Product Manager Bioinformatics

Syngenta Crop Protection is a leader in agricultural innovation, bringing breakthrough technologies and solutions that enable farmers to grow productively and sustainably. We offer a leading portfolio of crop protection solutions for plant and soil health, as well as digital solutions that transform the decision-making capabilities of farmers. Our 17,900 employees serve to advance agriculture in more than 90 countries around the world. Syngenta Crop Protection is headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, and is part of the Syngenta Group. Our employees reflect the diversity of our customers, the markets where we operate and the communities which we serve. No matter what your position, you will have a vital role in safely feeding the world and taking care of our planet. Join us and help shape the future of agriculture.

Responsibilities

• Establish and maintain the vision, roadmap, value objectives and success measures for your BIX products and capabilities, ensuring they contribute to the overall BIX strategy and deliver measurable scientific and business value for R&D.
• Maintain rigorous control of the product backlog for your area, translating scientific needs into clear priorities and making transparent trade-offs based on expected value, evidence, scope, cost, risk and technical sustainability.
• Manage the product lifecycle, operational performance, total cost of ownership and value realisation after launch, including adoption, user impact and measurable improvement to scientific workflows.
• Demonstrate authoritative understanding of scientific workflows and engage credibly with scientists, bioinformaticians and R&D stakeholders.
• Lead in partnership with Product Owners, who bring the needs and priorities of their user communities.
• Translate scientific opportunities into clear product capabilities and requirements for delivery teams.
• Direct engineering teams throughout delivery, providing clear product direction, resolving scope and priority questions, and ensuring delivered capabilities meet the intended scientific need.
• Operate within the R&D IT target operating model, coordinating dependencies across products, PODs and shared services.
• Mandate the use of standardised frameworks, platforms and reusable components provided by R&D IT Product Engineering and influence their evolution based on BIX needs in collaboration with BIX Staff Engineers.
• Guarantee that BIX solutions are fit for purpose, scalable, supportable and aligned with architecture, data, security and quality standards.
• Apply Agile product practices and maintain a healthy, outcome-focused backlog.
• Manage product risks, cross-team dependencies and vendor relationships.
• Communicate product direction, decisions and progress clearly to scientific, technical and leadership audiences.

Qualifications

• Essential Requirements
• Degree or equivalent professional experience in Biology, Bioinformatics, Computational Biology or a closely related field.
• Demonstrated expertise in biology and bioinformatics, with established credibility within scientific discourse.
• Proven ability to engage effectively with software engineers, discussing APIs, data flows, testing, deployment and technical trade-offs with authority.
• Competency in mapping business processes and scientific workflows, creating precise data flow and system diagrams, and utilising these artefacts to align stakeholders.
• Substantive experience translating user and scientific needs into product direction, requirements and prioritised delivery schedules.
• Demonstrated excellence in stakeholder communication, facilitation and influencing across scientific and technical communities.
• Proven experience delivering Agile product initiatives and managing cross-functional teams within complex organisational structures.
• Advantageous Experience
• Experience with scientific data platforms, workflow systems, cloud infrastructure or high-performance computing environments.
• Familiarity with contemporary engineering practices including version control, CI/CD pipelines, APIs, automated testing and containerisation.
• Hands-on programming experience, preferably in Python and/or R, with demonstrated knowledge of bioinformatics workflows and pipelines.
• Professional experience as a Business Analyst or application of business analysis methodologies such as process modelling, requirements elicitation and data mapping.
• Experience within agricultural, pharmaceutical, biotechnology or other Life Sciences R&D sectors.

Core Competencies

• Scientific and technical credibility, with the capacity to engage substantively without displacing the scientist or engineering lead.
• A rigorous product mindset prioritising outcomes, reuse and sustainable capabilities over ad-hoc requests.
• Precise translation between scientific requirements, product decisions and engineering delivery.
• Demonstrated capability to prioritise decisively, decline requests when necessary and articulate trade-offs transparently.
• Collaborative approach combined with intellectual curiosity and the capacity to navigate ambiguity and organisational change.

Development Opportunities

• End-to-end product ownership for scientific digital products within an enterprise bioinformatics platform.
• Comprehensive exposure to bioinformatics use cases and scientific communities across R&D operations.
• Experience operating within a product-oriented model utilising shared engineering platforms and reusable components.
• Direct cross-functional product delivery engagement across science, Product Owners and engineering teams.

Additional Information

Jealott's Hill International Research Centre UK is situated in pleasant semi-rural surroundings between Bracknell and Maidenhead and is the place of work for approximately 800 Syngenta scientists and support staff. Jealott’s Hill is one of the main global research and development sites and key activities include research into discovery of new active ingredients, new formulation technologies, product safety and technical support of our product range.

What we offer: Extensive benefits package including a generous pension scheme, bonus scheme, private medical & life insurance. Up to 31.5 days annual holiday. Flexible working. We offer a position which contributes to valuable and impactful work in a stimulating and international environment. The opportunity to develop and apply your science within the chemical industry. The chance to work as part of a global team to address the current and future needs of the agricultural sector. Learning culture and wide range of training options. Syngenta has been ranked as a top 5 employer and number 1 in agriculture by Science Journal.

Syngenta is an Equal Opportunity Employer and does not discriminate in recruitment, hiring, training, promotion or any other employment practices for reasons of race, color, religion, gender, national origin, age, sexual orientation, marital or veteran status, disability, or any other legally protected status.