Principal Scientist - Diabetes and Pancreas Biology External Innovation

About the Department

Global Drug Discovery (GDD) is engaged in accelerating the path of novel cardiometabolic therapies for clinical development within Novo Nordisk. A main focus is discovery and evaluation of novel targets that can modulate cardiometabolic disease and advance the projects to deliver to the NN pipeline. The therapeutic area (TA) teams collaborate closely with the teams in GDD and Novo Nordisk sites around the globe.  The TA will drive a high level of scientific innovation in the scientific and therapy area of diabetes and obesity to assure the key and scientific topics and areas are being pursued to support Novo Nordisk's Global Drug Discovery (GDD) aspirations. 

 

The Position

The Principal Scientist will provide scientific leadership in the identification and validation of new drug targets, advancing novel therapies to the clinic, and developing technologies to accelerate drug research. This will be achieved by functioning as a subject matter expert in the Diabetes, Obesity and MASH (DO&M) Therapy Area (TA) to ensure execution and success of the TA strategy, with a focus on diabetes (both Type 1 and Type 2) and pancreas biology. The Principal Scientist will contribute to overall diabetes pipeline growth and is expected to provide strategic guidance to project teams, evaluate emerging targets and technologies, and propose and oversee external collaborations and strategic partnerships. The Principal Scientist may mentor scientists in department and will represent the organization to the external scientific community through publication and presentation of highly impactful research.

 

Relationships

Reports to the leader within the Metabolic Research. Internal relationships include working with research employees, project managers, as well as colleagues across therapeutic areas. External relationships include collaborations, partnerships, and academic collaborators

 

Internal relationships include working closely with technical staff & other members of the scientific leadership team; regular collaborations with members of other research departments at NNRCSI; & frequent interaction with project managers & other colleagues across global R&D. Individual may indirectly supervise less experienced team members.

 

Individual will interact with external research collaborators both academia- & industry-based.

 

Essential Functions

• Lead external collaborations and strategic partnerships to further company goals related to therapeutic area. 
• Assume project oversight roles on drug programs run in external alliances and arising from external discovery efforts.  

• Subject matter expertise in metabolic disease drug discovery. Demonstrates a specialized depth and/or breadth of expertise in diabetes, and engages relationships with other key areas related to drug development in the pharmaceutical industry.
• Apply and integrate new technology, including AI & ML capabilities
• Work with full autonomy on complex tasks requiring highly-specialized knowledge of strategic importance to the therapy area.
• Maintains deep understanding of pathophysiology of Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes, particularly as related to pancreas biology, and a connection to the external scientific community through continuous evaluation of relevant literature. Provide expert-level guidance for project team related to experimental strategies to evaluate emerging targets, biologies, or technologies.
• Propose and lead external collaborations and strategic partnerships to further company goals related to therapeutic area.
• Contribute subject matter expertise to develop the research agenda with a clear understanding of the link between scientific project goals and overall long-term business needs.
• Propose new projects that support the strategic agenda and address gaps in technological capabilities and therapeutic areas.
• Represent the organization through external communication o