Senior Director Neurodegeneration, Translational Sciences

Senior Director Neurodegeneration, Translational Sciences

At GSK, we have bold ambitions for patients, aiming to positively impact the health of 2.5 billion people by the end of the decade. Our R&D focuses on discovering and delivering vaccines and medicines, combining our understanding of the immune system with cutting-edge technology to transform people's lives. GSK fosters a culture ambitious for patients, accountable for impact, and committed to doing the right thing, making sure that we focus our efforts on accelerating significant assets that meet patients' needs and have the highest probability of success. We're uniting science, technology, and talent to get ahead of disease together.
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Position Summary

Reporting to Vice President of Translational Sciences, Respiratory, Immunology and Inflammation Translational Unit (RIITU), the Senior Director Neurodegeneration, Translational Sciences will be responsible for innovative disease area translational initiatives to inform therapy area and programme biomarker strategies that will increase the probability of success of preclinical to clinical transitions and allow for earlier and higher confidence project-related decisions. This will include generation of foundational data as well as disease biomarkers development and validation that allow timely deployment of tools/biomarkers that can support detection of Proof of Mechanism (PoM), signs of clinical efficacy, Proof of Concept (PoC), and pairing Mechanisms of Action (MoAs) with patient subtypes to predict rapid or complete responder populations in neurodegenerative diseases.

The successful candidate will work closely with the RIITU leadership team and the overarching research unit leadership teams, GSK matrix and external partners and will represent RIITU at governance level. The individual will spearhead initiatives to increase portfolio value through the application of cutting-edge single cell technologies, techniques and analytics aligned to complex in vitro models, tissue biopsies and organ models, to develop deeper disease knowledge to inform target pathways and candidate molecule packages/rationales rooted in human disease pathological relevance.

Responsibilities

Translational Leadership:

* Provide strategic leadership contributing to deep understanding of Disease areas enabling the development and execution of translational research disease strategies to support the discovery and development of novel differentiated therapeutics including evaluation and diligence of business development opportunities.

Translational innovation:

* Evaluate novel techniques and technologies (i.e. spatial transcriptomics) to inform translational initiatives, biomarker development and validation working in collaboration with platform teams and within a multi-functional matrix environment.

* Identify and guide validation of human assays (cells, tissues and organs) to enhance human translation and predictive value through the application of resources such as the Human Cell Atlas, disease tissue multi-omics data and genetic resources (external or proprietary).

Disease Biomarker Strategy Development:

* Partner with the Disease Teams, Research Technologies and the Development organisation to identify, establish disease biomarkers for decision making throughout clinical development phases and aligned with the overall research and development goals. This will include the identification, prioritisation and validation of disease relevant biomarkers, mechanistic/surrogate biomarkers, patient stratification, and differentiated response prediction through to their deployment into clinical studies.

Cross-functional Collaboration:

* Collaborate closely with cross-functional teams including the Translational, Disease Teams, Human Genetics & Genomics, biology groups, biomarker platforms, Medicine Development Teams, HBSM , data-sciences, regulatory affairs, business development and commercial to ensure seamless integration of translational research and biomarker strategies across the drug development lifecycle.

External Partnerships:

* Establish and maintain strategic collaborations with academic institutions, contract research organizations (CROs), and other external partners to access cutting-edge technologies, tools, reagents, biosamples, biomarker expertise, and research capabilities.

* Foster a network of external experts and key opinion leaders to stay at the forefront of translational science and biomarker advancements across the industry.

* Contribute to evaluation and diligence of business development opportunities.

Matrix Leadership:

* Provide mentorship, guidance, and professional development opportunities to ensure a high-performing and motivated team.

* Manage disease and project level resources, budgets, and timelines to ensure the successful execution of projects and achievement of milestones and RITU objectives.

* Represent RITU at portfolio governance reviews providing critical input to pipeline and investment decision making.

Why you?

Basic Qualifications:

We are looking for professionals with these required skills to achieve our goals:

• Ph.D. in a relevant scientific discipline (e.g., Cell/Molecular Biology, Genetics, Pharmacology, Physical Chemistry or related field)

• Extensive Neurogenerative Disease level understanding and knowledge in translation/biomarkers implementation.

• Extensive experience in translational science and biomarker development within the pharmaceutical or biotechnology industry with broad knowledge in technologies and methods used in translational research.

• Recognised translational/biomarker expert in scientific community through publications and contributions to the field.

• Experience of working in a clinical trial setting, working as part of a clinical study and experience of authoring and oversight of clinical and regulatory documents

• Knowledge of regulatory requirements, industry standards, best practices and compliance considerations in Translational Research and biomarker development and validation.

• Proven track record of program decision making through implementing biomarker strategies and delivering translational science insights in support of drug progression through clinical transition milestones.

• Experience leading/managing external collaborations and evaluation of business development opportunities.

• Strong executive and people management skills, with the ability to prioritize and manage multiple projects to meet timelines while maintaining attention to detail and high-performance standards.

• Excellent inclusive matrix leadership skills, with the ability to create psychological safety, inspire and motivate a team towards achieving common goals.

• Ability to adapt to a fast-paced and evolving research environment, with strong problem-solving and critical-thinking skills.

Preferred Qualifications:

If you have the following characteristics, it would be a plus:

• Awareness of bioinformatic / computational methods supporting integrated analysis and interpretation of translational and biomarker-related data sets.

Work Location:
This role is based in the United Kingdom or United States and will require on-site presence with flexibility for hybrid working arrangements.

Join us in shaping the future of neurodegeneration research and making a meaningful impact on patients' lives.

Why GSK?

Uniting science, technology and talent to get ahead of disease together.

GSK is a global biopharma company with a special purpose - to unite science, technology and talent to get ahead of disease together - so we can positively impact the health of billions of people and deliver stronger, more sustainable shareholder returns - as an organisation where people can thrive. We prevent and treat disease with vaccines, specialty and general medicines. We focus on the science of the immune system and the use of new platform and data technologies, investing in four core therapeutic areas (infectious diseases, HIV, respiratory/ immunology and oncology).

Our success absolutely depends on our people. While getting ahead of disease together is about our ambition for patients and shareholders, it's also about making GSK a place where people can thrive. We want GSK to be a place where people feel inspired, encouraged and challenged to be the best they can be. A place where they can be themselves - feeling welcome, valued, and included. Where they can keep growing and look after their wellbeing. So, if you share our ambition, join us at this exciting moment in our journey to get Ahead Together.

GSK is an Equal Opportunity Employer. This ensures that all qualified applicants will receive equal consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, gender identity, and sexual orientation), parental status, national origin, age, disability, genetic information (including family medical history), military service or any basis prohibited under federal, state or local law.

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