Head of Product Engineering

Abbott Laboratories; Milpitas (CA); On-site; USD 172,000 - 344,000; Full time

Job summary

Abbott Laboratories seeks a Head of Product Engineering to set technical direction and lead hands-on delivery of large-scale SaaS systems in a regulated health context. You will own multi-tenant architectures, AI-powered product features, and platform scalability while growing a diverse engineering organization in a fast-moving environment.

The role requires deep system design expertise, excellence in executive communication, and a track record of aligning engineering with regulatory

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in engineering, computer science, or related field, or equivalent practical experience.
• 12+ years of progressive software engineering experience with leadership responsibilities.
• Proven architecture experience for large-scale SaaS platforms, multi-tenant, event-driven, REST/GraphQL APIs, cloud-native infra.
• Hands-on AI-powered product experience, including LLM integration and RAG pipelines.
• Deep AI/ML system design considerations: latency, observability, safety in regulated contexts.
• Proven ability to build and mature high-performing product engineering teams and governance.
• Experience defining OKRs, KPIs and capacity planning for high-throughput platforms.

Responsibilities

• Translate product roadmaps into prioritized engineering strategy for product-facing teams.
• Lead design reviews and drive critical technical problem-solving as a contributor and leader.
• Define SaaS architecture strategy including data pipelines and platform scalability.
• Drive development of AI-powered features with on-device ML and AI governance in regulated health contexts.
• Build and scale the Product Engineering organization across web, mobile, backend, and AI/ML squads.
• Own hiring, onboarding, and career development within Product Engineering.
• Champion best practices like TDD, CD, API-first design, and reliability across value streams.

Skills

Leadership

AI/ML

SaaS

System design

API design

Cloud platforms

Regulatory compliance

Education

Bachelor’s degree in engineering or computer science

Tools

AWS

GCP

Azure

GraphQL

REST APIs

Job description

JOB DESCRIPTION: THE OPPORTUNITY

Abbott is a global healthcare leader that helps people live more fully at all stages of life. Our portfolio of life-changing technologies spans the spectrum of healthcare, with leading businesses and products in diagnostics, medical devices, nutritionals and branded generic medicines. Our 122,000 colleagues serve people in more than 160 countries.

At Lingo, we’re building a groundbreaking health platform that combines continuous biosensor data, real-time analytics, and personalized insights to help people live fuller, longer, and healthier lives. Our systems ingest millions of sensor readings daily, powering experiences for consumers and partners worldwide, with the reliability and scalability of cloud-native, enterprise-grade platforms. We are seeking an experienced and strategic Head of Product Engineering who can set the technical direction and roll up their sleeves to solve hard engineering problems. This is a hands‑on leadership role for a builder, someone who has personally architected and delivered large-scale SaaS systems, brings deep system design instincts, has meaningful experience engineering AI-powered products, and knows how to grow and galvanize engineering teams to ship great products in a regulated, fast-moving environment.

What You’ll Work On

• Serve as the principal engineering leader and hands‑on architect for product‑facing teams, translating product roadmaps and business objectives into a prioritized, executable engineering strategy
• Actively participate in system design reviews, architecture decisions, and critical technical problem‑solving not just as a reviewer, but as a contributor
• Define and own the SaaS architecture strategy for Lingo's consumer platform, including multi‑tenancy models, API design, service decomposition, data pipelines, and platform scalability
• Drive the architecture and engineering execution of AI‑powered product features, including personalized health insights, predictive analytics, LLM‑based conversational experiences, and on‑device ML inference from biosensor data
• Establish engineering standards for AI system design, including model integration patterns, RAG pipelines, prompt engineering practices, evaluation frameworks, and responsible AI guardrails appropriate for a regulated health context
• Build, lead, and scale a Product Engineering organization, including Frontend Engineers, Backend Engineers, Mobile Engineers, Full‑Stack Engineers, and AI/ML Engineers across multiple product squads
• Lead engineering effectiveness initiatives across the Product Engineering function, including team topology design, capability assessments, and engineering culture health
• Identify technical debt, architectural risks, and organizational blockers to product delivery velocity and drive sustainable interventions to resolve them
• Own and continually improve engineering hiring, onboarding, and career development processes for the Product Engineering organization
• Champion engineering best practices like test‑driven development, continuous delivery, API‑first design, and design‑for‑reliability to optimize end‑to‑end product value streams
• Standardize tools, development processes, and engineering practices across product squads to improve alignment and delivery consistency
• Partner with Product Management, Data Science, and Design on roadmap prioritization, resource allocation, and capacity forecasting across product initiatives
• Define, manage, and report on engineering OKRs, KPIs, and delivery metrics; present progress and insights to senior stakeholders
• Ensure product engineering investments and AI systems maintain ongoing alignment with regulatory requirements, including HIPAA, GDPR, and FDA software guidance, in close partnership with Legal and Compliance
• Own release cadence, feature delivery readiness, and global deployment coordination with Platform Engineering and Product teams

