Director, Discovery Safety Specialist

Director, Discovery Safety Specialist

AstraZeneca turns ideas into life changing medicines. Working here means being entrepreneurial, thinking big and working together to make the impossible a reality.  Here, we see the impact of our collective ideas and expertise, and the power of science to deliver them!

Become a key player in the discovery of innovative oncology medicines.

One of the major challenges in the discovery of innovative medicines is to ensure they are safe enough to test their therapeutic concept in clinical trials and provide novel treatment for patients. Drug safety is assessed throughout the drug development cascade, but it is during early drug discovery when we can actively design safety attributes into the future candidate drug. In Oncology Safety we contribute to the selection of novel drug targets, identification, and optimization of new small molecule chemical series, and ultimately the selection of novel candidate drugs, all underpinned with optimization of the safety profile and therapeutic index.

As a Discovery Safety Specialist, you will have a project facing role and will design project-specific investigational and mechanistic safety experiments and strategies to predict, assess and mitigate target- and chemistry-related safety risks.

We are seeking a highly motivated and skilled mechanistic toxicologist with a strong background in molecular and cell biology to join the Oncology Safety Science team at our Boston, MA research complex. We work collaboratively and develop and apply innovative technologies such as advanced cell models (ACMs) including 3D organoids, micro-physiological systems, and employ deep phenotyping tools such as multi-omics and pioneering imaging, to ultimately push the boundaries of predictive safety science with our mission in mind: to discover safe innovative medicines for the patients that need them.

Job responsibilities include:

• Be an integral member of Oncology drug discovery project teams, and accountable for the delivery of high-quality mechanistic safety data to support project decision making.

• Design project-specific investigational and mechanistic safety experiments and strategies to predict, assess and mitigate target- and chemistry-related safety risks using internal and external experimental capabilities.

• Engage with experts across the organization to develop, refine and implement experimental strategies to ensure that teams make the right decisions regarding safety risks associated with the project.
   

• Develop innovative solutions and research proposals to develop the field of predictive discovery safety and pursue groundbreaking science and technologies such as ACMs and multi-omics to optimize and influence safety assessment of novel drug targets. 

• Make a significant contribution to Discovery Safety scientific leadership within and outside AstraZeneca including external meeting attendance and regular publication in high quality, peer-reviewed journals.

• Provide mentorship and training to more junior team members and contribute to building an inclusive, collaborative team environment.

Essential Requirements:

• PhD in toxicology, pharmacology, cell biology or systems biology, with a minimum of 5 years of post-doctoral experience in industry.

• Solid understanding of discovery safety together with an appreciation of subject areas within and outside drug safety and toxicology. Experience with the discovery and development of small molecule inhibitors is considered crucial with experience in biologic modalities an advantage.

• Experience with the application of ACMs to investigate molecular mechanisms of drug toxicity and implementation of these tools and approaches in the discovery safety setting.

• Experience with the design of in vivo experiments to determine the effects of therapeutics on biological systems, with a line of sight to human safety risk understanding.

• A strong scientific track record evidenced through high quality publications and recognition as an expert within a team.

• Excellent communication, presentation, interpersonal and influencing skills across levels/subject areas, and an ability to coordinate tasks across multiple projects.

• Highly motivated, creative, reliable scientist with a collaborative, team-oriented mentality, who solves problems in a goal-focused fashion and contributes to an open, positive, collaborative working environment.

When we put unexpected teams in the same room, we ignite daring thinking with the power to encourage life-changing medicines. In-person working gives us the platform we need to connect, work at pace and challenge perceptions.