Director: Cell Therapy Discovery Core Portfolio Lead, ODDU

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Job Description

Are you looking for a patient-focused, innovation-driven company that will inspire you and empower you to shine? Join us as a (Title) in our Cambridge office.

At Takeda, we are transforming the pharmaceutical industry through our R&D-driven market leadership and being a values-led company. To do this, we empower our people to realize their potential through life-changing work. Certified as a Global Top Employer, we offer stimulating careers, encourage innovation, and strive for excellence in everything we do. We foster an inclusive, collaborative workplace, in which our global teams are united by an unwavering commitment to deliver Better Health and a Brighter Future to people around the world.

Here, you will be a vital contributor to our inspiring, bold mission.

OBJECTIVES/PURPOSE

The Oncology Drug Discovery Unit (ODDU) is looking for a Leader who will serve as Senior Director, Cell Therapy Discovery Core Portfolio Lead reporting into the Cell Therapy Drug Discovery Lead. The individual should have strong Drug Discovery experience applying a disease-first strategy focused on understanding and exploiting the underlying mechanisms of a disease to develop creative approaches with lead assets while training a skilled scientific team.  This strategic leader is able and willing to contribute to projects moving from target identification and validation through early clinical proof of concept.

The successful candidate will have a strong background in cell therapy and gene engineering, as well as a deep understanding of innate cell biology, cancer/immune cell biology in the tumor microenvironment, CAR engineering, gene editing, viral vector design, in vivo skills, strong leadership skills, the ability to incorporate emerging approaches into workflows, to provide scientific insights, and the ability to think critically about long-term strategy anticipating the future needs in the field of cell therapies and beyond. The candidate will serve on the scientific leadership team of the ODDU and is responsible for peer review of data package plans, agreement on innovation priorities, generating clear data package expectations that enable the ability to easily track progress and note potential issues.  The candidate is expected to be influential across the entire drug discovery spectrum in Research inclusive of partner functions to elevate the Oncology portfolio and in partnership with other therapeutic areas to accelerate development of Takeda’s discovery portfolio.

ACCOUNTABILITIES

• This leader is expected to create, define, and effectively communicate the vision and strategy of the Cell Therapy team as it relates to establishing and progressing an industry-leading research portfolio in collaboration with other Portfolio Leads across the DDU.
• Responsible for the development and characterization of cellular therapies, including NK, gamma delta T cells, and other adoptive cell transfer approaches.
• Develop and implement research strategies and project plans for the development of novel cell-based therapies. This leader will be responsible for leading research for selected cell therapy at Takeda and explore rational combinations in close collaboration with Research and Development project teams, Portfolio Leads, Discovery Leads and Lab Heads across the ODDU to develop the strategies and to enable execution of robust, decision-enabling preclinical and translation experiments.
• Builds and mentors a team tailored to the vision and strategic imperatives of the ODDU.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams, such as Global Biologics and Cell Therapy Science