Business Lead, AI-native Discovery Automation & Robotics

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Business Lead, AI-native Discovery Automation & Robotics

Takeda is transforming how medicines are discovered by building a new Research engine where AI, advanced data platforms, and laboratory automation are embedded directly into how scientists design and discover molecules, run experiments, and make decisions. Our Labs of Tomorrow vision connects computational science, scientific data, and automated experimental workflows into a closed-loop discovery engine that will enable us to design smarter studies, shorten learning cycles, and deliver clearer evidence earlier in discovery with the ultimate goal of discovering differentiated medicines for patients.

The Business Lead, AI-native Discovery Automation & Robotics is central to realizing this vision. The scientist will be responsible for Takeda's next-generation laboratory orchestration AI-native software product: owning the scientific vision, customer experience, product strategy, roadmap, adoption, and ultimately the value it creates for our drug discovery. The Business Lead will define and answer what the intelligently orchestrated automated laboratory should be in a future where AI agents, predictive models, and scientific data direct experimental execution, and where robotic workflows, sample logistics, manual steps, and the troubleshooting that laboratory work demands are planned and run as one production floor. Our ambition is for this product to become the environment through which Takeda's laboratories plan, execute, and continuously improve experimental work around the clock.

Purpose

The Business Lead, AI-native Discovery Automation & Robotics is a foundational leadership role, acting as the as the owner and  of Takeda's Discovery Automation & Robotics product family, an integrated family of capabilities that connects the instrument-level scheduling and control systems already running Takeda's automated work cells into a single operating layer spanning the manual work, sample logistics, handoffs, and exception handling that surround them, with 24/7 laboratory operation as the target state. The role refines the strategic vision for future-state AI-native Labs of Tomorrow capabilities in the physical laboratory and drives its translation into AI-enabled experimental workflows, product direction, adoption, and measurable scientific and business value by working with both relevant internal and external stakeholders.

The successful candidate will lead this portfolio as a business owner on the side of the internal customer, combining deep laboratory automation and experimental operations expertise with computational, data, and technology fluency to ensure that the products built are science-first, grounded in the physical reality of laboratory work, and capable of sustaining 24/7 laboratory operation with meaningful gains in data quality, throughput, and cycle times. Your customers will be Takeda's automation engineers, laboratory operations and platform scientists, medicinal chemists, molecule designers, assay designers, biologists running assays at scale, and the scientists whose experiments depend on work being executed reliably overnight. The role carries sufficient technical fluency to provide informed direction on the strategic technology choices underpinning the product family, at the level of intent and trade-off rather than detailed evaluation or execution.

This is a unique opportunity for an exceptional leader who can combine deep understanding of automated laboratory operations with strong computational, data, and technology fluency, and who will ensure that the applications developed are scientifically grounded, technically actionable, adoptable by end users, and aligned with Takeda's business priorities.

This role operates at the program leadership level, collaborating directly with Takeda's “Labs of Tomorrow” leadership team to shape portfolio priorities, resolve strategic tradeoffs, and ensure future-state laboratory orchestration capabilities advance from vision to measurable scientific and business impact. The role provides day-to-day direction to the technical leads and development squads working on the Discovery Automation & Robotics product family, and is interacting closely with the SME leads. The role will also interface with the other Product Leads to ensure extensibility across the suites of products.

