Scientific Vice President, Lead Discovery & Optimization

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Position: Scientific Vice President, Lead Discovery & Optimization (LDO)

Position Summary

The Scientific Vice President, Lead Discovery & Optimization (LDO) is a senior scientific and enterprise leader responsible for end-to-end lead discovery and optimization across a broad range of therapeutic areas, target classes, and modalities. The role spans target-to-lead, lead optimization, and preclinical candidate nomination, with accountability for mechanistic pharmacology, evolving discovery platforms, technology enablement, and IND readiness.

This role leads a large, multi-disciplinary cross-site (Lawrenceville NJ, San Diego CA, Cambridge MA, and Bangalore India) discovery organization (100+ scientists), including direct leadership of senior leaders, and plays a critical role in shaping the Lab of the Future by integrating automation, advanced technologies, and AI-enabled discovery workflows with deep biological and pharmacological rigor.
 

(Senior Executive – In Vitro Pharmacology / Lead Discovery / Mechanistic Pharmacology)
 

Key Responsibilities
 

Scientific & Discovery Leadership

• Provide executive leadership across lead discovery and optimization, with deep oversight of in vitro pharmacology, mechanistic biology, and molecular profiling.

• Drive strategies for complex targets and differentiated, first-in-class or best-in-class mechanisms.
  Ensure discovery decisions are grounded in molecular quality, differentiated attributes, and mechanistic and translational insight.

• Champion mechanistic pharmacology and disease-relevant biology as core drivers of molecular differentiation and downstream success.

Therapeutic Area & Target-Class Experience

• Oversee discovery efforts across multiple therapeutic areas (e.g., oncology, immunology, cardiovascular, neuroscience).

• Bring experience across diverse target classes, including historically challenging or emerging target categories.

• Maintain strong translational line of sight from in vitro pharmacology through in vivo and early clinical hypotheses.

Platform, Modality & Technology Integration

• Lead the evolution of lead discovery platforms across small molecules, and complex / emerging modalities.

• Foster cross-functional and cross-modality fluency, enabling teams to bridge pharmacology, chemistry, biology, and technology.

• Ensure platforms are scalable, adaptable, and aligned with pipeline needs.

Automation, AI & Lab of the Future

• Set direction for state-of-the-art automation to enable broader profiling, higher-content mechanistic insight, and increased throughput for disease relevant phenotypic screens.

• Partner with technology, data science, and AI teams to embed AI-enabled learning and decision loops into discovery workflows.

• Help define and execute a Lab of the Future roadmap aligned with enterprise discovery strategy.

End-to-End Discovery & IND Productivity

• Drive sustainable IND delivery through integration of mechanistic rigor, translational insight, and platform maturity.

• Ensure strong alignment with adjacent functions- chemistry, biology, DMPK, safety, and preclinical teams.
  Influence portfolio and capability investment decisions to support sustainable pipeline flow.

People & Organizational Leadership

• Lead and develop a 100+ person, multi-layered organization, including direct leadership of senior leaders.

• Build strong talent pipelines, succession pla