Scientific Director, Discovery Pharmaceutics

Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine•Spring House, PA

8d•Onsite

About The Position

Global Discovery Pharmaceutics is part of the Pharmaceutical Development & Supply (PPDS) organization within the Discovery, Product Development and Supply (DPDS) division of Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine (JJIM). The group supports drug discovery programs from hit-to-lead through candidate selection, with a focus on the Synthetics Modalities portfolio — including small molecules, degraders, peptides, oligonucleotides, and conjugates. As the Scientific Director, you and your team will provide expert scientific leadership to enable informed molecule design and developability decisions. You will collaborate in close partnership with chemistry, biology, pharmacokinetics and pre-clinical safety. As head of the team, you will provide scientific, strategic, and people leadership while driving the CMC deliverables for discovery programs. Your responsibilities include physical characterization, biopharmaceutical evaluation, and preclinical formulation support across diverse routes of administration - including oral, parenteral and intra-organ - and may include other advanced drug delivery strategies as required.

Requirements

A PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences, Chemistry, Chemical Engineering or a related field with 12+ years of relevant experience OR a Master's degree with 18+ years of relevant experience is required.
Demonstrated people leadership and talent development, including technical and non-technical coaching and mentoring is required.
Ability to drive and get results through leading others is required.
Strong understanding of Discovery and Pharmaceutical Development including ADME, Preclinical Safety evaluation and Drug Development is required.
Proven experience in developability assessments for synthetic modalities in the area of molecular design, interpretation of pharmaceutical properties in relation to exposure and toxicology data, setting formulation strategies is required.
Track record of scientific contributions is required.
Excellent communication, critical thinking and problem solving skills are required.
Strong collaboration and networking capabilities are required.
Willingness to take informed risks or leave appropriate knowledge gaps, as needed to maintain speed and program progression.

Nice To Haves

Budget Management
Business Savvy
Chemistry, Manufacturing, and Control (CMC)
Clinical Trial Protocols
Cross-Functional Collaboration
Data Governance
Developing Others
Drug Discovery Development
Inclusive Leadership
Industry Analysis
Interdisciplinary Work
Leadership
Market Research
Process Improvements
Product Development
Product Strategies
Risk Management Framework
Scientific Research

Responsibilities

Leading and developing a multidisciplinary scientific team, building technical depth, mentoring talent, fostering a culture of collaboration, innovation and continuous improvement.
Developing innovative screening tools and formulation approaches, with the capability of meeting rapid cycle times and miniaturization, to influence and enable early discovery.
Collaborating with academia and industry experts.
Enhancing digital tools, data analytics and computational approaches to support developability assessments and improve the quality and speed of decision making in discovery programs.
Enabling and overcoming exposure challenges for critical tool compounds or non-optimized leads with enabling formulations in support of PK, PK/PD, translational pharmacology and tolerability studies.
Influencing compound design early to ensure lead candidates have the desired properties for specific drug delivery platforms and technologies to ensure patient convenience and compliance.
Portfolio delivery and accelerating the transition from discovery to development through collaboration with key development functions to support the GLP toxicology studies, formulation strategy and dosage form design for clinical studies.
Influencing risk management and mitigation.