Vice President, Biochemistry and Head of Early Discovery Projects

Parabilis Medicines•Cambridge, MA

59d•$310,000 - $340,000•Onsite

About The Position

Parabilis Medicines is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company dedicated to creating extraordinary medicines for patients with serious diseases by unlocking biologically important targets long considered undruggable. The company has pioneered a new class of alpha-helical peptides – Helicons™ – capable of modulating intracellular proteins that have historically been beyond the reach of conventional medicines. The company’s lead investigational medicine, zolucatetide, is the first and only direct inhibitor of the β-catenin:TCF interaction, a central node in the Wnt/β-catenin pathway that has eluded drug developers for decades. Zolucatetide is being evaluated in the clinic across multiple Wnt/β-catenin-driven diseases, including desmoid tumors, familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP) and a range of other solid tumor indications. Beyond zolucatetide, Parabilis is advancing additional Helicon-based programs focused on other challenging targets where we believe our medicines could have life-altering impact.

Requirements

PhD in biochemistry, chemical biology, or related field, with 15+ years of drug discovery experience in industry.
Significant experience working as part of drug discovery project teams and driving candidates to IND and clinic, preferably in small molecule or peptide modalities against intracellular targets.
Experience leading or co-leading multiple cross-functional discovery projects.
Deep expertise in protein biochemistry and biochemical/biophysical assays (e.g., SPR, TR-FRET, HDX, ITC, structural biology), and familiarity with cell-based screening assays.
Ability to think strategically about portfolio-level decision-making, including stage-gate frameworks, go/no-go criteria, and resource prioritization across multiple concurrent efforts.
Ability to recruit and develop scientific talent, and to mentor and grow project leaders.
Excellent scientific communication skills, and ability to represent portfolio credibly to senior leadership, partners, and external stakeholders.

Nice To Haves

Experience leading or contributing to external partnerships (academic, biotech, or pharma alliances) is a plus.

Responsibilities

Lead our early discovery portfolio (currently ramping up to 6 concurrent projects), providing scientific direction and support to teams and their leaders.
Work closely with company leadership on setting strategic direction, prioritization, and resourcing across early discovery projects.
Guide projects from target evaluation and hit discovery through hit-to-lead and successful transition into late discovery, partnering with project teams to establish scientific strategy and execution plans, evaluate key scientific inflection points, recommend strategic pivots when needed, and drive critical go/no-go decisions.
Collaborate closely with the display screening, AI/CDD, biology, synthesis, design, platform, structural biology, and other groups involved in early projects.
Directly manage our biochemistry and biophysics team (currently 5 full-time team members, with one additional new opening).
Mentor and develop early discovery project leaders, fostering scientific growth, strategic thinking, and strong program leadership capabilities across the organization while helping build the next generation of discovery leadership within Parabilis.
Serve as primary scientific liaison to collaboration partners, working closely with BD/Alliance Management.
Present early discovery progress and strategy to senior leadership and the Board.