Sr. Director, Assays & Platform Technologies

Who We Are:
Cell Signaling Technology (CST) is a different kind of life sciences company, one founded, owned, and run by active research scientists, with the highest standards of product and service quality, technological innovation, and scientific rigor for over 20 years. We consistently provide fellow scientists around the globe with best-in-class products and services to fuel their quests for discovery.
Helping researchers find new solutions is our main mission every day, but it's not our only mission. We're also dedicated to helping identify solutions to other problems facing our world. We believe that all businesses must be responsible and work in partnership with local communities, while seeking to minimize their environmental impact. That's why we joined 1% for the Planet as its first life science member, and have committed to achieving net-zero emissions by 2029.
The Role:
As the Sr. Director for Assay and Platform Technologies, you will define and execute the company’s collective immunoassay platform strategy, and support critical commercial and business development partnerships. Operating at the intersection of research, product development, and commercial execution, you will oversee portfolio leadership, guide cross-functional collaborations, and lead four immunoassay platform sub-teams to drive innovation from concept through commercial success.
Essential duties and responsibilities (with ESTIMATED percentage allocation)
Platform Strategy & Portfolio Leadership (35%)
Responsible for strategic and operational objectives, work plans, budgets, and portfolio health metrics across the four sub-teams
Responsible for the development of innovative products and solutions configured for use in established and emerging immunoassay platforms.
Develop and implement the product development platform strategy across traditional and emerging immunoassays, single-cell analysis, spatial biology, and mass spectrometry-based proteomics; translate CST's strategy into platform-specific roadmaps.
Product pipeline governance: accountable for the integrity and strategic coherence of the immunoassays product portfolio.
Responsible for go/no-go recommendations on platform onboarding and resource allocation decisions.
Collaborates with product development groups (antibody & protein technologies, antibody discovery, application & validation groups, and the Custom Solutions team on strategic and operational objectives, work plans, and portfolio health metrics.
Resource and budget management: makes decisions on resourcing trade-offs across sub-teams and between R&D platform development and pre/post-sales scientific support activities.
Drives adoption of new assays and platforms to support pre/post-sales, publishing, and customer engagement in alignment with company’s R&D objectives, with priority focus in biotech, pharma, and CRO customer segments.
Scientific Research & Translational Leadership (25%)
Maintains deep scientific expertise across priority immunoassay platform areas.
Responsible for the conceptualization or design of products designed to meet the specific needs of biotech, pharma, and CRO customer workflows in drug discovery, biomarker development, and clinical/translational research.
Informs platform development priorities through active engagement with the Custom Solutions Group; ensures biopharma customer intelligence from custom engagements feeds back into platform roadmap decisions.
Ensures broad technical enablement through external scientific publications, white papers, application notes, and conference presentations that establish CST platform leadership and credibility in the translational research market
Attends relevant industry conferences to gather intelligence and engage with scientists and KOLs.
Hires and develops scientific expertise within the immunoassay platforms core, with an emphasis on biopharma workflow support; ensures sub-team leaders have the necessary skills required to support pre/post-sales engagement.
Commercial & BD Partnership (25%)
Operates as the primary R&D interface for the Platform Commercial segment; works in close collaboration and shares accountability with the biopharma commercial team and Product Marketing Managers (PMMs) to align platform development priorities with commercial pipeline and customer needs. Collaborates with Biopharma Marketing, Business Development (BD), and Sales leaders to define business and revenue objectives.
Partners with Field Application Scientists (FAS) to ensure pre/post-sales technical support capability keeps pace with platform complexity; defines FAS capability requirements and provides scientific direction for FAS training.
Works tightly with BD in partnership identification, designing deal objectives, and scientific due diligence for platform-adjacent opportunities — spatial, IVD, single-cell, proximity, and proteomics partnerships.
Engages directly with key pharma accounts and KOLs to understand workflow needs, validate platform positioning, and identify unmet needs that translate into product development priorities.
Partners closely with the Custom Solutions Group to ​receive biopharma workflow intelligence and​ transition bespoke client innovations into broad-market catalog platform products provides scientific direction that enables effective product launch, market positioning, and lifecycle management.
Talent Management (15%)
Directly manages four platform sub-team leaders; sets performance expectations, provides coaching, and conducts meaningful performance reviews. Holds sub-team leaders accountable for milestone delivery and laboratory informatics data integrity.
Builds and executes a talent strategy: succession planning, IC development, and the hiring of new biopharma workflow and platform expertise.
Develops individual development plans for sub-team leaders with particular emphasis on commercial partnership skills, external scientific representation, and platform-specific domain depth.
Who You Are & What You Bring To The Team:
Ph.D. in a relevant life science discipline with a strong record of peer-reviewed publications
Minimum of 10 years related experience with 8+ years of direct people management experience
Scientific Deep Dive: Expertise in 2+ platform areas: Immunoassays, single-cell technologies, or spatial biology.
Translational/Biopharma: Preclinical R&D, drug discovery, biomarker development, or clinical research applications.
Product Lifecycle: Proven track record leading platform product development from concept through commercial launch.
Experience at the R&D / Commercial interface (tools, diagnostics, or biopharma services).
Demonstrated experience incorporating AI-enabled scientific tools into research, translational, or development workflows to improve the quality, speed, or effectiveness of scientific decision-making.
Capable of innovating applications to drive product development and solve customer needs and problems
Strong analytical and problem-solving skills
Exceptional organization skills, and the ability to manage multiple projects and prioritize efforts appropriately
Effective communication skills (verbal and written)
Demonstrated ability to generate novel scientific hypotheses and design complex experiments to test them.
Ideally, You'll Have:
Demonstrated leadership experience in academic institutions and biotechnology or pharmaceutical industry settings.
Demonstrated ability to build and manage BD partnerships.
Experience with complex solution development.
Pre/post-sales scientific engagement expertise.
Physical Conditions / Physical Requirements:
Office work environment is typically quiet with some background noise
Ability to work at a desk and computer for extended periods
Dexterity to operate computer equipment and handle documents.
Ability to read and interpret detailed documents and reports.
Occasional standing and walking will be required to move around the office or facility.
Infrequent lifting of light objects, such as files or equipment, up to 15 pounds, may also be necessary.
Requires occasional travel as needed to attend industry conferences, partner sites, and/or meet with key external partners.
This position has a starting base salary range of $249,000 - $300,000 per year, which the company, in good faith, reasonably expects to pay for this role at the time of posting. Actual compensation within this range will be determined based on factors including, but not limited to, relevant skills, qualifications, experience, and internal equity.
What We Offer:
At Cell Signaling Technology (CST), we recognize that people will always be our most important asset. Providing a safe, inclusive, and stimulating working environment that understands the importance of diversity, human dignity, and meaningful work is as