About this role
Key Responsibilities
Program team leadership:
- Create and update research operating plans, including resource planning, budget management, risk assessment and contingency planning for your programs
- Secure cross-functional alignment and organizational support for program plans
- Lead multidisciplinary program teams and be accountable for meeting program goals, milestones and timelines
- Define stage-gate success criteria and timelines for your programs, recommend resource allocation and go/no-go decisions to leadership
- Manage CRO partnerships across all biology activities in support of your programs, including study design, execution, data quality and delivery to project teams
Strategic alignment and influence:
- Shape the validation of targets and the scientific strategy for the immunology portfolio, advising leadership on opportunities and trade-offs
- Engage key opinion leaders and external experts to pressure-test program hypotheses, align priorities with leadership and inform business and partnering decisions
- Present program progress to senior leadership, and represent programs to prospective partners and at scientific conferences
Hands-on lab science:
- Design and oversee hit finding campaigns (e.g., HTS and DEL), including hit triage and confirmation
- Build and transfer fit-for-purpose assay cascades (biochemical, biophysical, cellular and whole blood) that support hit triage, SAR, target engagement and mechanism of action, to team members in-house and at CROs
- Design and run in vitro pharmacology studies using primary human immune cells, whole blood and, where available, patient-derived samples, and design and oversee in vivo pharmacology and PK/PD studies in models of inflammation and autoimmunity, to link compound exposure to immune-cell function and disease-relevant outcomes
- Contribute to the development and execution of translational biology biomarker strategies
Mentoring and capability building:
- Build new in-house capabilities and technologies (e.g., assay platforms, human-cell and whole-blood systems) that serve multiple programs and keep PsiThera at the leading edge
- Evaluate emerging technologies, CROs and academic or industry collaborations
- Mentor scientists across the organization and constructively challenge scientific thinking
Qualifications
Required Qualifications:
- PhD in Immunology, Molecular and Cellular Biology, or a related field with 12+ years of biotech or pharma drug discovery experience, or an MS with 16+ years of equivalent experience
- Track record of advancing small molecules from hit identification to DC selection as project team leader or lead biologist
- Hands-on experience in hit finding, including screening assay development, HTS or DEL campaigns, and hit triage and confirmation
- Prior people management experience and demonstrated leadership of cross-functional project teams or workstreams
- Hands-on expertise with primary human immune cells and whole blood, and in building assay cascades (biochemical, biophysical, cellular) for screening, SAR and mechanism-of-action studies
- Broad knowledge of in vitro and in vivo models of inflammation and autoimmunity, with experience designing and interpreting in vivo pharmacology and PK/PD studies
- Experience managing CRO collaborations
- Scientific achievement shown through peer-reviewed publications and/or patents
- Strong scientific rigor in generating, analyzing and presenting data to drive program decisions
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills with scientific, executive and partner audiences
Preferred Qualifications:
- Experience across multiple target classes and therapeutic areas
- Experience working with clinical teams on translational research or biomarker strategy
- Experience leading programs through IND submission
- Experience in a small or growing biotech environment