VP of Discovery Biology

Gordian Biotechnology•South San Francisco, CA

10d•$230,000 - $300,000•Hybrid

About The Position

The VP of Discovery Biology will captain and pace target discovery engines across multiple therapeutic areas, treating early drug discovery as a team race to beat conventional industry timelines. This role is a core contributor to the executive therapeutic portfolio strategy, translating corporate milestones into immediate platform output and capability goals. The VP will lead a talented team of disease biology leads and functional platform heads, adjudicating portfolio resource conflicts using rigorous framework metrics to rapidly and systematically turn the platform into a highly productive pipeline of drug programs. The position requires a proactive individual who creates momentum, thrives in a fast-paced startup environment, and has a track record of success in directing target discovery efforts across multiple therapeutic indications. The ideal candidate is an exceptional manager of managers with a strong understanding of modern genomic platforms and ideally, domain expertise in cardiometabolic or adjacent complex disease indications and sophisticated disease modeling, or a robust understanding of small molecule drug discovery and development paradigms.

Requirements

Track record of success in high-agency work, consistently creating momentum rather than waiting for direction.
Experience directing target discovery efforts across two or more therapeutic indications.
Ability to move fluidly from in vivo disease physiology and cell biology through computational approaches.
Governed the successful transition of multiple novel assets from initial discovery programs into formal drug discovery pipelines.
Exceptional manager of managers, having directly led three or more distinct teams managers reporting to you.
Cultivating scientific talent, evidenced by clear growth in capacity of previous teams and a history of excellent upward reviews from those mentored.
Strong conceptual and experiential understanding of modern genomic platforms, including single-cell transcriptomics, RNA sequencing, and pooled perturbation screens.
Eagerness to deploy advanced analytical and tracking insights to scale screening engine's throughput and predictive validity.
Ability to think critically about every dimension of new targets’ potential.

Nice To Haves

Domain expertise in cardiometabolic or adjacent complex disease indications and sophisticated disease modeling.
Robust understanding of small molecule drug discovery and development paradigms.

Responsibilities

Captain and pace target discovery engines across multiple therapeutic areas.
Act as a core contributor to executive therapeutic portfolio strategy.
Translate corporate milestones into platform output and capability goals.
Lead disease biology leads and functional platform heads.
Adjudicate portfolio resource conflicts using rigorous framework metrics.
Establish rapport with disease biology leads and functional platform leads.
Tour reporting teams to understand operations.
Construct a comprehensive 6-month operational overview of goals, technical milestones, and responsibilities across target discovery workflows.
Assume active management of senior direct reports.
Establish structured weekly coordination frameworks.
Directly lead program management for flagship internal metabolic disease program.
Evaluate and establish clear strategies for tracking science globally to upgrade core data workflows.
Help disease leads formalize and communicate major program decisions across all functional groups.
Take full responsibility for all operational decisions, alignment, and velocity adjustments within and across target discovery programs.
Propose three concrete improvements to the structural productivity of the organization.
Leverage platform capabilities to contribute meaningfully to corporate strategy.
Manage the exploration of hundreds of screening hits and physiological confirmation of dozens of high-confidence candidates.
Optimize the discovery engine to be 20%+ more efficient in target throughput per unit time.
Implement structural changes to boost target nomination quality and outpace industry standards.
Ensure experimental data records are seamlessly queryable and fully compliant with global pharmaceutical data-sharing partnerships.