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Early Stage Jobs (NOW HIRING)

This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to join an early-stage team. The MidMarket Account Executive position will be responsible for closing new business and driving revenue by running consultative ...

This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to join an early-stage team. The MidMarket Account Executive position will be responsible for closing new business and driving revenue by running consultative ...

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How much do early stage jobs pay per hour?

As of Jun 24, 2026, the average hourly pay for early stage in the United States is $54.88, according to ZipRecruiter salary data. Most workers in this role earn between $45.91 and $75.00 per hour, depending on experience, location, and employer.

What is the difference between Early Stage vs Software Developer?

AspectEarly StageSoftware Developer
Required CredentialsTypically a degree in relevant field, internships, or entry-level certificationsBachelor's degree in Computer Science or related field, coding bootcamps often accepted
Work EnvironmentStartups, small teams, or entry-level positions in tech companiesTech companies, software firms, or corporate IT departments
Employer & Industry UsageUsed for individuals just beginning their tech careers or in early project phasesCommonly used for professionals developing software applications or systems

Early Stage roles focus on individuals starting their careers or working on initial project phases, often requiring basic technical skills and entry-level credentials. Software Developers are experienced professionals who design, code, and maintain software applications, typically with more advanced skills and responsibilities. While both roles are related to tech, Early Stage is more about the career level, whereas Software Developer describes a specific job function.

What jobs pay $700 a day?

Jobs that can pay $700 a day include freelance consulting, specialized trades such as electricians or plumbers, and certain high-paying sales roles. These positions often require specific skills, certifications, or experience, and may involve self-employment or contract work with flexible schedules.

What are some typical challenges faced by professionals working in early-stage startups, and how can they be addressed?

Working at an early-stage startup often means managing ambiguity, wearing multiple hats, and adapting to rapidly changing priorities. Team members typically collaborate closely across departments and are frequently required to step outside their primary roles to help the company grow. To succeed, it's important to be proactive, communicate openly, and embrace a growth mindset. Building strong relationships within the team and being comfortable with uncertainty can help professionals thrive in this dynamic environment.

What jobs make $10,000 a month without a degree?

High-paying jobs that can reach $10,000 a month without a degree include roles such as sales managers, real estate brokers, and skilled trades like electricians or plumbers, especially with experience and certifications. Freelance work in fields like digital marketing, software development, or consulting can also generate this income, often requiring strong skills, a portfolio, and client networks. Success in these roles depends on experience, skill level, and market demand.

What are jobs that start early?

Early start jobs typically begin in the morning, often around 5 or 6 a.m., and are common in industries like manufacturing, transportation, hospitality, and healthcare. These roles may require shift work, specific skills, or certifications, and are suitable for individuals seeking to work outside standard daytime hours.

What jobs pay 2000 a day?

High-paying jobs that can pay around $2,000 a day typically include roles such as specialized surgeons, anesthesiologists, corporate lawyers, and senior executives, often requiring advanced degrees, certifications, and significant experience. Freelance consultants, project managers in large industries, and certain high-level sales positions may also reach this earning level, especially with bonuses or commissions. These roles usually demand long hours, high skill levels, and a strong professional reputation.

What are the key skills and qualifications needed to thrive as an Early Stage Startup Founder, and why are they important?

To thrive as an Early Stage Startup Founder, you need strong entrepreneurial skills, industry knowledge, and a solid understanding of business fundamentals—ideally supported by prior startup experience or relevant education. Familiarity with tools like business modeling software, CRM systems, and basic accounting platforms is highly beneficial. Exceptional adaptability, resilience, and communication skills enable founders to attract stakeholders and navigate constant uncertainty. These competencies are crucial to driving growth, securing resources, and successfully launching a sustainable venture.

What is an Early Stage professional?

