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Senior Director, Project Management

South San Francisco, California, United States

About Xaira Therapeutics

Xaira is an innovative biotech startup focused on leveraging AI to transform drug discovery and development. The company is leading the development of generative AI models to design protein and antibody therapeutics, enabling the creation of medicines against historically hard-to-drug molecular targets. It is also developing foundation models for biology and disease to enable better target elucidation and patient stratification. Collectively, these technologies aim to continually enable the identification of novel therapies and to improve success in drug development. Xaira is headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area, Seattle, and London.

About the Role

The Senior Director, Project Management, will lead cross-functional execution of the company’s most complex scientific and platform initiatives, ensuring work across biology, computational science, protein design, and engineering teams progresses with clarity, alignment, and momentum.Working closely with scientific and technical leadership, this individual translates strategic priorities into well-structured projects with clear scope, milestones, ownership, and dependencies. The role requires strong project management discipline combined with a product lens, helping teams prioritize work based on impact, define clear outcomes, and focus effort on the highest-value initiatives.Operating at the center of scientific, technical, and organizational execution, this leader brings structure to complex work while enabling teams to move quickly in a discovery-driven environment.

Key Responsibilities
Project Leadership

  • Lead planning and execution of complex, cross-functional projects spanning research, computational science, protein design, and engineering teams
  • Translate strategic priorities into clearly structured projects with defined scope, timelines, ownership, and success criteria
  • Apply a product lens to project leadership, ensuring initiatives are prioritized based on impact, feasibility, and organizational goals
  • Partner with scientific and technical leaders to define clear outcomes and success criteria rather than activity-based workstreams
  • Manage scope intentionally, balancing scientific exploration with disciplined execution
  • Identify risks early and implement mitigation strategies to maintain project momentum

Strategic Execution Partnership

  • Partner with scientific and technical leadership to translate organizational priorities into executable project plans
  • Help shape the sequencing of major initiatives to ensure resources are focused on the highest-impact work
  • Provide leadership with clear visibility into progress, dependencies, and emerging execution risks across projects
  • Frame execution progress, tradeoffs, and emerging risks in ways that enable leadership to make timely and informed decisions

Cross-Functional Alignment

  • Align stakeholders across biology, computational science, protein design, and engineering teams around shared priorities and sequencing of work
  • Coordinate interdependent projects across research and platform teams, ensuring work is sequenced appropriately and dependencies are clearly understood
  • Identify points where progress in one initiative enables or constrains work in another, helping teams adjust plans accordingly
  • Resolve cross-team bottlenecks and maintain forward momentum across projects

Project Operating Model

  • Establish consistent project planning, tracking, and reporting practices across teams
  • Introduce planning frameworks and decision rhythms that improve transparency and coordination
  • Evaluate, select, and harmonize project management tools and platforms across the organization, ensuring teams operate with a consistent and scalable PM infrastructure
  • Strengthen the organization’s ability to execute complex scientific and technical initiatives predictably

AI-Enabled Project Management

  • Champion the integration of AI tools and workflows into project management practices, identifying opportunities to improve planning, tracking, risk identification, and reporting through intelligent automation
  • Stay current on emerging AI capabilities relevant to PM operations and serve as an internal advocate for thoughtful, effective adoption across teams
  • Partner with computational and engineering teams to ensure AI-driven initiatives are managed with appropriate rigor while leveraging AI to enhance the PM function itself

Team Leadership

  • Build and develop a high-performing project management team as the organization grows
  • Establish expectations for rigor, clarity, and accountability in project execution
  • Mentor project managers to operate as strategic partners to scientific and technical leaders
  • Define team structure, hiring priorities, and development pathways that scale with organizational growth
  • Foster a culture of continuous improvement within the PM team, regularly evaluating and refining how the team operates

 

Core Capabilities

  • Complex Project Execution - Demonstrated ability to lead large, cross-functional projects involving multiple stakeholders, dependencies, and evolving scientific priorities.
  • Product-Oriented Thinking - Ability to approach project leadership with a product mindset—prioritizing work based on impact, defining clear outcomes, managing scope intentionally, and ensuring initiatives deliver meaningful value.
  • Cross-Functional Leadership - Proven ability to align scientific, technical, and operational teams around shared priorities and drive execution through influence.
  • Structured Planning and Risk Management - Strong capability in dependency mapping, risk identification, mitigation planning, and maintaining forward progress in complex environments.
  • Executive Communication and Decision Framing - Ability to synthesize complex scientific and technical work into clear updates, priorities, and tradeoffs that support effective leadership decision-making.

 

Qualifications

  • Bachelor’s degree required; advanced degree preferred (MBA, MS, PhD, or equivalent)
  • 10+ years of experience leading complex cross-functional projects in biotech, TechBio, or similarly interdisciplinary environments where computational and experimental research intersect.
  • Strong understanding of AI/ML-enabled biological research, with experience partnering closely with computational biology, protein design, biomedical AI, or research engineering teams.
  • Experience working closely with scientific and engineering teams in research or platform settings
  • Deep understanding of drug development processes, including preclinical through early clinical stages, with the ability to connect research and platform initiatives to the broader development continuum
  • Demonstrated ability to bring structure and clarity to complex initiatives in fast-moving organizations
  • Strong organizational, communication, and stakeholder alignment skills
  • Proven ability to influence highly skilled teams without relying on formal authority
  • Experience managing and developing high-performing teams

 

Compensation

We offer a competitive compensation and benefits package, seeking to provide an open, flexible, and friendly work environment to empower employees and provide them with a platform to develop their long-term careers. A Summary of Benefits is available for all applicants. We offer a competitive package that includes base salary, bonus, and equity.  The base pay range for this position is expected to be $225,000 - $285,000 annually; however, the base pay offered may vary depending on the market, job-related knowledge, skills and capabilities, and experience.

Xaira Therapeutics an equal-opportunity employer. We believe that our strength is in our differences. Our goal to build a diverse and inclusive team began on day one, and it will never end.

TO ALL RECRUITMENT AGENCIES: Xaira Therapeutics does not accept agency resumes. Please do not forward resumes to our jobs alias or employees. Xaira Therapeutics is not responsible for any fees related to unsolicited resumes.

 

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