Pharma Product Specialist @ Elio

Type

Full-Time

Location

Vienna (strong preference)

Remote (within Europe)

Equity

Yes

Start Date

ASAP

Salary

€80,000 - €110,000

Interested? Apply here: Apply to be Elio’s Pharma Product Specialist

Join us on our mission to make sustainable manufacturing the norm.

80% of the final environmental impact of a product is determined by its manufacturing process design. However, scientists and engineers have no sophisticated tools that allow them to consider and optimise the sustainability of these processes that, once set, are run thousands of times over decades.

Our first focus is the 5th most emissions-intensive industry globally: pharmaceuticals. We are building an end-to-end process design platform, that allows scientists and process engineers to effortlessly consider more sustainable alternatives to their consumable products and the process design itself. Backed by industry leaders like Stefan Oschmann (former CEO of Merck KGaA) and top venture firms like Ananda Impact Ventures, we're bringing cutting-edge solutions to advance sustainability in pharma.

We are looking for a biopharma professional to join the team — someone who is excited about the scrappiness and fast pace of a startup. You will play a key role in guiding the development of our product and help fulfill our vision for truly sustainable pharma manufacturing.

You will join …

Kami - CEO (center): Kami has been focused on climate change since age 8, when he wrote to President Lula of Brasil imploring him to protect the Amazon. He studied Bioengineering at Harvard and led novel HIV research at MIT, later advising pharma companies on multi-billion dollar biopharma acquisitions.

Kamil - CTO (left): Prior to Elio, Kamil spent 10 years building 2 successfully exited startups in big data; first as 3rd employee and next as cofounder/CTO. He graduated from the top CompSci program in Canada at the University of Waterloo.

Raul - Founding NLP Eng. (right): Raul has been specialising in ML engineering for the last 8 years, bringing a diverse experience in computer vision, NLP, and more. In his last role, he headed the ML team at Kalido, and prior to that, launched his own ML company.

You are …

Fluent Communicator: You express ideas clearly, concisely, and persuasively in both written and spoken English.

Scientifically Grounded: You have a strong background in bioengineering, pharmacology, organic chemistry, or related life sciences STEM fields.

Industry-Experienced: You have hands-on experience in pharmaceutical companies, CDMOs, or biotech scale-ups (Series B+), particularly in R&D, process development, or CMC. Alternatively, you have done advanced drug development research in an academic setting or relevant internships.

Systems Thinker: You excel at breaking down complex systems—whether lab experiments or market dynamics—to identify gaps, optimize processes, and solve problems effectively.

Process-Oriented Problem Solver: You understand the nuances of process design and decision-making, translating technical requirements into clear product specifications.

User-Centric: You naturally empathize with scientists and process engineers, deeply understanding their needs, frustrations, and what makes their work easier.

Entrepreneurial & Resourceful: You thrive in fast-paced environments, whether in a startup, side projects, or building with limited resources. You focus on impact, iterate quickly, and get things done efficiently.

Bonus:

You understand the challenges of evaluating product sustainability within the context of process design. You are familiar with life cycle assessments (LCAs) and their entrenchment within the industry.

You have strong relationships within the pharmaceutical industry — you can speak the language of both technical and business stakeholders in the industry

You have used standard industry software as well as bespoke internal tools built to support process design and integrate eco-design principles

You have experience with marketing, design or any other form of communicating to an audience

You have experience with product design and UX development at an early-stage startup company (internship or full-time)

You have experience with implementing sustainability initiatives within large organizations

You will … shape the next era of pharma process design

Do you have a background in pharma, biotech or drug development and want to make an outsized difference? Do you wish you could push pharma manufacturing towards a sustainable era of eco-design? Come channel your insider experience towards building a product that transforms the entire industry for the better. You will work closely with Elio’s CEO Kami Krista, and be integral to shaping the evolution of Elio’s platform. You will be treated as an equal intellectual partner and given significant ownership.

Your mission will be to guide our product development by leveraging your expertise in life sciences R&D, ensuring that our team builds something that resonates deeply with pharma companies. You will help us decode the complexities of process design, translate customer needs into product features, and establish Elio as the flagship tool for eco-design. Your insights will be crucial in developing our sustainability scoring methodology and ensuring that our AI-driven approach retains its explainability. As we grow, you will also play a key role in forming high-trust relationships with customers and cultivating our presence and credibility within the industry.

