Senior Director, Translational Research

Site Name: UK - Hertfordshire

• Stevenage, USA - Pennsylvania

• Upper Providence

Posted Date: Mar 12 2024

Senior Director, Translational Research

Are you interested in a highly visible, senior R&D role that allows you to drive the GSK Translational Research programmes forwards while partnering with other senior stakeholders and representing the company inside and outside the organization? If so, this Senior Director, Translational Research role is an exciting move to explore.

Job Purpose

The Senior Director, Translational Research will support the delivery of key translational objectives for the Respiratory & Immunology Research Unit (RIRU).

GSK has an ambition to leverage the power of new technologies and analytics to deliver impactful proprietary insights into disease pathogenesis and medicine differentiation. This will require innovation and collaboration that brings together the best in global research with our internal investments in Research Technologies and disease experts across R&D.

This role will report directly to the Vice President, Translational Research, and in collaboration with the broader Translational Sciences group will help shape the strategy and delivery (in partnership with a team of scientists) of human-first translational research.

This will include supporting the recruitment of talent and establishing capabilities across RIRU that span wet lab data generation focusing on patient samples, primary cell culture/co-culture systems, iPSC-derived immune and non-immune cells and organoids, as required for advancing Respiratory and Immunology RU programs. The role will interface closely with teams that have computational expertise for data analysis and biological expertise for gaining new insights from single cell data, and knowledge, experience and expertise in cell atlas technologies and data science is important.

The Senior Director, Translational Research will contribute to strategic recommendations to the Research Unit Leadership Team, including those relevant to applications of advanced technologies for characterisation of samples from patient cohorts and clinical trials, as well as basic biology research in the Respiratory & Immunology RU. The aim will be to contribute to target identification and validation, biomarker discovery, and to support programme decision making through generation of integrated translational data packages that inform pre-clinical to clinical transitions, and differentiation from standard of care and patient stratification.

The position will require building strong relationships within the team and across the organisation, interfacing with other basic research teams, leaders in transcriptomics, proteomics, spatial 'omics and Genomic Sciences, clinical trial teams and data science experts, to maximise insights that lead to target discovery and enhance our ability to deliver successful early-stage clinical trials. Specifically, the post-holder will form a key partner to other leaders within RIRU (Translational Science, Biology Unit, Early Clinical Research), as well as the broader matrix (Target Discovery, Human Genetics & Genomics, Precision Medicine), and facilitate a close liaison between the VP Translational Research and these groups.

Key responsibilities:

• Establishing Translational Research leadership, in conjunction with other stakeholders;

• Contributing to strategic decisions and their implementation;

• Identifying, designing and leading delivery of research proposals to enhance our insights into target disease pairing and disease understanding, and applying learnings to novel targets/projects in pipeline

• Close liaison with the VP Translational Research and Executive Director Translational Science, to define directions & targets for the team;

• Drive innovation and bring scientific excellence to human translational activities in the Research Unit, with clear relevance/application to project decisions and pipeline progress;

• Keeping up to date with research developments in the relevant areas, with a view to translating novel biological insights into therapeutic targets and clinical progression strategies;

• Building strong relationships with relevant stakeholders across GSK;

• Representing the VP Translational Research within the organization when needed.

• Effective communications within the team, with other divisions within GSK and external partners when appropriate;

• Horizon scanning for new technological developments in fast-moving areas such as single cell biology and its application to therapeutics.

Why you?

Basic Qualifications:

• BSc in Biochemistry or similar

• PhD in Immunology, Genomic Regulation or Molecular Biology or related area, with extensive post-doctoral research experience.

• Senior Director experience in Human Lung Biology, Respiratory Biology, Single Cell Biology, Immunology, Molecular Biology

• In depth working knowledge and understanding of current research in the area of single cell biology, data science, genomics/GWAS, human biology & immunology

• Familiarity with computational approaches to single cell sequencing data analysis.

• Successful research team leadership experience

Preferred Qualifications:

• Extensive multi-year line and matrix team management experience

• Experience and success in leading research teams, building collaborations and operational oversight of activities in complex collaborative environments.

Why Us?

GSK is a global biopharma company with a special purpose - to unite science, technology and talent to get ahead of disease together - so we can positively impact the health of billions of people and deliver stronger, more sustainable shareholder returns - as an organization where people can thrive. Getting ahead means preventing disease as well as treating it, and we aim to positively impact the health of 2.5 billion people by the end of 2030.

Our success absolutely depends on our people. While getting ahead of disease together is about our ambition for patients and shareholders, it's also about making GSK a place where people can thrive. We want GSK to be a workplace where everyone can feel a sense of belonging and thrive as set out in our Equal and Inclusive Treatment of Employees policy. We're committed to being more proactive at all levels so that our workforce reflects the communities we work and hire in, and our GSK leadership reflects our GSK workforce.

As an Equal Opportunity Employer, we are open to all talent. In the US, we also adhere to Affirmative Action principles. This ensures that all qualified applicants will receive equal consideration for employment without regard to neurodiversity, race/ethnicity, colour, national origin, religion, gender, pregnancy, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, age, disability, genetic information, military service, covered/protected veteran status or any other federal, state or local protected class*(*US only).

We believe in an agile working culture for all our roles. If flexibility is important to you, we encourage you to explore with our hiring team what the opportunities are.

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