An Early Stage professional typically refers to someone working in the initial phases of a business, project, or career. In the context of startups, 'early stage' often means being part of a company that is in its formative years, possibly pre-revenue or just starting to generate income. Early stage professionals are usually involved in building foundational aspects of the business, such as developing products, acquiring initial customers, and securing funding. This role often requires adaptability, problem-solving, and a willingness to take on a variety of tasks as the company grows.
What states have the most Early Stage jobs? States with the most job openings for Early Stage jobs include:
Infographic showing various Early Stage job openings in the United States as of June 2026, with employment types broken down into 70% Full Time, 28% Part Time, 1% Temporary, and 1% Contract. Highlights an 93% Physical, 2% Hybrid, and 5% Remote job distribution, with an average salary of $114,152 per year, or $54.9 per hour.
Director, Innovation (Digital Early Incubation, Technical Program Management)

Director, Innovation (Digital Early Incubation, Technical Program Management)

Edwards Lifesciences Corporation

Irvine, CA • On-site

Full-time

Posted 3 days ago


Edwards Lifesciences rating

8.3

Company rating: 8.3 out of 10

Based on 30 frontline employees who took The Breakroom Quiz

66th of 520 rated manufacturers


Job description

How you will make an impact:
This is an exciting opportunity to join a team identifying unmet patient needs and boldly designing a new category of digital products for Edwards Lifesciences. Edwards' Advanced Innovation & Technology team is deeply dedicated to solving the complex challenges in the broader structural heart field in order to transform treatment and significantly improve patients' lives around the world.
Edwards Lifesciences Advanced Innovation & Technology (AI&T) division has a unique opportunity for a Director, Innovation (Digital Early Incubation, Technical Program Management) to join our growing team, to be part of the team driving a new digital innovation portfolio for the future of Edwards Lifesciences. Be part of the team to build and implement the strategy for needs driven innovation within the AI&T incubator driving a multidisciplinary project team to identify opportunities. This highly collaborative role will partner with multiple teams that compete on numerous projects based on value proposition and feasibility of new products.
The Director, Innovation (Digital Early Incubation, Technical Program Management) will contribute to the planning, execution, and delivery of novel digital and software-based solutions within Edwards Lifesciences' early-stage incubator, guiding digital product concepts from ambiguity to architectural clarity and product feasibility. This role will be pivotal in driving cross-functional alignment, managing technical complexity, and ensuring timely delivery of innovative digital health products that complement Edwards' cardiovascular devices portfolio.
Key Responsibilities:
  • Deeply understand clinical management paradigms, anatomy, and pathophysiology to define clinical unmet needs for various patient segments along the care pathway
  • Actively contribute to generation of new digital product concepts, prioritization/screening of concepts, and de-risking through data-driven methods
  • Robustly characterize minimum viable product with a strong understanding of market adoption criteria, define strategies for demonstrating proof-of-concept, and chart a detailed plan for sufficiently de-risking and defining the digital product concept and achieving readiness to enter formal product development under design control (SaMD)
  • Develop, plan and prioritize impactful projects and activities based on value proposition, clinical needs driven innovation, and feasibility of new digital products, with accountability for successful completion of all project deliverables
  • Partner with internal technology and business leaders to identify, develop and execute new whitespace product opportunities
  • Manage multiple concurrent early-stage software development programs, ensuring delivery on time and within scope
  • Identify project and schedule risks and dependencies, developing complex mitigation strategies, alternative solutions, resolving issues, etc. in collaboration with cross functional groups.
  • Collaborate with product manager, UX/UI designer, and software engineers on requirements, roadmaps, and execution of project deliverables
  • Communicate program status, risks, and dependencies to leadership and cross-functional stakeholders
  • Maintain detailed program documentation, including project plans, timelines, dependencies, executive readouts, and decisions logs with rationale
  • Serve as visionary for software architecture of early-stage digital concepts, factoring in anticipated risks and translatability (e.g. integration feasibility, system-level impact and scalability) to go from early prototype phase to builds that will be validated and shipped to clinical end-users. Define transition plans between the upstream/early-stage and downstream/PDP phases
  • Implement and champion agile methodologies and lean startup principles for rapid prototyping and iteration. Balance speed, learning, and rigor, ensuring concept work progresses while preserving optionality.
  • Understand and influence processes for data ingestion, normalization, and structuring from multiple sources (device, EMR, cloud platforms)
  • Identify opportunities for leveraging AI, cloud, and data analytics in digital health solutions