You may work on …

Design & Test UX: Help define the next iterations of the Elio platform by combining workflow insights with direct user feedback. Design and lead customer interviews (VOCs) to validate our product roadmap against core user pain points.

Process Design Workflow Mapping: Take a lead role in understanding and documenting how pharma R&D, process development, CMC, and manufacturing teams make process design decisions. Investigate deep into the weeds of process design, capturing the nuances of deciding between different process inputs and making these insights shareable across our team.

UAT & Customer Success: Guide early adopters in implementing Elio within their existing workflows. Maintain a close feedback loop with Elio users (scientists and process engineers, as well as business users) and translate their feedback into actionable product improvements.

Industry Knowledge Base: Extend and keep up to date our bedrock of insights for key information we need to understand about the pharma industry. For instance: create a resource that describes all the stakeholders, organizations, and forces of influence up and down the pharma value chain — this resource is vital to understanding how Elio can win and continue to grow our target market.

Expert-in-the-Loop: Work with our engineering team to spot and sanity check the results of vast computational models and debug cases in which models perform unexpectedly poorly. Help integrate SME heuristics and document the human-readable reasoning behind our sustainability scoring and AI methodology.

Product Taxonomy: Interrogate our current classification of products and find inconsistencies, edge cases, and gaps. Update and expand the product taxonomy as we integrate more process inputs into our data pipelines.

While the majority of your time will be spent on projects similar to the ones above, since we are a startup, expect to pick up other tasks you are suited to help with.

To thrive in this team …

You have a track record of working hard and getting things done.

You act as an owner towards anything you work on, and proactively assess how to go the extra mile.

You have learnt to cope with complexity and rapid change. You can adapt and prioritise effectively.

You will do what is necessary for success. No task is too small and you’re ready to get your hands dirty.

You are not afraid to say you don’t know something and leave the door open to change your opinions.

You understand your own triggers and have learnt how to remain calm under pressure.

You apply a “lifelong learning mindset” to your own growth.

You give and receive feedback humbly in service of the future we’re building.

You do not cut ethical corners, even when there may be a short-term reward.

Benefits and Perks

A small, fast-paced, highly focused team

High potential for growth & high level of ownership from the start

Generous stock option package

Flexible working hours

Flexibility on location (within Europe)

Escape the rigidity of big corporations but work closely enough to shape them from the inside out

Build a network in the industry and amongst Elio's circle of investors

Work with a team that knows how to have fun, while solving one of the biggest challenges of our time

FAQ

What's your motivation?

We wondered: “If the manufacturing world is creating so many sustainable alternatives, why are companies not using them to make more sustainable products?” What we learned after 100+ interviews with scientists and R&D operators is that leaders don’t know what to do. They have committed to ambitious climate goals with no concrete path to achieve them. There are a growing variety of sustainable products and solutions, but evaluating their feasibility is a complex, time-consuming process that requires a lot of expertise. Most experts in the industry don’t have that time to spare. What if you knew for every process design decision what the most sustainable alternative approach was? We want to make this a reality.

Funding?

We’ve raised a $2 million pre-seed round led by Ananda Impact Ventures. The round also includes Stefan Oschmann (former CEO of Merck KGaA), Andreas Treichl (former CEO of Erste Group), Alexis Ohanian (co-founder of Reddit), Patrick Nathen (co-founder of Lilium), and others.

See here for some coverage: EU Startups (English) and brutkasten (German).

Can I work from anywhere?

We prefer someone who can move to Vienna for this role and but welcome anyone who is based in Europe. If you are working remotely, we would expect you to come spend a few months out of the year working in person in Vienna or at our retreat locations. If you would like to move to Vienna, Elio would support you in being able to do that. This role will include travel across Europe for customer onsites, conferences, etc.

I don't meet all the criteria, should I still apply?

Absolutely! The most important factor in any startup’s success is finding great people. We make exceptions for exceptional people. In all hires, we are looking for either 1) difference makers on world class teams or 2) individuals who would become this very quickly if placed on such a team tomorrow. If you’re excited about what we’re building, please apply anyway. We’d love the chance to make it work.

We’re proud to be an equal opportunity and affirmative action employer. All hires to our team are based on qualifications, merit and business needs. We recruit, employ, train and promote regardless of race, color, religion, disability, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, veteran status, genetic characteristic or any other protected status.