Senior Principal Scientist, Global Immunology - Vaccine

About the Job

We are an innovative global healthcare company that helps the world stay ahead of infectious diseases by delivering more than 500 million vaccine doses a year. Across different countries, our talented teams are exploring new technologies to protect people and promote healthy communities. We chase the miracles of science every single day, pursuing progress to make a real impact on millions of patients around the world.

Sanofi, Vaccines R&D, North America is seeking an experienced, highly motivated and creative Scientist to support the R&D company pipeline objectives to join the Global Immunology function. Qualified candidates must have a broad working knowledge of immunology, with a preferred focus on immune models and immune assay development. Independent application of that knowledge toward the development and implementation of novel protocols and complex experiments to define the vaccine image will be required. The candidate will act as liaison with antigen design leads and other global project team members to drive the scientific and technical strategy. They will lead the strategy and execution of these activities in coordination with the Global Immunology function and Senior Leadership. They will serve as project Immune Lead and/or Platform Lead and serve as a bridge to external research teams.  The primary focus of this position is not hands-on laboratory work, but rather the organization and planning of statements of work, timelines, and resources for GI projects, coordinating laboratory work, and serving as an interface between scientific staff and senior management. The candidate will have scientific, project management, and HR management responsibilities. 

The primary responsibilities for this position are:

• Direct and execute scientific research and development in alignment with the strategies agreed upon by the senior Global Immunology leadership team and global project teams.

• Understand the goals and strategy for their assigned project(s), translate the goals of these projects to their teams, and successfully coordinate efforts transversally across the teams to achieve project milestones.

• Develop technical and research plan objectives that support viral respiratory projects and Global Immunology’s R&D strategies, including development of immune models and immune testing for COVID.

• Align research activities with clinical trial expectations such as IND submissions, support for CMC, and toxicology testing, as needed.

• Lead research scientific efforts to maximize efficiency, workflow, and alignment with the project timelines in consultation with the GPT.

• Represent Global Immunology through strong collaborations with project teams, project heads, and other colleagues in various intra and inter-departments (GAD, CMC, clinical, regulatory) to advance the viral respiratory vaccine candidates into clinical trials.

• Take risks, manage risks, and communicate risks.

• Contribute to the internal distribution and communication of preclinical data as needed.

Key Accountabilities

Laboratory research/Assay development/Automation

• A subject matter expert in Immunology, automation and assay development. Designs platform's experimental plan in support of projects.

• Active contribution to the project strategy in partnership with interfacing functions (GAD, mRNA CoE, etc.), involvement in risk mitigation planning & increasingly routine participation in strategic due diligence for assets in-licensing.  Consistently seek scientific input and challenge to propose the soundest approaches and ensure candidates are state-of-the-art.

• Independently develop and optimize experimental assays to generate decisional datasets and meet project objectives.

• Manage development of in vitro and in vivo models to enable new target selection and characterization, and biomarker identification.

• Demonstrate technical proficiency with ability to problem solve in a broad array of experimental protocols.

• Support or co-lead with senior staff the development of immune models and immune assays and automation to enable increase assay’s precision and consistency across the value chain and efficiencies in preclinical testing to provide data faster for critical decisions.

• Help lead, monitor and maintain facility related aspects of the lab and lab equipment as needed.

Project involvement

• Co-lead with GAD the research activities & critical product profile characteristics are aligned with clinical trial expectations, such as IND submissions, and establishing Co-CMC and Co-clinical development processes.

• Contribute as a project liaison