Sr. Director, Chemical Development

Please note that this position is based in Princeton, NJ or San Diego, CA. Acadia's hybrid model requires this role to work in our office three days per week on average.

Position Summary:

The Senior Director, Chemical Development will lead and advance end‑to‑end drug substance development from early programs through commercial manufacturing. This role owns API process strategy, development, scale‑up, and supply, while leading high‑performing teams and overseeing external manufacturing partners. The Senior Director will define long‑term drug substance strategy, support CMC development and commercial manufacturing, and author key regulatory submissions to ensure a reliable, compliant global supply.

Primary Responsibilities:

• Engage in all facets of development from small scale synthesis to the development of the commercial synthetic route.  
• Develop and implement strategic and operational plans to deliver drug substance for multiple development projects to challenging timelines.
• Initiates, evaluates and validates new drug substance CSPs to support commercialization scale up.
• Establish and maintain good working relationships with contract service providers.
• Negotiate and manage contracts and agreements.
• Work with CSPs to diagnose and correct process issues.
• Work with Quality and Regulatory Groups to determine the impact of process deviations and work towards resolutions.
• Develop timelines, goals, and deliverables for drug substances and related manufacturing processes.
• Optimize the manufacturing process to maintain high product quality, improve process portability, assess process scale-ability, increase process robustness, improve process efficiency, and reduce manufacturing costs.
• Ensure supply of drug substance is consistent with development plans by coordinating drug substance production in multiple CSP sites, managing contracts and invoices.
• Ensure CSPs remain current and compliant with all cGMP related requirements, guidelines and procedures.
• Track deviations and processes changes for the different suppliers and collaborate with Regulatory Affairs and Quality Assurance in assessing their impact on regulatory filings.
• Initiate and coordinate the preparation of CMC documentation for regulatory filings.
• Develop CMC plans for assigned projects, with special focus on API sourcing, drug product development and manufacture.  Facilitate cross-functional planning of CMC activities across departments and disciplines to align dependencies, schedules, and funding.
• Collaborates with Regulatory Affairs and other groups to support product filings.
• Assist in contract site preparation activities for pre-approval inspections.
• Support interdisciplinary working teams with recommendations, advice and action plans for drug substance-related issues.
• Evaluate new process technology ensuring freedom to operate and expanding the IP for the company.
• Provide onsite process coverage during process registration and process validation as needed to support manufacturing activities and resolve process issues, if any.
• Communicate drug substance related issues and information to committees, teams and interested groups within the company.
• Supervise, train and mentor personnel within the department and at the CSPs, as needed.
• Evaluate business development opportunities from a CMC perspective by providing technical support to due diligence activities.

Education/Experience/Skills:

• PhD in Organic Chemistry required. 
• A minimum of 14 years’ experience with progressively responsible positions within the pharmaceutical/biotechnology industry including a minimum of 8 years in a leadership role. 
• A combination of relevant education and applicable job experience may be considered.

Must possess:

• Ability to lead in a strategic manner while being able to reduce concepts to practice.
• Strong understanding is required of the drug substance developmen