Associate Director, Translational PK/PD

Merck • Boston, MA

6h • $156,900 - $247,000 • Hybrid

About The Position

The department of Pharmacokinetics, Dynamics, Metabolism & Bioanalytics (PDMB) is seeking a curious and collaborative Scientific Associate Director for our growing Translational PK/PD organization. The Translational PK/PD Associate Director is an expert mathematical modeler and scientist who independently designs and executes analyses with minimal supervision, guiding drug discovery strategy with a focus on biologics, protein therapeutics, and peptides.

The Translational PK/PD Scientific Associate Director will:
Serve as expert PK/PD modeler in cross-functional teams, to make model-informed decisions about drug discovery, modality selection, and dose prediction across therapeutic areas;
Integrate in vitro and in vivo data to build PKPD, PBPK, quantitative systems pharmacology (QSP), or other mechanistic modeling platforms of drug disposition and pharmacology, to support forward/reverse translation for both established and novel therapeutic targets;
Collaborate across our PDMB and broader Discovery / Translational organization to design experimental studies and modeling plans, to identify and optimize drug candidates and guide broader translational strategy across programs;
Guide the design of automated workflows for implementing modeling platforms, to inform human PK/PD and dose projections;
Provide scientific and modeling guidance to junior colleagues.
In addition to the responsibilities described above, the Associate Director will demonstrate excellent leadership and communication skills, building effective partnerships across departments to guide model-informed drug discovery.

Requirements

• Master's (with 8+ years), PharmD (with 6+ years) or Ph.D. (with 4+ years) in pharmacokinetics/pharmacodynamics, mathematics, applied mathematics, systems biology, computational biology, chemical/biomedical engineering, statistics/biostatistics or related discipline and experience with increasing responsibility and independence in drug discovery / development, within industry, academia, regulatory or non-profit settings
• Experience performing hands-on translational PKPD modeling using standard modeling software (e.g., Matlab, OSP Suite, Monolix, R), for discovery / development of biologics, protein therapeutics, and/or peptides
• Expert skills in experimental design, mathematical problem solving, critical data analysis/interpretation, and statistics

Nice To Haves

• Demonstrated experience working in interdisciplinary teams and in collaborative problem scoping/planning
• Expertise in developing novel translational modeling strategies or automated workflows that rely on PBPK, QSP, or related mechanistic modeling

Responsibilities

• Serve as expert PK/PD modeler in cross-functional teams, to make model-informed decisions about drug discovery, modality selection, and dose prediction across therapeutic areas
• Integrate in vitro and in vivo data to build PKPD, PBPK, quantitative systems pharmacology (QSP), or other mechanistic modeling platforms of drug disposition and pharmacology, to support forward/reverse translation for both established and novel therapeutic targets
• Collaborate across our PDMB and broader Discovery / Translational organization to design experimental studies and modeling plans, to identify and optimize drug candidates and guide broader translational strategy across programs
• Guide the design of automated workflows for implementing modeling platforms, to inform human PK/PD and dose projections
• Provide scientific and modeling guidance to junior colleagues

Benefits

• medical, dental, vision healthcare and other insurance benefits (for employee and family)
• retirement benefits, including 401(k)
• paid holidays
• vacation
• compassionate and sick days
• annual bonus
• long-term incentive

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level