Head of Product Engineering

Job ID: 31152671Company: Abbott LaboratoriesLocation: United States - California - AlamedaJob Type: Full timeCategory: Research & DevelopmentIndustry: HealthcarePosted Date: 2026-07-31Abbott is a global healthcare leader that helps people live more fully at all stages of life. Our portfolio of life-changing technologies spans the spectrum of healthcare, with leading businesses and products in diagnostics, medical devices, nutritionals and branded generic medicines. Our 115,000 colleagues serve people in more than 160 countries.THE OPPORTUNITYAt Lingo, we’re building a groundbreaking health platform that combines continuous biosensor data, real-time analytics, and personalized insights to help people live fuller, longer, and healthier lives. Our systems ingest millions of sensor readings daily, powering experiences for consumers and partners worldwide, with the reliability and scalability of cloud-native, enterprise-grade platforms.We are seeking an experienced and strategic Head of Product Engineering who can set the technical direction and roll up their sleeves to solve hard engineering problems. This is a hands-on leadership role for a builder, someone who has personally architected and delivered large-scale SaaS systems, brings deep system design instincts, has meaningful experience engineering AI-powered products, and knows how to grow and galvanize engineering teams to ship great products in a regulated, fast-moving environment.What You’ll Work On Serve as the principal engineering leader and hands-on architect for product-facing teams, translating product roadmaps and business objectives into a prioritized, executable engineering strategyActively participate in system design reviews, architecture decisions, and critical technical problem-solving not just as a reviewer, but as a contributorDefine and own the SaaS architecture strategy for Lingo's consumer platform, including multi-tenancy models, API design, service decomposition, data pipelines, and platform scalabilityDrive the architecture and engineering execution of AI-powered product features, including personalized health insights, predictive analytics, LLM-based conversational experiences, and on-device ML inference from biosensor dataEstablish engineering standards for AI system design, including model integration patterns, RAG pipelines, prompt engineering practices, evaluation frameworks, and responsible AI guardrails appropriate for a regulated health contextBuild, lead, and scale a Product Engineering organization, including Frontend Engineers, Backend Engineers, Mobile Engineers, Full-Stack Engineers, and AI/ML Engineers across multiple product squadsLead engineering effectiveness initiatives across the Product Engineering function, including team topology design, capability assessments, and engineering culture healthIdentify technical debt, architectural risks, and organizational blockers to product delivery velocity and drive sustainable interventions to resolve themOwn and continually improve engineering hiring, onboarding, and career development processes for the Product Engineering organizationChampion engineering best practices like test-driven development, continuous delivery, API-first design, and design-for-reliability to optimize end-to-end product value streamsStandardize tools, development processes, and engineering practices across product squads to improve alignment and delivery consistencyPartner with Product Management, Data Science, and Design on roadmap prioritization, resource allocation, and capacity forecasting across product initiativesDefine, manage, and report on engineering OKRs, KPIs, and delivery metrics; present progress and insights to senior stakeholdersEnsure product engineering investments and AI systems maintain ongoing alignment with regulatory requirements, including HIPAA, GDPR, and FDA software guidance, in close partnership with Legal and ComplianceOwn release cadence, feature delivery readiness, and global deployment coordination with Platform Engineering and Product teamsRequired QualificationsBachelor’s degree in engineering, computer science, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.15+ years of progressive experience in software engineering, with a strong foundation as an individual contributor before moving into leadership, you have written production code and designed systems at scaleProven hands-on experience architecting and building large-scale SaaS platforms, including multi-tenant architectures, event-driven systems, RESTful and GraphQL APIs, and cloud-native infrastructure (AWS, GCP, or Azure)Deep system design expertise, you can whiteboard and lead design of distributed systems, data models, caching strategies, and real-time data pipelines from first principlesMeaningful hands-on experience engineering AI-powered products including integrating LLMs into production systems, building RAG or agentic pipelines, and applying ML models within user-facing applicationsStrong understanding of AI/ML system design considerations: model serving infrastructure, latency and cost trade-offs, evaluation and observability, data feedback loops, and safety constraints in sensitive domainsDemonstrated success building and scaling high-performing product engineering organizations, with direct ownership of consumer-facing products at significant scaleDeep expertise in engineering organizational design, squad/tribe models, and building high-output teams across web, mobile, backend, and AI/ML disciplinesProven ability to drive multi-year product engineering roadmaps in regulated, fast-paced environments with demanding reliability and safety requirementsExceptional executive communication skills, including the ability to translate engineering and AI complexity into clear product and business narratives for C-suite and board audiencesA track record of building and maturing engineering governance frameworks, delivery planning processes, and performance management systems across product engineering organizationsPreferred QualificationsBackground in digital health, consumer health technology, or other highly regulated industries (e.g., HIPAA, GDPR, FDA oversight)Experience applying AI/ML in health or wellness contexts, including personalization engines, anomaly detection on sensor data, or clinically informed recommendation systemsExperience in high-growth scale-up or venture-backed environments, with exposure to rapid product and organizational scalingHands-on experience with IoT or biosensor data ingestion pipelines, real-time analytics, or wearable device platformsExperience with IEC 62304–based software development processes for medical device softwareStrong experience defining OKRs, KPIs, and capacity planning for high-throughput, consumer-facing platforms with high-availability requirementsLearn more about our health and wellness benefits, which provide the security to help you and your family live full lives: Follow your career aspirations to Abbott for diverse opportunities with a company that can help you build your future and live your best life. Abbott is an Equal Opportunity Employer, committed to employee diversity.The base pay for this position is $172,000.00 – $344,000.00. In specific locations, the pay range may vary from the range posted.Skillssaas architecturemulti-tenant architectureexecutive communicationtest-driven developmentazuredata modelingstakeholder managementawsai-powered product engineeringcapacity planningprompt engineeringokrsllm integrationcaching strategieskpisdistributed systems designcloud-native infrastructureevaluation frameworksdesign-for-reliabilitymodel integration patternsgraphql apismodel serving infrastructureengineering governanceobservabilitygcprag pipelinesrestful apisreal-time data pipelines