Business Operations, Product & Science

Periodic Labs•Menlo Park, CA

1d•$250,000 - $300,000•Hybrid

About The Position

Periodic Labs is seeking a Business Operations professional to act as the connective tissue between research teams, the model development roadmap, and the company's strategic and operational needs. This role involves working cross-functionally to accelerate the translation of scientific progress into tangible outcomes. The ideal candidate will operate effectively in technical environments, understand scientific and AI development processes, and build organizational systems to enhance speed and efficiency. Responsibilities include product-science coordination and serving as a strategic partner to leadership. The role requires a graduate-level scientific background (physics, chemistry, materials science, or related field) combined with experience in strategy, operations, or product roles within a technology or research organization. Strong analytical thinking, exceptional communication, and the ability to build trust with both scientists and executives are essential.

Requirements

An undergraduate or graduate degree in physics, chemistry, materials science, computational science, or a closely related quantitative discipline, or equivalent depth demonstrated through research or industry experience.
4+ years of experience in strategy, operations, product management, chief-of-staff, or a closely related function, with at least some experience within a technical, research-driven, or AI organization.
Genuine ability to read and engage with primary scientific literature, follow technical discussions at the frontier of AI and physical science, and translate learnings into operational decisions.
Exceptional analytical and structured thinking skills, with the ability to decompose hard problems, build models under uncertainty, and present findings with conviction and intellectual honesty.
Outstanding communication skills, including precise and clear writing, and the ability to adapt communication style for different audiences (principal scientists to board presentations).
High agency, strong judgment, and the organizational credibility to influence without authority across a team of world-class researchers and engineers.
Experience designing and operating planning and prioritization systems in environments with exploratory work, uncertain outputs, and high stakes.
A genuine belief in the mission of using AI to accelerate scientific discovery.

Nice To Haves

A PhD in a physical science or engineering discipline with research experience at the boundary of computation and experiment (e.g., molecular simulation, condensed matter, materials informatics).
Prior experience in a research operations, technical program management, or science strategy role at an AI lab, national lab, or research-intensive technology company.
Hands-on experience with AI/ML workflows, model evaluation, or the product development lifecycle for AI-powered applications.
A background spanning both the scientific and commercial sides of a technology organization.
Experience building or scaling operational functions from scratch, including hiring, process design, and tooling selection.

Responsibilities

Support the operating rhythm of the research organization, including research planning cycles, milestone tracking, experiment prioritization, and cross-team coordination between AI and physical sciences.
Design and maintain systems for real-time leadership visibility into research progress, resource utilization, and emerging risks across model development and lab science roadmaps.
Partner with the Head of Research and Principal Scientists to translate long-horizon scientific goals into quarterly operating plans, resourcing decisions, and hiring priorities.
Identify and remove organizational, process, and tooling bottlenecks that slow down researchers and scientists, acting as a force multiplier.
Coordinate compute, lab equipment, and infrastructure resource allocation across research projects, collaborating with infra and lab operations leads.
Serve as the operational link between research outputs and product development, ensuring scientific milestones translate into clear product implications and product needs are understood by research teams.
Drive the product planning process in partnership with founders and product leads, including roadmap development, prioritization frameworks, and cross-functional alignment.
Build scalable processes and artifacts (roadmaps, decision logs, spec templates, review cadences) for product-science collaboration.
Lead or support evaluation design, benchmark development, and model assessment processes connecting scientific capability to real-world product requirements.
Lead special projects and strategic analyses, such as competitive landscape assessments, build/buy/partner decisions, and new capability evaluations.
Support external partnerships, collaborations, and customer engagements at the boundary of research and commercial activities, from scoping to execution.