Pioneering Medicines: Principal Scientist / Associate Director , Non-Clinical Pharmacology

Flagship Pioneering•Cambridge, MA

About The Position

Pioneering Medicines, Flagship Pioneering’s in-house drug development unit, is dedicated to conceiving and developing a broad portfolio of life-changing treatments for patients built from Flagship’s innovative platforms. Harnessing the drug development expertise of its team together with the power of Flagship's multiple scientific platforms, Pioneering Medicines explores and identifies new product concepts which are then advanced jointly with Flagship’s bioplatform companies. Within Flagship’s Innovation Supply Chain partnerships, Pioneering Medicines works with external collaborators to apply its unique approach to partners’ R&D priorities. These partnerships are highly co-creative strategic alliances that accelerate therapeutic innovation by bringing together partners spanning the full spectrum of drug discovery, development, and production. We are seeking a Principal Scientist / Associate Director to serve as the nonclinical pharmacology lead across programs in inflammation, autoimmunity, and immuno-oncology. Reporting to the Head of Pharmacology, you will own the in vivo strategy from H2L through IND and partner seamlessly with Cell Biology, Translational Medicine, DMPK/QSP, Tox, and TechOps to generate robust, decision-quality data. You will work in a matrix environment guiding an internal in vivo team and managing an external network of CROs/consultants to design, execute, and interpret studies that define mechanism, dose/route/schedule, biomarkers, and combinations for Pioneering Medicines programs.

Requirements

PhD, DVM, MS or equivalent in in vivo pharmacology or related discipline with a minimum of 5 years of experience within the Pharmaceutical/Biotechnology sector required.
Extensive understanding of PK/PD assessments in models of disease and experience in designing ex vivo studies to assess PD and target engagement endpoints, is a must-have.
Hands on experience with in vivo models of inflammation, autoimmunity and/or immunooncology preferred with PD endpoints including flow/IHC/cytokine assessments.
Experience managing in vivo personnel and external CRO partners in a dynamic and fast-paced research environment.
Experience with Animal Care and Use protocol writing
Excellent communication and writing skills.

Nice To Haves

Experience working with standard modalities, such as small molecules, antibodies and peptides desired.
Experience working in program teams in a matrix environment.
Working knowledge of gene-based therapy approaches (gene regulation, RNA medicine, gene therapy, gene editing, and/or gene silencing) desirable but not required.
Collaborative mindset and a willingness to work with different teams.

Responsibilities

Serve as Pharmacology Lead on cross-functional program teams; define the in vivo plan, milestones, budgets, and success criteria from target validation to IND.
Design and execute disease & target-relevant efficacy models and PD/biomarker readouts across inflammation, autoimmunity, and IO (contributing hands on when necessary).
Partner with DMPK/QSP to translate exposure–response into dose, route, schedule, and combination recommendations.
Introduce and build new models/technologies as fit-for-purpose.
Work closely with other FSP companies to develop research strategies and evaluate new programs.