VP R&D

Company Description

MNDL Bio is revolutionizing biotech production through an advanced computational platform that optimizes gene expression. Our AI-powered technology helps companies significantly increase protein yields, reduce development timelines, and lower production costs. Founded on breakthrough research and algorithms developed by CSO Prof. Tamir Tuller, our solution has been consistently validated through successful collaborations with leading biotech companies and researchers. Winner of the 2023 Coller Startup Competition, MNDL Bio is committed to making protein production more efficient and sustainable.

Role Description

We are looking for a hands-on VP of R&D to lead the end-to-end technical development of our platform, spanning the web application, algorithmic compute stack, and database infrastructure.

The role currently includes direct management of 2 engineers and active technical contribution as an individual contributor.

You’ll be responsible for shaping the technical strategy, building and managing a cross-functional team, and ensuring seamless coordination between full-stack product delivery and algorithmic performance.

This role requires someone with broad technical fluency, from web and SaaS architecture to cloud-native AI deployment and data management. You should be comfortable getting into the code when needed, while also driving execution, hiring, and long-term architecture decisions in a fast-moving environment.

Key Responsibilities

• Own the full technical stack; ensure architectural coherence across components.
• Lead development of a secure, cloud-based, AI-powered SaaS platform for gene design and optimization.
• Define and enforce best practices for system reliability, monitoring, deployment, and secure multi-tenant/on-prem configurations.
• Collaborate closely with product, science, and commercial leads to align roadmap, prioritize execution, and accelerate delivery.
• Ensure end-to-end platform security, including data protection, user management, encrypted data handling, and compliance with relevant industry standards.
• Oversee and evolve core ML, bioinformatics, and generative model pipelines (LLMs, diffusion, neural nets), ensuring scalability and performance.
• Build and manage high-performing engineering and algorithm teams (currently 2 engineers) across frontend, backend, and bioinformatics.

Qualifications

• 10 years of experience in backend development experience, with hands-on work in at least one major cloud platform (AWS, GCP, or Azure) and experience with Kubernetes and container-based deployment.
• Familiarity with monitoring, logging, and uptime management in cloud infrastructure.
• Background in bioinformatics, life sciences, or biotech.
• 5 years of team and task management experience, including leading cross-functional teams (e.g., engineering, data, product).
• Proven track record in 0→1 product or platform development, ideally in a startup setting.
• Hands-on experience building and operating SaaS platforms that include algorithmic components or work closely with AI/ML teams.
• Familiarity with databases, big data frameworks, AI Inference and training at scale.