(Senior) Medical Director (MD Required)

AbelZeta • Rockville, MD

8d • $207,000 - $380,000

About The Position

AbelZeta is seeking a physician clinical developer to join its Inflammation & Immunology Clinical Development organization. The role may be appointed at the Medical Director or Senior Medical Director level depending on the candidate’s clinical development experience, therapeutic-area expertise, and leadership scope.

The successful candidate will initially provide study-level clinical leadership and medical monitoring for one or more autoimmune and/or neuroimmunology trials. Responsibilities include protocol design, study execution, investigator engagement, safety oversight, data interpretation, and regulatory support. The role offers the opportunity to help advance cell-therapy programs from early clinical evidence toward global and potentially registrational development, while building expertise in autoimmune cell therapy and growing from hands-on study leadership into broader clinical development ownership.

Requirements

• MD, DO, or equivalent medical degree.
• Board certification or board eligibility in Rheumatology, Neurology, Neuroimmunology/Multiple Sclerosis, Clinical Immunology, or another specialty with substantial autoimmune-disease expertise.
• Meaningful clinical experience caring for patients with autoimmune, rheumatologic, or neuroimmunology disease.
• Demonstrated understanding of clinical-trial methodology, GCP, patient safety, and clinical data interpretation.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to operate effectively in a highly matrixed, fast-moving environment.

Nice To Haves

• Industry clinical-development experience as a study physician or medical monitor, other clinical-development experience, or experience as an academic clinical-trial investigator.
• Hands-on medical monitoring and EDC/data-review experience, including eligibility, adverse events and serious adverse events, concomitant medications, protocol deviations, rescue therapy, and medical queries.
• Experience designing or executing Phase 1, Phase 1b/2, Phase 2, pivotal, or registrational clinical trials.
• Experience with CAR-T, cell therapy, gene therapy, hematopoietic stem-cell transplantation, immune effector-cell therapy, or other advanced therapeutic modalities.
• Experience with biomarkers, translational medicine, precision medicine, pharmacodynamic endpoints, or mechanistically driven patient-selection strategies.
• Experience supporting regulatory submissions or direct health-authority interactions.
• Ability to engage investigators and KOLs as a clinically credible physician peer while maintaining sponsor accountability.
• Collaborative approach and effectiveness across Clinical Operations, Safety, Regulatory, Biometrics, Translational Medicine, CMC, Research, and external partners.
• Comfort with ambiguity and urgency, including prioritizing and making decisions with incomplete information in a growing biotechnology company.

Responsibilities

• Serve as Study Medical Lead for one or more clinical trials and provide day-to-day clinical oversight from study start-up through database lock and clinical study reporting.
• Perform or oversee medical monitoring, including eligibility review, adverse events and serious adverse events, concomitant medications, rescue therapy, protocol deviations, and data queries.
• Review subject-level clinical data in EDC and related data-review platforms.
• Provide medical guidance to investigators and sites on protocol interpretation, eligibility, disease management, safety events, and study-specific clinical questions.
• Lead or contribute to protocols, amendments, investigator brochures, informed consent forms, medical monitoring plans, clinical sections of statistical analysis plans, clinical study reports, and other core study documents.
• Integrate disease biology, clinical phenotype, standard of care, translational findings, PK/PD, biomarker data, and emerging safety and efficacy data into study-level decisions and future development strategy.
• Identify study risks, propose mitigation strategies, and help ensure high-quality, timely, inspection-ready trial execution.
• Participate in regulatory interactions and, with increasing experience, help lead interactions related to expedited programs, protocol alignment, pivotal development, and registrational strategy.
• Build productive relationships with investigators, key opinion leaders, advisory boards, patient advocacy organizations, and external experts.
• Develop expertise in clinical and operational considerations for autologous CAR-T and other advanced therapies, including leukapheresis, manufacturing and vein-to-vein coordination, lymphodepletion, infusion, acute toxicity management, cytopenias, infection risk, immune reconstitution, and long-term follow-up.
• Partner with Safety and clinical experts on assessment and management frameworks for CRS, ICANS/neurotoxicity, infections, cytopenias, and disease-specific complications.
• Partner with Clinical Operations, Data Management, Pharmacovigilance/Safety, Biostatistics, Translational Medicine, Regulatory Affairs, Medical Writing, CMC/Technical Operations, and CRO partners.

Benefits

• Comprehensive benefits plan, including 100% company-paid medical, dental, vision, life insurance, short-term and long-term disability insurance, and more.
• Competitive company 401(k) match.
• Paid holidays, sick leave, and annual leave.
• Defined career path and annual performance review and feedback process.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Education Level: Ph.D. or professional degree