Sr. Director, Software Engineering, Digital for Research & CMC Development

Moderna Therapeutics; Cambridge (MA); On-site; USD 211,000 - 379,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive healthcare

Well-being resources

Generous paid time off

Location-specific perks

Job summary

Moderna Therapeutics is seeking a Senior Director of Software Engineering to lead the software organization supporting Research and CMC Development. This leader will establish clear engineering standards, drive accountability, and build a high-performing team delivering scalable digital solutions that advance scientific research and development.

The role oversees full-stack and integration engineering, mentors senior engineers, and partners with Product Management and Digital to ensure reliable,

Qualifications

• 15+ years of progressive software engineering and technology experience, including 10+ years in leadership.
• 10+ years delivering production software with deep software architecture and cloud-native skills.
• 5+ years in cloud architecture and evaluating tradeoffs across complex environments.
• 10+ years leading software teams within biotechnology or biopharmaceuticals.
• Proven track record building engineering leaders and improving delivery performance.

Responsibilities

• Lead the evolution of the software engineering organization with standards and operating rhythms.
• Build and develop senior engineers and leaders; enable ownership and accountability.
• Define performance expectations and clear career progression across teams.
• Establish portfolio management practices to forecast priorities, capacity and risks.
• Oversee full-stack application and integration engineering for scientific workflows.
• Partner with Product Management to align priorities and capacity across the digital portfolio.
• Collaborate across Digital (Data, DevOps, Cybersecurity) to leverage enterprise platforms.

Skills

Software engineering leadership

Cloud-native engineering

Full-stack development

APIs & integrations

Biotechnology experience

Job description

The Role

We are seeking a Senior Director of Software Engineering to lead the software engineering organization supporting Research and CMC Development. Reporting to the Head of Digital for Research and CMC Development (D4RT), this leader will establish clear engineering standards and operating rhythms, drive accountability and predictable execution, and build a high-performing organization capable of delivering reliable, scalable digital solutions that advance scientific research and development. This leader will oversee full-stack application and integration engineering capabilities, leading and developing engineering leaders and senior technical contributors while strengthening engineering practices across the organization. The ideal candidate combines deep software engineering experience with strong operational and people leadership. They bring the technical credibility to effectively lead senior engineers, evaluate system-level tradeoffs, and develop exceptional technical talent. While this is not a hands-on development role, this leader will bring strong systems thinking, understand the broader implications of technical decisions, and empower technical leads and other senior contributors to provide technical leadership across the organization. The successful candidate will also have significant experience within biotechnology or biopharmaceutical organizations and a strong understanding of scientific Research and CMC Development environments. They will understand the scientific context, workflows, ways of working, and cross-functional dynamics required to translate complex scientific needs into effective digital and software strategies.

Here’s What You’ll Do

Software Engineering Operations

Lead the evolution of the software engineering organization, establishing the leadership practices, operating model, engineering standards, and talent capabilities needed to support a growing Research and CMC Development digital portfolio.

Build and develop strong engineering leaders and senior technical contributors

Enabling them to grow talent, delegate effectively, establish clear ownership, and operate at the right level of technical and organizational leadership.

Establish clear and consistent expectations for performance and career progression across the engineering organization

Creating transparency around what strong performance looks like and how individuals grow in scope and impact.

Establish effective engineering operating rhythms and portfolio management practices that provide visibility into priorities, capacity, resource allocation, commitments, delivery health, dependencies, and risks, enabling informed tradeoffs when demand exceeds capacity.

Build a culture of accountability, continuous improvement, and ownership in which teams deliver against commitments, leaders address systemic barriers to delivery and meaningful improvements to engineering practices and ways of working.

Application & Integration Engineering

Provide senior oversight across custom full-stack application and integration engineering capacities supporting scientific and operational workflows. Guide engineering strategy across commercial SaaS platforms, custom applications, scientific systems, enterprise platforms, and data products, promoting reusable APIs, services, integration patterns, and shared capabilities. Drive simplification and sustainability across the technology landscape, ensuring applications and integrations leverage sound cloud architecture and engineering practices and are designed with reliability, observability, security, scalability, and operational support appropriate to their use.

Partner with Product Management

Partner with Product Management to maintain alignment across product priorities, planned initiatives, engineering capacity, and existing commitments, enabling effective resource planning and informed portfolio tradeoffs. Bring an engineering and systems perspective into product planning, helping teams understand how proposed solutions fit within the broader digital ecosystem and when software engineering capabilities are needed. Develop engineering leaders who can partner effectively with Product leads, while working across D4RT leadership to strengthen Product-Engineering ways of working, shared planning, and decision-making.

Partner Across Digital

Build strong partnerships across Digital, including Data Engineering, DevOps and Cybersecurity to navigate shared priorities and dependencies and effectively leverage enterprise platforms, data products, standards, and expertise. Bring an informed engineering perspective to cross-Digital initiatives and enterprise technology decisions, understanding their implications for Research and CMC Development and constructively influencing approaches where needed.

