Sr. Director, New Product Planning, Oncology

ModernaTX • Cambridge, MA

7d • Hybrid

About The Position

Moderna is seeking a Senior Director of New Product Planning to shape product and development strategy across its early oncology portfolio, spanning discovery through clinical proof of concept. The role connects each program’s mechanism of action with disease biology to identify opportunities for meaningful clinical benefit and changes to treatment decisions.

Working with program leaders and colleagues in Research, Development, Commercial, and Manufacturing, the Senior Director translates these opportunities into target product profiles, indication and development choices, and portfolio prioritization recommendations. The role integrates scientific, clinical, market, and competitive evidence; frames strategic choices and tradeoffs; leads cross-functional debate; and presents recommendations to senior leaders about which opportunities to advance and where to focus investment and resources before development paths are fully defined.

The position includes evaluating oncology biology and clinical evidence, understanding patient treatment pathways and evolving standards of care, assessing competitors and emerging mechanisms, defining evidence-generation and clinical plans, and refining product profiles and differentiation requirements. Moderna operates under a 70/30 in-office work model. The role is based in a smoke-free, alcohol-free, and drug-free work environment.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree or higher in a scientific, medical, business, or related field.
• At least 10 years of experience in the pharmaceutical or biotechnology industry, including significant experience in new product planning, research strategy, program leadership, global marketing, portfolio strategy, or a related function.
• Demonstrated experience leading product and portfolio strategy across multiple programs in discovery and early clinical development, including influencing senior decisions on program advancement, investment, and resource allocation.
• Strong understanding of oncology biology and clinical development, with the ability to independently evaluate mechanistic, translational, and clinical evidence and connect it to treatment decisions.

Nice To Haves

• Experience in oncology, including familiarity with treatment pathways, clinical endpoints, patient segmentation, and the evolving competitive landscape.
• Strong analytical skills and the ability to build, challenge, and communicate assumptions.
• Demonstrated ability to use AI-supported evidence workflows to investigate program questions, test competing explanations, evaluate underlying sources, and identify when expert input or additional data is needed.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to present concise recommendations to senior leaders and defend them objectively.
• Ability to influence across functions without direct authority, lead teams through competing views, and establish productive working relationships with scientific, clinical, and commercial colleagues.

Responsibilities

• Develop a deep understanding of Moderna’s platform and its application to oncology.
• Work with scientific and clinical colleagues to assess how program mechanisms of action could affect disease, considering tumor biology, patient heterogeneity, and biomarkers.
• Evaluate mechanistic, translational, and clinical evidence and its implications for program strategy, disease progression, and clinical endpoints.
• Engage with scientific evidence and external experts to evaluate competing hypotheses and identify biological questions that affect development choices.
• Understand patient pathways through diagnosis, staging, biomarker testing, treatment selection, assessment, and subsequent treatment, including decision-makers and the role of evidence, physician judgment, patient preferences, and access.
• Identify unmet needs within current standards of care and integrate market and competitive expertise into early program decisions.
• Evaluate approved therapies, emerging mechanisms, and competitor programs, including evidence, timelines, strengths, and limitations.
• Develop scenarios for how standards of care and treatment pathways may evolve, including treatment sequencing and future differentiation requirements.
• Use conversations with KOLs, treating physicians, and internal and external experts, along with scientific and market evidence, to test assumptions and resolve questions affecting development choices.
• Lead a disciplined strategy process with program teams by framing choices, identifying needed information, structuring debate around alternatives and tradeoffs, and making decision logic explicit.
• Apply a biotech investment mindset to identify efficient paths for reducing risk and reaching proof of concept; define evidence needed for further investment and adapt recommendations as data emerge.
• Shape strategy and prioritization across the early oncology portfolio and present recommendations to senior leaders on program advancement and allocation of investment and resources.
• Integrate scientific, disease, market, and competitive insights to identify where programs can succeed and prioritize indications, patient populations, treatment settings, and lines of therapy.
• Develop and refine target product profiles that connect mechanism of action and disease biology to a defined population, treatment setting, and clinical benefit.
• Define efficacy, safety, durability, dosing, and administration requirements, and the evidence needed to differentiate programs and change treatment choices as standards of care evolve.
• Shape clinical and evidence-generation plans, including patient selection, biomarkers, endpoints, and evidence required for regulatory approval, physician adoption, reimbursement, and access.

Benefits

• Competitive healthcare and voluntary benefit programs.
• Fitness, mindfulness, and mental health support.
• Family planning benefits, including fertility, adoption, and surrogacy support.
• Paid time off, including vacation, volunteer days, sabbatical, global recharge days, and a discretionary year-end shutdown.
• Savings and investment programs.
• Location-specific perks and extras.
• May be eligible for an annual discretionary bonus, other incentive compensation, or an equity award, subject to plan eligibility criteria and individual performance.

What This Job Offers

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