Senior Product Owner

Chemify Ltd; Glasgow; Hybrid; GBP 70,000 - 95,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid work from Glasgow HQ

Competitive salary and benefits

Job summary

Chemify Ltd is pioneering digital chemistry with a MES-focused product role that blends software engineering, chemistry, and operations. You will own the MES backlog, prioritize features with the engineering team, and ensure the product meets scientist and operator needs through a clear, actionable roadmap.

The role combines strategic direction with hands-on ownership, requiring strong Agile experience, stakeholder communication, and a passion for solving complex problems in a fast-moving,

Qualifications

• Proven years' experience as a Product Owner or Product Manager in software/tech.
• Strong knowledge of Agile/Scrum with backlog grooming, sprint planning, story writing.

Responsibilities

• Own and prioritise the MES backlog and related apps, balancing operational, scientific and technical priorities.
• Shape product direction with the engineering lead and translate user needs into a clear roadmap and acceptance criteria.
• Act as primary link between engineering and chemistry/operations leadership; communicate priorities and trade-offs clearly.
• Facilitate backlog refinement and sprint planning within Agile/Scrum, incorporating user perspective.
• Define and track product success metrics and KPIs to inform prioritisation decisions.
• Collaborate with UX, data, and platform teams to ensure intuitive and robust software for high-throughput use.
• Identify risks and blockers early and work with teams to resolve them.
• Stay close to end users to ensure the product meaningfully improves daily work.

Skills

Agile/Scrum

Product ownership

Stakeholder management

Data-driven decisions

Cross-functional collaboration

Tools

Jira

Confluence

Job description

Chemify is pioneering “Chemputation”, a digital chemistry platform that combines software, artificial intelligence and robotics to automate the design, synthesis and discovery of new molecules. Spun out of research led by Professor Lee Cronin and headquartered in Glasgow, Chemify is scaling its platform to accelerate chemical discovery for partners across pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals and materials science.

As the company grows, software is central to how Chemify's chemistry, robotics and AI capabilities come together, and this role will help shape it.

The Role

Chemify is looking for an experienced Senior Product Owner to join our Operations & Fulfilment team and lead product for our Manufacturing Execution System (MES) and its peripheral applications. This is the software our scientists and operations teams rely on to plan, run and track production and fulfilment work. You'll work at the intersection of software engineering, chemistry and operations, turning the needs of our internal users into a clear, prioritised roadmap and backlog that you and the engineering team shape and deliver together.

This role combines product direction with hands-on product ownership, and is built on partnership with engineering. You'll shape where the MES is heading together with the engineering team lead, bringing the user and operational perspective while drawing on the team's technical insight to decide what we build and when. You'll also own the day-to-day backlog that gets us there. Day to day you'll also work closely with our scientists and operations team, so it suits someone who enjoys solving novel problems alongside the people who use the software.

Key Responsibilities

• Own and prioritise the product backlog for the MES and its peripheral applications, working with the engineering team lead to balance operational, scientific and technical priorities.
• Shape the product direction for the MES in partnership with the engineering team lead, working with users and stakeholders to understand operational needs and translating them into a clear, well-sequenced roadmap, epics, user stories and acceptance criteria.
• Act as the primary link between the engineering team and stakeholders across chemistry, operations and leadership, communicating priorities, timelines and trade-offs clearly to both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Facilitate backlog refinement and story prioritisation with the engineering team within an Agile/Scrum framework, and bring the user perspective to sprint planning and reviews.
• Define, track and report on product success metrics and KPIs, using data to inform prioritisation decisions.
• Work with the engineering team, and with UX, data and platform teams where needed, to ensure the software is intuitive for scientists and operators and robust enough for automated, high-throughput use.
• Identify risks, dependencies and blockers early, including those involving other teams, and work through them together with the engineering team lead.
• Stay close to end users, the scientists and operations teams who rely on the MES day to day, so that the product makes a real difference to how their work gets done.

What We're Looking For

• Proven years' of experience as a Product Owner or Product Manager in a software or technology environment, ideally including complex, technical or scientific domains.
• Strong working knowledge of Agile/Scrum practices, with hands-on experience running backlog grooming, sprint planning and story writing.
• A track record of translating complex technical or scientific requirements into a clear, actionable product backlog.
• A collaborative approach to product ownership, with experience working in partnership with engineering teams, welcoming technical input and making trade-offs together.
• Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills, with the ability to work confidently across engineering, science and leadership audiences.
• Strong analytical skills and comfort using data to prioritise and justify product decisions.

Nice to Have

• Experience with MES, LIMS, ERP or other operational software used in production or laboratory environments.
• Experience with lab automation, robotics, scientific informatics or other deep-tech software platforms.
• A Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO) qualification or equivalent.
• Background or strong interest in chemistry, life sciences or automation.
• Experience working in a fast-paced, scaling startup or high-growth technology environment.
• A degree in a relevant field (computer science, engineering, life sciences or similar).

What Chemify Offers

• The opportunity to shape software at the frontier of digital chemistry.
• A collaborative, mission-driven team solving problems that don't have existing playbooks.
• Competitive salary and benefits, aligned to experience [to be confirmed by hiring manager].
• Hybrid working from Chemify's Glasgow headquarters, with up to 3 days per week in the office.