Drive Scientific & Operational Impact

Build trusted relationships with leaders and stakeholders across Research and CMC Development, developing a deep understanding of scientific workflows, development processes, data flows, and decision-making needs to inform engineering strategy and priorities. Translate complex and sometimes ambiguous scientific needs into pragmatic, scalable digital solutions that improve scientific and operational outcomes.

Here’s What You’ll Need (Basic Qualifications)

• 15+ years of progressive software engineering and technology experience, including 10+ years of engineering leadership experience with responsibility for engineering teams, leaders, and senior technical contributors.
• 10+ years of experience in software engineering, including significant hands-on experience designing and delivering production software, with strong technical depth across modern software architecture, cloud-native engineering, full-stack development, APIs, distributed systems, and enterprise integration patterns.
• 5+ years of modern cloud architecture and cloud-native engineering principles, with experience evaluate architectural approaches and tradeoffs across complex software environments.
• 10+ years of leadership experience within biotechnology or biopharmaceutical organizations, with direct experience supporting scientific Research, CMC Development, Technical Development, Process Development, or closely related R&D functions.
• Demonstrated experience leading and scaling software engineering organizations, including developing engineering leaders and senior technical talent, evolving engineering operating models and practices, and driving strong organizational performance.

Here’s What You’ll Bring to the Table (Preferred Qualifications)

• Experience with scientific and laboratory technology ecosystems, including ELN, LIMS, SDMS, laboratory automation, scientific data platforms, modeling or analytical systems, or related capabilities.
• Experience integrating commercial scientific SaaS platforms within complex biotechnology or biopharmaceutical technology environments.
• Experience applying AI-enabled engineering tools and practices to improve software development productivity, quality, and scalability, with the technical fluency to guide engineering teams on effective and responsible adoption.

Pay & Benefits

At Moderna, we believe that when you feel your best, you can do your best work. That’s why our benefits and well-being resources are designed to support you—at work, at home, and everywhere in between.

• Competitive healthcare, plus voluntary benefit programs to support your unique needs.
• A holistic approach to well-being, with access to fitness, mindfulness, and mental health support.
• Family planning benefits, including fertility, adoption, and surrogacy support.
• Generous paid time off, including vacation, volunteer days, sabbatical, global recharge days, and a discretionary year-end shutdown.
• Savings and investments to help you plan for the future.
• Location-specific perks and extras.

The salary range for this role is $210,900.00 - $379,200.00. This is the lowest to highest salary we in good faith believe we would pay for this role at the time of this posting. An individual’s position within the salary range will be based on several factors including, but not limited to, specific competencies, relevant education, qualifications, certifications, experience, skills, performance, and business or organizational needs. The successful candidate may be eligible for an annual discretionary bonus, other incentive compensation, or equity award, subject to company plan eligibility criteria and individual performance.

About Moderna

Since our founding in 2010, we have aspired to build the leading mRNA technology platform, the infrastructure to reimagine how medicines are created and delivered, and a world-class team. We believe in giving our people a platform to change medicine and an opportunity to change the world. By living our mission, values, and mindsets every day, our people are the driving force behind our scientific progress and our culture. Together, we are creating a culture of belonging and building an organization that cares deeply for our patients, our employees, the environment, and our communities. We are proud to have been recognized as a Science Magazine Top Biopharma Employer, a Fast Company Best Workplace for Innovators, and a Great Place to Work in the U.S.

Our Working Model

As we build our company, we have always believed an in-person culture is critical to our success. Moderna champions the significant benefits of in-office collaboration by embracing a 70/30 work model. This 70% in-office structure helps to foster a culture rich in innovation, teamwork, and direct mentorship. Join us in shaping a world where every interaction is an opportunity to learn, contribute, and make a meaningful impact.

Moderna Workplace

Moderna is a smoke-free, alcohol-free, and drug-free work environment.

Equal Opportunities

Moderna is committed to equal employment opportunity and non-discrimination for all employees and qualified applicants without regard to a person's race, color, sex, gender identity or expression, age, religion, national origin, ancestry or citizenship, ethnicity, disability, military or protected veteran status, genetic information, sexual orientation, marital or familial status, or any other personal characteristic protected under applicable law.

Moderna is a place where everyone can grow.

E-Verify

Moderna is an E-Verify Employer in the United States. We consider qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories, consistent with legal requirements.

Accommodations

We’re focused on attracting, retaining, developing, and advancing our employees. By cultivating a workplace that values diverse experiences, backgrounds, and ideas, we create an environment where every employee can contribute their best. Moderna is committed to offering reasonable accommodations to qualified job applicants with disabilities. Any applicant requiring an accommodation in connection with the hiring process and/or to perform the essential functions of the position for which the applicant has applied should contact the Accommodations team at [e-mail].

Export Control Notice

This position may involve access to technology or data that is subject to U.S. export control laws, including the Export Administration Regulations (EAR). As such, employment is contingent upon the applicant’s ability to access export-controlled information in accordance with U.S. law. Only U.S. persons (U.S. citizens, U.S. lawful permanent residents, asylees, or refugees) are currently eligible to access such information without an export license. Candidates who do not meet these criteria may still be considered, contingent on the company’s ability to obtain any required export control license.