What you'll need (Required):
  • Bachelor's Degree or Equivalent in Engineering, Science or Business Administration with 12 years of relevant experience -OR- Master's Degree or equivalent with 10 years of relevant experience -OR- Ph.D. or equivalent with 8 years of relevant experience (Degree in Computer Science strongly preferred)
  • Strong track record of technical program management for new early-stage or concept-stage software/digital product development initiatives in the medtech domain, with proven ability to coordinate multidisciplinary technical teams and manage dependencies
  • Proficiency with project management and collaboration tools (e.g. JIRA, Confluence)
  • Experience developing digital products/services spanning multiple hardware platforms (e.g. desktop, tablet, phone)
  • Strong understanding of software development lifecycle (SDLC), agile frameworks, cloud-based architectures, system requirements, and technical trade studies
  • Exceptional organizational skills with the ability to manage multiple priorities simultaneously
  • Experience working in both the medical device (or life sciences) industry and digital/tech industry
  • Familiarity with implantable medical devices
  • Experience in roles requiring knowledge of a domain of human anatomy and physiology (ideally cardiovascular)
  • Excellent communication, leadership, and stakeholder management skills
  • Strong presentation skills, adaptable to various audiences ranging from design reviews to executive-level forums

What else we look for (Preferred):
  • Experience working with remote software engineering teams (i.e. international)
  • Ability to quickly evaluate solution viability, courage to fail fast and learn from mistakes
  • Practical knowledge of clinical trials and biostatistics
  • Experience with Software as a Medical Device (SaMD) and regulatory compliance (FDA, ISO 13485, IEC 62304)
  • Understanding of business strategy and competitive landscape in the medical device / medtech industry
  • Technical background in software engineering or systems architecture, with prior experience as a software engineer or hands-on coding background (e.g. Python, JavaScript), enabling effective collaboration with development teams
  • Experience with product use cases involving medical imaging (e.g. CT, MRI, echo/ultrasound) or image processing
  • PMP or other formal project management certification (e.g. Agile)
  • Familiarity with cybersecurity, data privacy (HIPAA), interoperability standards (FHIR, HL7), and hospital integrations (e.g. cath lab/OR)
  • Experience with data pipelines, ETL processes, and data structuring for digital health or software products
  • Exposure to AI/ML workflows and how structured data support predictive modeling
  • Excellent documentation and communication skills and interpersonal relationship skills including negotiating and relationship management skills with ability to drive achievement of objectives
  • Data-driven but ability to make decisions based on imperfect information
  • Demonstrated ability to develop relationships to drive alignment of objectives
  • Strict attention to detail
  • Ability to interact professionally with all organizational levels and proactively escalate issues to appropriate levels of management in the organization
  • Ability to manage competing priorities in a fast-paced environment
  • Ability to represent leadership on projects within multiple areas, interfacing with project managers, team and middle to senior management
  • Ability to consult in a project setting within multiple areas, interfacing with low to middle management
  • Adhere to all EHS rules and requirements and take adequate control measures in preventing injuries to themselves and others as well as to the protection of environment and prevention of pollution under their span of influence/control
  • Proficient in Microsoft Office Suite

Aligning our overall business objectives with performance, we offer competitive salaries, performance-based incentives, and a wide variety of benefits programs to address the diverse individual needs of our employees and their families.
For California (CA), the base pay range for this position is $170,000 to $241,000 (highly experienced).
The pay for the successful candidate will depend on various factors (e.g., qualifications, education, prior experience). Applications will be accepted while this position is posted on our Careers website.
Edwards is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action employer including protected Veterans and individuals with disabilities.
COVID Vaccination Requirement
Edwards is committed to protecting our vulnerable patients and the healthcare providers who are treating them. As such, all patient-facing and in-hospital positions require COVID-19 vaccination. If hired into a covered role, as a condition of employment, you will be required to submit proof that you have been vaccinated for COVID-19, unless you request and are granted a medical or religious accommodation for exemption from the vaccination requirement. This vaccination requirement does not apply in locations where it is prohibited by law to impose vaccination.

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About Edwards Lifesciences

Sourced by ZipRecruiter

Edwards Lifesciences is the global leader in patient-focused medical innovations for structural heart disease, as well as critical care and surgical monitoring. Driven by a passion to help patients, the company collaborates with the world's leading clinicians and researchers to address unmet healthcare needs, working to improve patient outcomes and enhance lives. Headquartered in Irvine, California, Edwards Lifesciences has extensive operations in North America, Europe, Japan, Latin America and Asia and currently employs over 15,000 individuals worldwide. For us, helping patients is not a slogan - it's our life's work. From developing devices that replace or repair a diseased heart valve to creating new technologies that monitor vital signs in the critical care setting, we focus on helping patients regain and improve the quality of their life.

Industry

Medical equipment and supplies manufacturing

Company size

10,000+ Employees

Headquarters location

Irvine, CA, US

Year founded

1958