Senior Director, Scientific Project Lead (Oncology)

Generate Biomedicines•Somerville, MA

3h•$210,000 - $300,000•Onsite

About The Position

Generate is seeking a Senior Director, Scientific Project Lead, Oncology to lead complex, cross-functional scientific programs from concept and early discovery through preclinical development, contribute to translational and early development strategy, and manage and develop scientific talent. This role combines formal people management with broad cross-functional leadership across research, platform, translational, preclinical, development, and portfolio functions. Working closely with functional, business and technical leaders, project managers, and senior and executive stakeholders, the Scientific Project Lead will bring deep scientific judgment in therapeutic discovery, strategic program leadership, and operational rigor to align multidisciplinary teams, guide key decisions, represent programs in governance forums, and contribute to portfolio prioritization.

Requirements

PhD, MD, or MD/PhD in cancer biology, immuno-oncology, or another discipline relevant to therapeutic discovery and development.
12+ years of relevant experience in biotech, pharma, academia, or a related scientific environment.
Experience identifying, evaluating, or advancing therapeutic targets and preclinical programs in oncology.
Experience designing or interpreting preclinical oncology studies, including in vitro functional assays, in vivo efficacy models, and pharmacodynamic or mechanistic studies that connect mechanism to clinically meaningful hypotheses.
Experience managing and developing scientists or other technical professionals, combined with a strong record of leading multidisciplinary teams through influence.
Experience shaping program strategy, influencing senior stakeholders, and synthesizing complex scientific issues into sound decisions and clear governance recommendations, sometimes with incomplete information, while navigating scientific and resource tradeoffs in a matrixed environment.
Strong operational leadership, learning agility, intellectual curiosity, and comfort operating in ambiguous and evolving environments, with a practical approach to solving problems and unblocking teams.

Nice To Haves

Experience with protein therapeutics and related modalities, including multispecific antibodies, immune engagers, antibody-drug conjugates, peptides, or other conjugate-based approaches.
Familiarity with computational protein design, machine learning-enabled discovery, or platform-scale biological systems.
Familiarity with IND-enabling studies and early clinical development for oncology therapeutics.
Experience working effectively with consultants, CROs, and other external partners.
Comfort using LLM-enabled tools and emerging agentic workflows to support scientific planning, analysis, and execution.

Responsibilities

Lead complex, cross-functional programs from concept and early discovery through preclinical development, with accountability for scientific strategy, execution quality, team effectiveness, risk management, and stage-gate readiness.
Develop and maintain integrated program strategies and plans that align scientific objectives, timelines, dependencies, critical path activities, and resourcing.
Set scientific program direction and identify and advance therapeutic opportunities and target proposals by integrating disease biology, Generate’s differentiated platform capabilities, internal and external evidence, translational and clinical rationale, and competitive intelligence.
Facilitate cross-functional discussions, resolve divergent perspectives, make clear recommendations, own key scientific decisions within the project team structure, and drive timely go/no-go recommendations.
Drive execution across wet lab, computational, platform, translational, and preclinical workstreams, ensuring scientific rigor, reproducibility, strong documentation, and high-quality data packages.
Develop resource plans and budget assumptions, anticipate strategic inflection points, and proactively resolve risks, gaps, and cross-functional dependencies.
Build effective operating mechanisms for program planning, governance preparation, risk tracking, decision-making, and cross-functional accountability.
Manage, coach, and develop direct reports through clear objectives, regular feedback, performance management, compensation recommendations, and career development; mentor cross-functional team members in partnership with their functional managers.
Set clear expectations and foster a high-performing team culture grounded in scientific rigor, accountability, transparency, urgency, collaboration, and constructive challenge.