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in engineering, computer science, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
• 12+ years of progressive experience in software engineering, with a strong foundation as an individual contributor before moving into leadership, you have written production code and designed systems at scale.
• Proven hands‑on experience architecting and building large‑scale SaaS platforms, including multi-tenant architectures, event‑driven systems, RESTful and GraphQL APIs, and cloud-native infrastructure (AWS, GCP, or Azure).
• Deep system design expertise, you can whiteboard and lead design of distributed systems, data models, caching strategies, and real‑time data pipelines from first principles.
• Meaningful hands‑on experience engineering AI‑powered products including integrating LLMs into production systems, building RAG or agentic pipelines, and applying ML models within user‑facing applications.
• Strong understanding of AI/ML system design considerations: model serving infrastructure, latency and cost trade‑offs, evaluation and observability, data feedback loops, and safety constraints in sensitive domains.
• Demonstrated success building and scaling high‑performing product engineering organizations, with direct ownership of consumer‑facing products at significant scale.
• Deep expertise in engineering organizational design, squad/tribe models, and building high‑output teams across web, mobile, backend, and AI/ML disciplines.
• Proven ability to drive multi‑year product engineering roadmaps in regulated, fast‑paced environments with demanding reliability and safety requirements.
• Exceptional executive communication skills, including the ability to translate engineering and AI complexity into clear product and business narratives for C‑suite and board audiences.
• A track record of building and maturing engineering governance frameworks, delivery planning processes, and performance management systems across product engineering organizations.

Preferred Qualifications

• Background in digital health, consumer health technology, or other highly regulated industries (e.g., HIPAA, GDPR, FDA oversight).
• Experience applying AI/ML in health or wellness contexts, including personalization engines, anomaly detection on sensor data, or clinically informed recommendation systems.
• Experience in high‑growth scale‑up or venture‑backed environments, with exposure to rapid product and organizational scaling.
• Hands‑on experience with IoT or biosensor data ingestion pipelines, real‑time analytics, or wearable device platforms.
• Experience with IEC 62304–based software development processes for medical device software.
• Strong experience defining OKRs, KPIs, and capacity planning for high‑throughput, consumer‑facing platforms with high‑availability requirements.

Abbott is an Equal Opportunity Employer, committed to employee diversity.

The base pay for this position is $172,000.00 – $344,000.00 In specific locations, the pay range may vary from the range posted.

Job Family: Product Development

Division: LNGO Lingo

Location: United States > Alameda : 2901 Harbor Bay Parkway

Additional Locations: United States > Milpitas : 1820 McCarthy Blvd

Work Shift: Standard

Travel: Yes, 10 % of the Time

Medical Surveillance: Not Applicable

Significant Work Activities: Continuous sitting for prolonged periods (more than 2 consecutive hours in an 8 hour day)

Abbott is an Equal Opportunity Employer of Minorities/Women/Individuals with Disabilities/Protected Veterans.

EEO is the Law link - English: http://webstorage.abbott.com/common/External/EEO_English.pdf

EEO is the Law link - Espanol: http://webstorage.abbott.com/common/External/EEO_Spanish.pdf

Abbott is about the power of health. For more than 135 years, Abbott has been helping people reach their potential — because better health allows people and communities to achieve more. With a diverse, global network serving customers in more than 160 countries, we create new solutions — across the spectrum of health, around the world, for all stages of life. Whether it’s next‑generation diagnostics, life‑changing devices, science‑based nutrition, or novel reformulations, we are advancing some of the most innovative and revolutionary technologies in healthcare, helping people live their best lives through better health. The people of Abbott come to work each day with relentless energy, enthusiasm and a promise to enhance the health and well‑being of millions of people. We push the boundaries to help manage and treat some of life’s greatest health challenges. We invite you to explore opportunities at Abbott, to see if your talents and career aspirations may fit with our openings. An equal opportunity employer, Abbott welcomes and encourages diversity in our workforce.

Learn more about our health and wellness benefits, which provide the security to help you and your family live full lives: www.abbottbenefits.com

Follow your career aspirations to Abbott for diverse opportunities with a company that can help you build your future and live your best life.

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