Vice President, Research & Development

Reporting to the (Chief Executive Officer), Vice President, R&D and PMO is a key member of the Fluidigm leadership team. This executive will establish the corporate R&D strategy and objectives to meet the market driven requirements of Fluidigm customers, as well as lead product Research & Development for all genomics products and systems. The VP R&D will work with the VP Marketing to drive the R&D Portfolio Management and New Product Commercialization process. In addition, this individual will perform due diligence for potential collaborations and acquisitions, and will present to Fluidigmoard of directors.

The ideal candidate will have demonstrated ability to build and maintain an innovative, effective Research, Development and Engineering functions within the R&D organization, setting and achieving aggressive goals.

Key Relationships

Reports to: (Chief Executive Officer)

Direct reports: Leaders of the following groups:

Hardware R&D

Chip R&D

Chemistry R&D

Software R&D

Sustaining R&D/Engineering

Total staff: Approximately 50

Staff located in South San Francisco and Singapore

Other key relationships: Translational Research

Comprehensive Cancer Centers

Leaders in Oncology, Immunology, Neuroscience and Inherited Disease

VP, Marketing

VP, Quality Assurance

Worldwide Manufacturing Leaders

Chief Commercial Officer

Chief Financial Officer

Chief Executive Officer

Board of Directors

Major Responsibilities

• Lead the research and development of all genomics product lines at Fluidigm. This includes leadership of hardware engineering, software engineering, development and testing, IFC engineering and testing as well as chemistry development and testing.
• Maintain and prioritize the product roadmap.
• Develop processes and systems to enable Fluidigm to continue to scale its R&D operations, in anticipation of continued growth and platform expansion.
• Conduct technical due diligence on potential deals and acquisitions.
• Integrate acquired organizations and/or products from an R&D standpoint.
• Develop and maintain collaborative, productive relationships with key internal partners, particularly with strategic marketing, product management, quality and manufacturing, so as to ensure that products are prioritized and developed based on customer input; and that products are developed for manufacturability and serviceability.
• Recruit and organize the genomics R&D team; manage the project portfolio and budget; track goals and objectives; create transparent reporting mechanisms to report project timelines, personnel allocation, project costs, risks and risk mitigation.
• Effective collaboration across Genomics, Mass Cytometry, Imaging
• Provide professional development opportunities for staff; develop succession plans for all key leaders.
• Develop, build and staff a Sustaining R&D team to deal with Change Requests and Quality Incident Reports for Genomics, in close collaboration with the Quality department
• Implement both internal and external solutions for the development and commercialization of genomic content which meets market needs
• Conduct or outsource analytical validation of genomic content to include analytical validation plans and analytical validation reports
• Implement an effective bioinformatics strategy (internal and external) to deal with changing needs of the company
• Retain critical employees and limit voluntary turnover
• Create employee engagement program
• Build a strategy for integrating secondary analysis tools

CANDIDATE SPECIFICATION: KEY SELECTION CRITERIA

Experience Required

• A minimum of 10 years of research and development leadership experience, driving the development of complex systems, inclusive of hardware, software and chemistry.
• Experience developing products for global markets.
• Track record of driving breakthrough innovation, through product development and commercialization.
• Combination of experience in established and emerging companies is ideal.
• D. in a relevant field of life science, with a stellar scientific record
• Intimate knowledge of Quality Systems, including knowledge of FDA QSRs and/or ISO 13485
• Knowledge of microfluidic development, testing and commercialization
• Experience with Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) platforms and applications, including mRNA seq, DNA seq and whole transcriptome seq
• Experience with qPCR and digital PCR development, testing and commercialization
• Experience with library preparation for targeted NGS development, testing and commercialization
• Experience in development and commercialization of IVD and/or LDT applications
• Experience in developing content/assays that meet market needs and complete workflows (pre-analytical, analytical and post-analytical) that provide solutions to customer problems
• Experience speaking at technical conferences, to analysts and members of the board of directors

Critical Competencies for Success

Strategic Thinking: This executive will work closely with the executive leadership team to translate the genomics businessrategies into clear, specific objectives for the R&D organization, creating plans that address specific market segments, enhancing Fluidigmace of innovation, and setting the long-term vision and strategy for driving innovation through to commercialization.

Driving Results: This leader will have a demonstrated track record of having led teams to surpass goals, seizing opportunities to push the envelope, and driving sustained innovation through the product development process, ideally by driving research and development in a highly integrated manner. This leader will set aggressive goals for him/herself and others, geared to organizational objectives, enabling the team to exceed expectations in terms of innovation, product development times, and budgets.

Leading People: This executive will have a demonstrated track record of building and maintaining a high-performing team, defined as a team that innovates by opening new markets as well as maintains existing product lines aggressively brings novel and derivative products to market; and effectively manages budgets and timelines. This leader will collaborate and openly debate with the team to manage projects, solve problems, and discuss challenges. Furthermore, this leader will delegate roles thoughtfully, so as to free him/herself to work at a more strategic level. This individual collaborates with each leader in the organization to establish clear, challenging performance goals and metrics, and periodically reviews the teamrogress against plans, focusing attention beyond the projects to mid/long term goals.

Other Personal Characteristics

• Non-hierarchical
• Ability to build high functioning teams
• An executive who displays the highest levels of integrity and honesty
• Transparent
• Resilient: embraces the challenges inherent in this business
• Creative problem solver
• Sets aggressive goals; not afraid to push the envelope
• Ability to make tough decisions, including the courage to terminate projects when necessary

Location

This position is based at Fluidigmeadquarters in South San Francisco, CA.