Senior Vice President, Research & Development

Our client is a biotechnology company accelerating the development of cell and gene therapies. They have asked us to assist them in their search for a Senior Vice President, Research & Development.

Major tasks and responsibilities include:

• Oversees and implement indication-specific tool development and optimization.
• Participates in management of external research collaborations.
• Ensures and maintains seamless interaction between the R&D and preclinical development teams.
• Provides insight and leadership to ensure that the organization achieves its major goals, appropriately sets priorities, and identifies compelling new opportunities, most likely through alliances and innovative discovery efforts.
• Oversees technology development, genome editing, and computational biology teams.
• Represents the organization as the senior R&D spokesperson to external constituencies including funding, research, medical, business, non-profit and government organizations.
• Defines and prepares project plans with clear objectives, manages variances, develops timelines, and guides the team to meet all deliverables and objectives.
• Instills a high degree of process and project management discipline and rigor in the organization as well as solves technical problems as they arise.
• Contributes to the evaluation of new indication candidates including assessment of therapeutic gene editing strategies.
• Stays abreast of advances in gene editing, gene therapy, and delivery technologies and continually look for new opportunities to bring inhouse to advance therapeutic programs.
• Continuously evaluates R&D operations to identify areas to increase efficiency and performance.
• Contributes to the development of overall corporate strategy and vision.
• Oversees the discovery, development, evaluation, and implementation of gene editing technology for ex vivo and in vivo therapeutic applications.
• Ensures R&D budgets are forecasted appropriately and are aligned with business objectives.
• Manages budgets, hiring plans, R&D strategy, goal setting and prioritization of efforts.
• Works with Business Development to effectively identify and assess external partnerships and acquisitions.
• Delivers against milestones on time and drives the team to achieve key milestones and objectives.
• Initiates and manages relationships with third parties, such as KOLs, academic, government and industry partners who are core to research efforts, financial sustainability, and patient impact.
• Ensures smooth transitioning of development candidates and programs from research into development, thus creating a seamless approach to R&D.
• Communicates a clear research direction, narrative, and roadmap to senior leadership in R&D and other stakeholders across the organization.

We seek candidates with the following qualifications:

• Must have experience with Cell and Gene Therapy R&D stage business development, including opportunity sourcing, deal structuring and negotiation.
• Demonstrated success leading large multidisciplinary research teams is required.
• The ability to identify risks and effectively mitigate issues which may hinder development is required.
• Must have a strong record of scientific innovation and achievement.
• Must hold knowledge of ex vivo cell therapies.
• A strong understanding of IND-enabling study requirements and reporting is required.
• Experience with viral and non-viral delivery of gene therapies is required.
• Requires strong people management skills with a demonstrated ability to manage, mentor, and coach scientists.
• A PhD in the Life Sciences with 15+ years of industry experience including at least 5 years in leadership or management positions.
• Must have strong collaboration skills with a demonstrated ability to work effectively in a matrix environment.
• The ability to operate within a fast-paced environment is required.
• Requires experience with RNA-guided nucleases, gene editing, and gene therapy.
• Must have proficient biopharma commercial and market awareness with good understanding of key drivers that underpin commercial assessments and valuations.
• Must communicate a clear research direction, narrative, and roadmap to senior leadership in R&D and other stakeholders across organization.

If interested, please apply directly to this job posting. No calls please. Include your daytime phone number and we will contact you confidentially or reply to your email.

Fairway Consulting Group is included in Hunt Scanlon’s list of Top 50 Healthcare & Life Sciences Search Firms and Forbes' list of Top 150 Best Executive Recruiting Firms.