Senior Director, Translational Research - Cell Therapy

Working with Us
Challenging. Meaningful. Life-changing. Those aren’t words that are usually associated with a job. But working at Bristol Myers Squibb is anything but usual. Here, uniquely interesting work happens every day, in every department. From optimizing a production line to the latest breakthroughs in cell therapy, this is work that transforms the lives of patients, and the careers of those who do it. You’ll get the chance to grow and thrive through opportunities uncommon in scale and scope, alongside high-achieving teams. Take your career farther than you thought possible.

Bristol Myers Squibb recognizes the importance of balance and flexibility in our work environment. We offer a wide variety of competitive benefits, services and programs that provide our employees with the resources to pursue their goals, both at work and in their personal lives. Read more: careers.bms.com/working-with-us.

The Cell Therapy Thematic Research Center is one of BMS’s differentiated research platforms delivering innovative therapies to patients. Our mission is to drive leadership in the use of cellular therapies to harness the power of the immune system in treating hematologic malignancies, solid cancers, and autoimmune disease. More specifically, our discovery and translational scientists are focused on developing next-generation, engineered cell-based therapies. The team is committed to discovering and developing transformative therapies that harness the power of the immune system to improve patient outcomes.

Position Summary

The Senior Director, Translational Research – Cellular Therapy will provide scientific and people leadership for translational strategy, execution, and correlative analysis across Bristol Myers Squibb’s cellular therapy portfolio. This role is responsible for shaping and delivering integrated translational and biomarker strategies that enable development decisions, regulatory success, and life‑cycle management of cell therapy assets across hematologic malignancies and, where applicable, solid tumors, autoimmunity and neuro-inflammation.

The successful candidate will lead and mentor a team of translational scientists and serve as a senior scientific leader on cross‑functional teams, partnering closely with Clinical Development, Discovery, CMC, Regulatory, Computational Biology, and external collaborators. This individual will be accountable for the quality, rigor, and impact of translational data packages supporting key development decisions, global regulatory submissions, and health authority interactions.

This position sits in the Translational Research organization within the Cellular Therapy Thematic Research Center (CT TRC) and plays a critical role in bridging discovery, early and late clinical development, and enterprise‑level decision making for cellular therapies.

Position Responsibilities

In the role as a Senior Director within Translational Research, the ideal candidate will:

Scientific & Translational Leadership

• Define, lead, and execute end‑to‑end translational and biomarker strategies for cellular therapy programs from first‑in‑human through registration and life‑cycle management.

• Integrate clinical, translational, and mechanistic data to generate actionable insights on mechanism of action, resistance, durability of response, safety, efficacy, as well as potential patient selection and differentiation.

• Drive hypothesis-based translational research and response modeling leveraging multi-modal datasets, ML/AI, and innovative computational approaches to support forward and reverse translation.

• Ensure translational deliverables meet high scientific, operational, and regulatory standards and are aligned with program and portfolio objectives.

People & Team Leadership

• Build, lead, and develop a high‑performing team of translational scientists through thoughtful recruitment, coaching, and ongoing feedback.

• Foster a culture of scientific rigor, collaboration, accountability, and continuous learning.

• Guide team members in critical data analysis, interpretation, communication, and prioritization to support timely and impactful decision making.

Cross‑Functional & Matrix Leadership

• Serve as the senior translational representative on global, cross‑functional leadership teams and internal governance forums.

• Partner effectively with Clinical Development, Regulatory Affairs, Discovery Biology, Computational Biology, CMC, and Commercial colleagues to align tra