IT Lead - R&D Informatics

Protagonist Therapeutics • Newark, NJ

5d • Onsite

About The Position

Protagonist Therapeutics is a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing innovative medicines using its proprietary peptide technology platform. The company has successfully launched two FDA-approved drugs and has a robust pipeline of clinical and preclinical programs. We are seeking a hands-on R&D Informatics Lead to manage and enhance our R&D Informatics capabilities, specifically supporting lab functions. This role involves being the business-facing IT system owner and technical lead for R&D Informatics and Discovery lab systems, with a primary focus on Thermo Fisher Scientific - Labguru (ELN, SDMS, LIMS). The successful candidate will collaborate with scientists, IT, Quality, lab operations, and external vendors to transform scientific workflows into scalable, secure, and user-friendly digital research solutions. This position requires a blend of strategic roadmap ownership, practical system administration, configuration, support, implementation, user enablement, data governance, integrations, reporting readiness, and building AI/ML-ready scientific data foundations. The ideal candidate possesses a strong understanding of Discovery science, experience in R&D Informatics ownership, Labguru expertise, technical delivery skills, and excellent cross-functional leadership. This role requires a commitment to an in-office culture, with 4 days per week on-site at our Newark, CA office.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Life Sciences, Bioinformatics, Chemistry, Biology, Engineering, or a related field; equivalent relevant experience may be considered.
• 6–8+ years of hands-on R&D and lab informatics experience supporting Discovery, biotechnology, pharmaceutical, or life sciences organizations.
• Direct hands-on experience implementing, configuring, administering, maintaining, and supporting Thermo Fisher Scientific Labguru or similar tools is required.
• Demonstrated experience acting as a system owner, platform lead, product owner, application administrator, or technical lead for R&D Informatics platforms such as ELN, SDMS, LIMS, sample management, inventory, chromatography, reporting tools, or scientific data systems.
• Strong understanding of Discovery laboratory workflows, experiment documentation, sample tracking, inventory management, assay workflows, instrument-generated data, and scientific research data lifecycle needs.
• Experience translating scientific workflows into configured, tested, deployed, supportable, and well documented informatics solutions.
• Working knowledge of application data models, metadata, data migration, integrations, APIs or file-based interfaces, permissions, security controls, backup/recovery concepts, reporting enablement, and data governance practices.
• Strong analytical, problem-solving, documentation, communication, facilitation, vendor management, and stakeholder management skills.

Nice To Haves

• Background in biology, chemistry, medicinal chemistry, molecular biology, bioinformatics, or a related Discovery science discipline, with progression into R&D Informatics, IT systems, software implementation, platform ownership, or data engineering.
• Experience supporting additional R&D Informatics or scientific platforms, including ELN, SDMS, chromatography data systems, LIMS, automation platforms, data lakes, scientific data warehouses, AI solutions or reporting tools.
• Experience with lab automation, instrument connectivity, structured data capture, and AI/ML-ready scientific data foundations.
• Familiarity with GxP considerations, data integrity expectations, audit trails, validation/testing practices, change control, compliant documentation, and regulated research or quality environments.
• Experience defining platform operating models, vendor roadmaps, release processes, enhancement backlogs, support tickets, SLA expectations, production support practices, and system governance forums.
• Ability to create executive-ready status updates, project plans, adoption metrics, risk logs, decision documents, business cases, and implementation roadmaps for R&D Informatics or lab transformation initiatives.

Responsibilities

• Serve as the primary R&D Informatics lead, accountable for strategy, roadmap, implementation, administration, lifecycle management, and continuous improvement of Labguru and related lab informatics solutions (including AI/ML solutions).
• Lead R&D lab transformation efforts by partnering with scientists, IT, Quality, lab operations, and vendors to convert current-state workflows into standardized, scalable, secure, and supportable digital processes.
• Own day-to-day support and maintenance of R&D Informatics platforms, including Labguru user support, access management, configuration updates, issue triage, enhancement requests, release assessments, vendor escalations, and production readiness.
• Partner with scientists and lab operations functional leads in gathering and translating business and scientific requirements into scalable, well-engineered secured platform solutions.
• Act as product owner for R&D Informatics capabilities by managing the roadmap, intake process, enhancement backlog, prioritization framework, stakeholder communication, and governance cadence.
• Serve as a consultative partner to scientists and research leaders to assess workflow pain points, define future-state processes, identify informatics opportunities, and recommend scalable digital solutions.
• Support integrations and interoperability across Labguru, laboratory instruments, automation tools, file/data transfer workflows, APIs or interfaces, scientific data repositories, reporting tools, and adjacent applications.
• Establish and maintain scientific data lifecycle and governance practices across data capture, traceability, reporting, archival, reuse, security, and AI/ML-ready research data foundations.
• Coordinate vendor activities, system upgrades, release assessments, issue resolution, enhancement requests, validation or testing support, change control inputs, and production readiness activities.
• Drive user enablement and adoption through training content, quick-reference materials, onboarding support, usage monitoring, feedback loops, adoption metrics, risk tracking, and executive-ready status updates.

Benefits

• Protagonist covers 100% of the premium cost for medical, dental, and vision coverage for all full-time employees and their dependents.
• Flexible Spending Accounts – Healthcare FSA, Dependent Care FSA, Commuter Benefits
• 401(k) Plan
• Flexible Vacation Policy
• Life Insurance (Basic, Voluntary & AD&D)
• Short Term & Long Term Disability
• Company paid lunch and snacks

What This Job Offers

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