Vice President, Engineering

Formation Bio•Boston, MA

3h•Hybrid

About The Position

Formation Bio is seeking a bold and forward-thinking Vice President of Engineering to lead and transform our technical capabilities into a strategic driver of clinical and commercial success. This critical leadership role will report to the CTO and serve as a senior thought partner in defining how sophisticated engineering and computational frameworks can fundamentally reshape drug development and asset acquisition. The ideal candidate is a biotech-native technical leader who understands that our goal is not to build traditional software products, but to develop deep technical capabilities that drive hard insights. You will partner closely with Product to translate complex scientific and operational bottlenecks into high-leverage technology solutions that accelerate workflows and deliver higher-quality insights. You will oversee the engineering behind complex data science analyses - including Real-World Evidence (RWE) platforms, large-scale information ingestion pipelines, and comprehensive modeling - that move the needle for pharma decision-making. You bring the vision and [biotech] experience to ensure our technical foundation supports clinical-stage assets and highly regulated R&D workflows with precision and speed.

Requirements

10+ years of experience in software/data engineering and technical leadership, with a significant background in the Boston biotech or pharma-tech ecosystem.
Biotech Intuition: You have likely been a VP of Engineering at 2–3 different biotechs and possess a deep understanding of the drug development lifecycle, from Discovery through Phase III.
Proven People Leader: Experience managing and mentoring a team of 15+ engineers, with a track record of driving results in highly technical, interdisciplinary environments.
Capability mindset: You understand that we aren't building a "user app"; we are building an engine for insights. You are passionate about the backend engineering required for RWE, data science, and trial automation.
Engineering Rigor: Deep expertise in building data ingestion pipelines and managing complex, heterogeneous biological and clinical datasets.
Regulatory Fluency: Experience working within GxP (GCP, GLP, GMP) environments. You know how to build technical capabilities that are "regulatory-ready" from day one.
Strategic Partner: You are comfortable discussing risk-adjusted NPV, asset-level ROI, and clinical trial bottlenecks with CEOs, CMOs, and investors.
Mission-Driven: Passionate about using hard engineering to solve the drug development bottleneck and bring life-changing treatments to patients faster.

Responsibilities

Define and execute a technical vision that prioritizes high-leverage computational capabilities over traditional software features, ensuring engineering effort directly increases drug asset quality and value.
Act as a core collaborator for the CTO and leadership team, translating complex clinical and business bottlenecks into scalable engineering solutions.
Embed engineering resources within Business Development, Clinical, and R&D units to leverage technology to address operational needs.
Partner with Data Science to build the engineering architecture required for complex analysis, including Real-World Evidence (RWE) platforms, asset screening frameworks, and prediction pipelines.
Collaborate with Product to build specialized tools that streamline R&D workflows, moving the needle from manual efforts to technology-augmented insight generation.
Develop and scale proprietary platforms for the ingestion and operationalization of external, clinical, and biological datasets.
Ensure the delivery of GxP-validated clinical environments and automated security compliance, maintaining a regulatory-first posture without sacrificing speed.
Deploy and scale LLM-integrated features and autonomous agents to drive multiplier efficiencies across the organization.
Manage and mentor a specialized engineering organization, fostering a high-performance culture that values technical rigor, interdisciplinary collaboration, and mission-driven delivery.
Refine the team structure to maintain high talent density and quality engineering in a fast-paced biotech environment.