Associate Principal IT Product Lead - Data Engineering & Architecture

SUMMARY/JOB PURPOSE:

The Associate Principal IT Product Lead - Data Engineering and Architecture will oversee Data Strategy, Architecture, and Engineering, key to Exelixis's success and ambition in launching innovative medicines to patients. This role drives strategy, execution, and operational excellence of the data ecosystem, aligning with business goals, data governance, and value delivery. Operating within a product-centric operating model, they will define roadmaps, foster collaboration, and lead agile teams to deliver impactful solutions that accelerate drug discovery, development, and commercialization.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

Product Strategy & Roadmap (Product-Centric Focus):

• Support the development and execution of the vision, strategy, and roadmap for Clinical and Operational data engineering and governance.
• Partner with senior product leads and business stakeholders (e.g., R&D, Clinical, Supply Chain, G&A,) to gather insights, understand user needs, and translate them into clear product requirements and user stories.
• Design and implement scalable data architecturesusing AWS, Databricks, and modern patterns like data mesh and Lakehouse.
• Contribute to market research, competitive analysis, and technology assessments to inform product planning and identify innovation opportunities.
• Evaluate business impact, technical feasibility, compliance needs, and resource constraints to assist in prioritizing product initiatives.
• Collaborate with engineering and data governance teams to ensure data architecture follows FAIR principles, is secure, and meets enterprise standards.

Product Development & Delivery (Agile/Product Team Leadership):

• Support the Principal Product Lead in mentoring Business Analysts and other team members, encouraging a culture of ownership, innovation, and continuous improvement.
• Contribute to managing the product lifecycle from ideation through launch and post-launch optimization, applying Agile methodologies (e.g., Scrum, Kanban) to ensure efficient delivery.
• Assist in defining clear user stories, acceptance criteria, and product specifications that align with the product vision and business objectives.
• Collaborate with engineering, architecture, and quality assurance teams to ensure the timely delivery of scalable, secure, high-quality, and governed data products.
• Coordinate with external vendors and service providers to support alignment on product roadmaps and delivery operations.
• Promote user-centric design by incorporating user research, usability testing, and feedback into product enhancements.
• Translate business needsinto scalable data solutions across clinical, supply chain, and operations domains.
• Implement data governanceframeworks for quality, lineage, and lifecycle management.

Stakeholder Management & Cross-Functional Collaboration:

• Act as a key liaison between IT and business functions, helping to translate technical concepts into business language and vice versa.
• Build collaborative relationships with stakeholders to support alignment of product vision, priorities, and outcomes.
• Facilitate communication and coordination across product, business, and IT teams to support effective decision-making.
• Represent the product team in cross-functional discussions and contribute to strategic initiatives as needed.

Operational Excellence, Quality & Compliance:

• Support efforts to maintain the operational stability, performance, and security of data solutions in collaboration with IT operations and infrastructure teams.
• Assist in managing vendor relationships and third-party software solutions that support the data and analytics portfolio.
• Help ensure compliance with regulatory requirements (e.g., GxP, HIPAA, GDPR) and internal quality and security standards across product releases.
• Contribute to quality assurance processes to ensure product releases meet defined standards.
• Actively contribute to the Implementation and maintenance of robust data management & AI practices to protect sensitive information and ensure its accuracy and reliability.
• Track and report on key performance indicators (KPIs) to assess product success, adoption, and business impact, and support continuous improvement efforts.

SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITIES:

• No supervisory responsibilities.

EDUCATION/EXPERIENCE/KNOWLEDGE & SKILLS:

Education:

• Bachelor's degree in related discipline and 11 years of related experience; or
• Master's degree in mathematics or statistics or engineering, and 9 years of related experience.
• PhD degree in a related discipline and 5 years of related experience; or
• Equivalent combination of education and experience.

Experience/The Ideal Candidate will have:

• Minimum of 6 years of experience supporting Enterprise IT enabling business functions.
• Minimum of 8+ years of progressive experience in IT, with at least 6+ years in a leadership role focused on data architecture and engineering in a life science or pharmaceutical industry.
• Proven experience leading product development teams in anagile/product-centricoperating model is essential.
• Strong understanding of the drug discovery or clinical development, or commercialization lifecycle within a pharmaceutical or biotechnology company.
• Deep understanding of clinical and operational data in a life sciences or Pharma company, including experience creating physical and logical data models for analytics and data science teams that follow data standards.
• Extensive experience in creating resilient data architectures on cloud platforms like AWS and Azure, integrating advanced data management solutions such as Databricks and Snowflake.
• Experience with regulatory frameworks and compliance in a GxP environment.
  

Knowledge / Skills:

• Exceptional leadership and team-building skills, with the ability to inspire and motivate diverse teams.
• Strong strategic thinking and problem-solving abilities, with a data-driven approach to decision-making.
• Excellent communication, presentation, and interpersonal skills, with the ability to influence and collaborate effectively at all levels of the organization.
• Deep understanding of product management methodologies (e.g., Agile, Scrum, Kanban) and product lifecycle management.
• Solid technical acumen with the ability to understand complex IT architectures and development processes.
• Apply hands-on expertisewith tools like Databricks, DBT, Glue, Kafka, Airflow, S3, Delta Lake, Redshift, Unity Catalog, and Atlan.
• Develop with Spark, Python, SQL, and REST APIsusing cloud-native services.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced, dynamic environment.
  Occasional travel may be required to other company sites, conferences, or vendor locations.

#LI-EZ1

If you like wild growth and working with happy, enthusiastic over-achievers, you'll enjoy your career with us!

DISCLAIMER
The preceding job description has been designed to indicate the general nature and level of work performed by employees within this classification. It is not designed to contain or be interpreted as a comprehensive inventory of all duties, responsibilities and qualifications required of employees assigned to the job.

We are an Equal Opportunity Employer and do not discriminate against any employee or applicant for employment because of race, color, sex, age, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, status as a veteran, and basis of disability or any other federal, state or local protected class.