer and scaling pathways in biological model development.
Manage execution of AI projects such as production-grade AI agents development, benchmarking, model inference, and model contribution in close partnership with engineering leads.
Define and execute AI-based biological workflows, for example using agents to uncover biological insights working closely with cross-functional stakeholders.
Communicate project milestones and risks clearly to stakeholders across technical and non-technical domains.
Track impact metrics including publications, platform performance, and adoption metrics across both research and industry ecosystems.
What You'll Bring
Advanced degree in computer science, computer engineering, bioengineering, computational biology, or a related technical field.
Experience at a leading AI-first biotech company.
Familiarity with bio-specific PM challenges.
12+ years leading complex technical programs, with 3+ years deploying AI/ML in project execution (biotech/life sciences preferred).
Demonstrated experience driving the adoption of novel technologies across diverse environments, including managing validation pipelines, documentation, user training, and feedback loops.
Proven track record in coordinating partnerships or consortia that span academic institutions, biotech, and/or commercial organizations.
Experience implementing programmatic strategies that enable sustainable growth and technology scalability.
Excellent systems thinking, with the ability to bridge scientific innovation with practical implementation and stakeholder alignment.
Strong communication skills and the ability to influence and align diverse technical and non-technical partners around scale-up

About the Company

We are working at the intersection of AI and biology to advance science, build powerful technologies and transform health. Through bold investments in cutting-edge research, cross-disciplinary collaboration, and innovative tools and data, we aim to help cure, prevent and manage all diseases by the end of this century. Our work brings together scientists, engineers, technologists and AI experts to accelerate discovery and empower the global scientific community. Know more