Business Operations, Product & Science

External

Periodic-labs · Menlo Park

Full-timeOn-site3w ago

Leadership

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About the role

Periodic Labs sits at the intersection of frontier AI and physical science - and the operational challenges we face reflect that complexity. As Business Operations, you will be the connective tissue between our research teams, our model development roadmap, and the broader strategic and operational needs of the company. You will work cross functionally to accelerate the translation of scientific progress into outcomes that matter. This is a high-ownership role for someone who can operate in deeply technical environments without being a researcher themselves - someone who understands how science gets done, how AI models get built, and what it takes to build the organizational systems that allow both to happen faster. You will help with product-science coordination, and serve as a trusted strategic partner to leadership on the decisions that shape our trajectory. The ideal candidate has a graduate-level scientific background - physics, chemistry, materials science, or a closely related field - combined with meaningful experience in strategy, operations, or product roles at a technology or research organization. You think rigorously, communicate exceptionally, and have a rare ability to earn the trust of both scientists and executives.

Responsibilities

Support the operating rhythm of the research organization - research planning cycles, milestone tracking, experiment prioritization, and cross-team coordination between AI and physical sciences

Design and maintain systems that give leadership real-time visibility into research progress, resource utilization, and emerging risks across the model development and lab science roadmaps

Partner with the Head of Research and Principal Scientists to translate long-horizon scientific goals into quarterly operating plans, resourcing decisions, and hiring priorities

Identify and remove the organizational, process, and tooling bottlenecks that slow down researchers and scientists - acting as a force multiplier for the people doing the core work

Coordinate compute, lab equipment, and infrastructure resource allocation across research projects, working closely with infra and lab operations leads

Serve as the operational link between research outputs and product development - ensuring scientific milestones translate into clear product implications and that product needs are legible to research teams

Drive the product planning process in close partnership with founders and product leads: roadmap development, prioritization frameworks, and cross-functional alignment

Build the processes and artifacts (roadmaps, decision logs, spec templates, review cadences) that make the product-science collaboration scalable as we grow

Lead or support evaluation design, benchmark development, and model assessment processes that connect scientific capability to real-world product requirements

Lead special projects and strategic analyses that don't fit neatly into any existing function: competitive landscape assessments, build/buy/partner decisions, new capability evaluations

Support external partnerships, collaborations, and customer engagements that sit at the boundary of research and commercial - from scoping to execution

You Will Thrive in This Role If You Have

An undergraduate or graduate degree in physics, chemistry, materials science, computational science, or a closely related quantitative discipline - or equivalent depth demonstrated through research or industry experience

7+ years of experience in strategy, operations, product management, chief-of-staff, or a closely related function - with at least some of that time spent inside a technical, research-driven, or AI organization

A genuine ability to read and engage with primary scientific literature, follow technical discussions at the frontier of AI and physical science, and translate what you learn into operational decisions

Exceptional analytical and structured thinking - you can decompose hard problems, build models under uncertainty, and present findings with conviction and intellectual honesty

Outstanding communication skills: you write with precision and clarity, and you can adapt your register from a conversation with a principal scientist to a board presentation without losing rigor

High agency, strong judgment, and the organizational credibility to influence without authority across a team of world-class researchers and engineers

Experience designing and operating planning and prioritization systems in environments where the w

Business Operations, Product & Science

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