Senior Director, Discovery Analytical Research

Job Description

The Senior Director of Discovery Analytical Research (DAR) is responsible for providing strategic and technical leadership at the discovery-development interface to enable the discovery of new drug candidates including small molecules, biologics and vaccines through the development, implementation, and execution of analytical measurement technologies to accelerate the pace of discovery research and influence selection of new drug candidates.

The Senior Director reports to the Associate Vice President, Analytical Enabling Capabilities and will be directly responsible for a team of analytical scientists, approximately 25-30 people across our US-based Discovery sites in Boston, MA, Rahway, NJ, South San Francisco, CA, and West Point, PA. The team partners closely with leaders and scientists across Discovery Chemistry, Biologics, and Vaccines as well as Development Sciences and Clinical Supplies by providing technical and strategic insights and support for our portfolio of discovery programs and ensuring effective knowledge transfer to development teams between candidate nomination and PCC approval.

The Senior Director manages the work within his/her group to ensure that the goals of the project teams are met in a timely and phase-appropriate manner and provides line of sight to the incoming portfolio of preclinical candidates to leaders within the Analytical Research & Development organization.  He/she would be accountable for the growth/career development and performance of the team with a demonstrated ability to collaborate, build high-performing teams, develop diverse talent, set and achieve a strategic direction for the team, and implement and manage change to enable process improvement and optimal workflows.

Responsibilities include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Strategy & Partnership: Responsible for setting strategy and driving partner alignment at the discovery interfaces to help mitigate molecule liabilities, influence candidate selection, and accelerate timelines to FIH through development of advanced analytical characterization methods to address the increasing complexity of the emerging discovery pipeline across small molecules, peptides, biologics, vaccines, and other emerging modalities.   

• Scientific Excellence & Innovation: Responsible for driving a culture of scientific excellence, predicated on introducing and advancing analytical methodology that will be applied to the discovery of novel small molecules, biologics, and vaccines to enable design, selection, and MOA understanding with a line of sight to ensure a smooth and rapid transition to development.

• Project Management and Teamwork: Responsible for managing quality science and effective prioritization to bring analytical representation and expertise to discovery core teams as appropriate.  Facilitates teamwork and coordinates execution of plans with key stakeholders.  Allocates resources and ensures tracking and follow-up as necessary.  Ensures the department works as a partner with collaborators and teams.

• Building Teams & Talent: Responsible for setting high standards, building and managing a high performing team. Sets department goals and performance objectives, supports talent development and proactively addresses performance issues.  Identifies department needs and recruits/hires/promotes talent as appropriate to grow and progress the organization.  Allocates proper resources for meeting goals and objectives. 

• Communications:  Maintains productive communications with staff and colleagues across Discovery and the DSCS discovery interface as needed to ensure understanding of needs, proper prioritization and timely delivery of compound knowledge, customer-oriented data and documentation.  Regularly exchanges ideas and information to develop effective plans and strategies to meet business needs.

Qualifications:

Education: 

• PhD in relevant scientific discipline with 10+ years’ experience; MS in relevant scientific discipline with 15+ years’ experience

Required:

• 10 + years of analytical experience in discovery and/or development

• Cross-modality experience with large and small molecules

• Demonstrated ability in leading teams and effectively mentoring and developing talent. 

• Incumbent must have excellent interpersonal, communication, and collaboration skills.

• Extensive demonstration of problem-solving and innovation.

• Ability to travel: 10%

Preferred:

• Experience with a broad range of analytical measurements, including separations, spectrometry, biophysical characterization, and/or potency.

• Experience in method development and implementation for vaccines