Accountabilities

• Own and refine the strategic vision for the orchestration software product suite to enable the future-state Discovery Automation & Robotics. Define the orchestration engine that powers an AI-native, increasingly automated 24/7 drug discovery laboratory, and translate that vision into underlying capabilities delivered under a single mandate and aligned with overall Research strategy.
• Deliver against that vision by providing business leadership, partnering with technical leads and development squads on scope, sequencing, and priority, and holding product teams accountable for outcomes, adoption, and measurable scientific and business impact.
• Define, track, and own KPIs, business value, adoption, and scientific impact across the product family, maintaining the integrated portfolio view that gives Research leadership a consolidated perspective on progress, dependencies, risks, and opportunities.
• Deeply understand the customer, the re-imagined AI-native Discovery Automation & Robotics workflows, the decisions they make, and unmet needs and represent them throughout development, working closely with the lead Subject Matter Experts to define target scientist and operator experiences and to keep development anchored on laboratory science needs and on the priority capabilities that improve how experimental work actually gets executed.
• Set business priorities and direction across Research, Digital Data & Technology (DD&T), Computational Science, and external build partners, driving the cross-functional alignment needed to resolve risks, dependencies, and blockers across the product family.
• Work with the broader “Labs of Tomorrow” leadership team to set the digital product roadmap, scope, requirements, and investment priorities, balancing scientific value, strategic importance, and implementation readiness.
• Provide informed direction on the strategic technology choices underpinning the product family, including platform direction, architecture, integration with instrument scheduling and control systems, and development sequencing, at the level of intent and trade-off rather than detailed evaluation or execution.
• Identify where AI agents, predictive models, data, and automation can fundamentally redesign how robotic workflows, sample logistics, manual steps, and exception handling are coordinated as one operation, and translate those into opportunities in the products.
• Plan and drive adoption of delivered capabilities across the laboratory operations, automation, and scientific teams that depend on them, ensuring that they lead to measurable scientific and business value.

Qualifications & Competencies

• Expected: Ph.D. in engineering, chemistry, biology, laboratory automation or related field, with 10+ years of progressively responsible experience in pharmaceutical or biotech R&D.
• Demonstrated ownership of a product, platform, or capability portfolio end to end, including roadmap, delivery, and adoption.
• Demonstrated ability to set strategic direction, drive cross-functional alignment, and translate scientific ambition into executable product, workflow, adoption, and value-realization strategies in partnership with technology and product teams.
• Experience leading portfolio-level initiatives or transformation programs across discovery, computational science, digital, data, product, or technology teams.
• Hands-on coding experience, including experience coding earlier in career, with sufficient technical fluency to engage credibly with software engineers, computational scientists, data scientists, ML scientists, and technical leads.
• Demonstrated record of carrying an ambitious vision through to delivered and adopted capability.
• Strong business judgment, with ability to prioritize initiatives based on scientific value, strategic importance, feasibility, implementation readiness, and measurable impact.
• Strong experience in automated laboratory operations, ideally including one or more of laboratory automation and robotics, high-throughput experimentation, automated synthesis or screening, integration of instrument scheduling and control systems into broader laboratory operations, laboratory informatics, and/or the management of continuous or multi-shift laboratory operations at scale.
• Strong fluency in computational, digital, data, automation, and AI/ML concepts as applied to laboratory execution, sufficient to provide informed direction on technology choices and to test technical proposals on business grounds.
• Experience working across scientific, digital, data, informatics, automation, software, or product teams.
• Strong stakeholder management skills, including the ability to operate as a single point of accountability across multiple stakeholders and synthesize diverse inputs into clear priorities.
• Ability to influence without direct authority in a complex matrixed environment.
• Strong communication skills with the ability to engage senior leaders, scientific stakeholders, product managers, engineers, data scientists, and external partners.
• Experience directing external technology partners and instrument or automation vendors from the client side, holding them accountable to scope, timeline, and value while working within their product and delivery models.
• Preferred experience with scientific software or AI-driven discovery platforms, including ELN/LIMS, instrument scheduling and control software, device integration and telemetry, sample and inventory tracking, or assay data platforms.
• Preferred exposure to one or more of the following: AI/ML-enabled discovery applications, metadata standards, data models, digital twin or master scheduling concepts for laboratory operations, or AI-ready scientific data.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

• The position will be based in Cambridge, MA.  This position is currently classified as “hybrid” by Takeda’s Hybrid and Remote Work policy

Takeda Compensation and Benefits Summary

We understand compensation is an important factor as you consider the next step in your career. We are committed to equitable pay for all employees, and we strive to be more transparent with our pay practices. 

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U.S. Base Salary Range:

The estimated salary range reflects an anticipated range for this position. The actual base salary offered may depend on a variety of factors, including the qualifications of the individual applicant for the position, years of relevant experience, specific and unique skills, level of education attained, certifications or other professional licenses held, and the location in which the applicant lives and/or from which they will be performing the job. The actual base salary offered will be in accordance with state or local minimum wage requirements for the job location. 

For information about our benefits, please click here.

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