Sr. Product Manager - Cell Therapy Manufacturing

We are seeking an innovative and highly motivated Product Manager who will contribute significantly to expanding the Cellares Integrated Development and Manufacturing Organization (IDMO) Business. This individual will play a pivotal role in defining and executing the product vision and roadmap that enables robust, scalable, and compliant manufacturing processes for autologous and/or allogeneic cell therapy products.

The primary focus of this position will be to understand Cellares’client cell therapy manufacturing needs. The Product Manager will interact with customers, partners, and internal subject matter experts to understand/document cell therapy manufacturing  processes and develop actionable requirements for the engineering, analytical and process development teams. This person will work closely with the technical teams overseeing complex projects and should have a structured methodology for gathering and systemizing customer feedback.

This is a multidisciplinary role, and this individual will interface across many parts of the company (with scientists, researchers, process development, engineers, and potential third-party partners) to develop the best solutions possible. The successful candidate will be a resident expert in representing the voice of the customer in a way that transfers to tangible engineering and/or process and analytical requirements, enabling a smooth transition for our clients to clinical and commercial manufacturing with Cellares.

Candidates should enjoy working in a fast-paced, mission-driven environment, and be prepared to tackle a broad selection of challenges as the company grows.

• Act as the voice of the user (manufacturing teams, MSAT, QA, etc.) to gather and prioritize requirements and ensure successful product adoption
• Synthesize a coherent product roadmap based on customer input, business goals, and engineering competencies
• Coordinate with internal and external stakeholders, including CDMOs and technology vendors, to ensure product scalability and harmonization across sites
• Serve as the internal customer and partner advocate with cross-functional teams
• Drive differentiated solutions to the market through customer focus, data-driven decision making, and clear, frequent, and open cross-functional communication

• Bachelor’s or Master’s in Life Sciences, Engineering, Business, or related field
• 5+ years of extensive, hands-on Product Management experience in the biotechnology or medical device industries
• Experience with large-scale automation and benchtop instrumentation in pharma/biotech is highly desirable
• Domain expertise in cell therapies is highly desirable
• Familiarity with human T-cell biology, immunology, and cell culture is highly desirable
• Domain expertise in biologics manufacturing is preferred but not required
• Experience with third-party vendor partnerships is highly desirable
• Excellent verbal, written, presentation, and interpersonal skills
• Strong communication, analytical, and problem-solving skills
• Proactive, creative, self-motivated, flexible to work in a small company environment, and able to assume a wide variety of tasks
• Desire to be part of a rapidly evolving organization, with a compelling technology, and taking products and processes to the next level
• Self-awareness, integrity, authenticity, and a growth mindset
• Proven ability to work cross-functionally and drive complex initiatives to successful completion

Cellares is the first Integrated Development and Manufacturing Organization (IDMO) and takes an Industry 4.0 approach to mass manufacturing the living drugs of the 21st century. The company is both developing and operating integrated technologies for cell therapy manufacturing to accelerate access to life-saving cell therapies. The company’s Cell Shuttle integrates all the technologies required for the entire manufacturing process in a flexible and high-throughput platform that delivers true walk-away, end-to-end automation. Cell Shuttles will be deployed in Cellares’ Smart Factories around the world to meet total patient demand for cell therapies at global scale. Partnering with Cellares enables academics, biotechs, and pharma companies to accelerate drug development and scale out manufacturing, lower process failure rates, lower manufacturing costs, and meet global patient demand.

The company is headquartered in South San Francisco, California with its commercial-scale IDMO Smart Factory in Bridgewater, New Jersey. The company is backed by world-class investors and has raised over $355 million in financing.