Science Lead

Stripe • San Francisco, CA

7d

About The Position

Intercept is a philanthropic initiative at Stripe focused on radically reducing the burden of respiratory infections. This role is for a strategic, execution-oriented life sciences operator who will focus on sourcing and diligencing pipeline opportunities for broad-spectrum preventatives. The goal is to advance 2+ products that meet the target product profile through Phase 2, using grants and investments as the most capital-efficient tools. The role involves developing views on promising approaches, identifying cutting-edge science, mapping bottlenecks, creating de-risking plans, and managing the grant/investment process. The candidate will leverage past product development experience to accelerate projects from discovery to FIH trials and beyond. Success requires evaluating scientific quality and impact, synthesizing findings for capital deployment strategy, and being action-oriented, independent, and an excellent communicator. This is a small team role where the individual will work closely with the Head of Science and other partners, wearing many hats and owning outcomes end-to-end.

Requirements

• PhD or MD in immunology and/or infectious disease with 5+ years of post-grad research experience (biotech, pharma, VC, or consulting).
• Demonstrated capacity to explore and evaluate a broad range of scientific topics.
• Experience with scientific curation (e.g., oversight of a research portfolio, grant making experience, investment experience, etc.).
• Experience with portfolio management, including portfolio construction and post-award management.
• Ability to translate scientific diligence into strategic investment recommendations and a coherent capital deployment view.
• Product development experience (and/or broad exposure via investing in or supporting companies).
• Experience with project management from launch to completion / project quarterback with a high openness to getting hands dirty.
• Extremely self-directed, diligent, very fast learner, excellent communicator, very action oriented (vs talking about things).
• Compelled by our mission to greatly reduce the burden of and risks from respiratory viruses.
• Public health / global health / biosecurity experience.

Responsibilities

• Expand the pipeline of BSP candidates by engaging networks (researchers, investors, founders, funders, etc.) to source new ideas and technologies.
• Diligence pipeline opportunities by bringing projects through early and deep/technical diligence, evaluating science quality, development plans, team, and fit against our TPP.
• Develop points of view on technologies, contributing to publishing a POV for the 5-10 most promising approaches and identifying key 'gating datapoints'.
• Build and maintain the CRM to capture all known projects and establish a process to systematically learn about new projects.
• Support the RFP and investment process by helping to publish the initial RFP and driving projects from intake through investment/grant execution.
• Manage the portfolio by monitoring and helping to accelerate post-investment projects, determining how top projects can move 2x faster beyond funding.
• Map demand-side bottlenecks by identifying key stakeholders and addressing evidence needs and bottlenecks across regulatory, clinical, recommendations, reimbursement, and adoption/uptake.

What This Job Offers

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