Svp, Head Of Drug Development

Company Summary:

FL86, Inc. is a privately held, early-stage company developing a novel genomics platform and therapeutics for diseases with a large unmet need.

FL86 was founded by Flagship Pioneering, an innovation enterprise that conceives, creates, resources, and grows first-in-category life sciences companies. Flagship Pioneering has created over 100 groundbreaking companies over the past twenty years, all of which are pioneering novel and proprietary biological, industrial, and engineering approaches to solve major needs in human health and sustainability. These companies include Moderna (MRNA), Seres Therapeutics (NASDAQ: MCRB), Sana Biotechnology (SANA), Axcella Health (AXLA), Indigo Agriculture, Generate Biomedicines, and Tessera Therapeutics.

Position Summary:

We are seeking a creative, visionary Senior Vice President, Drug Development to help build the company and transform patient lives through the creation and leadership of a world class drug discovery and development team. This key hire will be responsible for advancing our programs, from hit-ID through the delivery of IND-enabled clinical candidates. These efforts will be performed in collaboration with other leaders on the scientific team, with shared and independent responsibilities. The role offers a unique opportunity to help drive the strategy of an early stage, big concept biotech with direct responsibility over multiple drug discovery projects. The candidate must be an entrepreneurial, highly motivated and purpose driven leader who is able to flexibly and efficiently lead multi-disciplinary teams at various stages of discovery across a broad range of therapeutic areas. The successful candidate will have a track record of accomplishments in drug discovery as well as demonstrated high impact research in academia or industry. S(he) must exhibit excellent leadership, project management, and strong collaboration and communication skills. S(he) should be ready to champion new ideas in a very dynamic and innovative environment.

Key Responsibilities

• Drive screening and optimization strategy for FL86’s drug discovery programs to enable delivery of clinical development candidates following identification of validated targets.
• Advance drug discovery campaigns, manage external vendors (CRO) and integrate cycles of drug development using external and internal resources with a sense of urgency, to move early exploratory programs to IND-ready.
• Prioritize resourcing within drug discovery portfolio
• Identify/create novel complementary platforms to accelerate or improve drug discovery at any stage. Create platform plans and budget, either internally or through partnership.
• Build a diverse drug discovery team to complement and supervise external CRO scientists on the design and prosecution of declared programs, primarily from Lead to IND.
• Build a world class team that interacts seamlessly with program teams to ensure excellence in evaluation of FL86's drug products. As appropriate, hiring, managing, and directing the professional development of translational teams.
• Set drug discovery team goals and budgets
• Develop and manage external relationships with academic and commercial partners.
• Monitor, evaluate and report project progress to leadership team.

Key Requirements:

• Demonstrated track record of personnel development.
• Extensive experience in CRO management of drug discovery programs
• Very strong communication and partnering skills.
• Demonstrated expertise in advancing discovery programs from target validation through lead optimization and into early clinical development.
• Demonstrated leadership and success in management of translational activities with a proven track record of effective cross-functional collaboration
• A proven scientific leader with a PhD in Biology/Pharmacology/Genetics (or related fields) with 10+ years of industrial experience with a focus drug discovery.
• Excellent leadership capabilities with at least five years practice guiding and motivating successful teams, as well as building and managing productive research collaborations.
• Expertise in one of oncology, immunology, or cardio-metabolic diseases preferred
• A track record of communicating scientific concepts and strategies effectively, including a publication record in top-tier, peer reviewed journals.
• Expertise in designing programs for siRNA or large molecule drug discovery preferred
• 10+ years scaling and developing several functions across the drug development pipeline.

Location: Cambridge, MA

Flagship Pioneering and our ecosystem companies are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity or Veteran status.

Recruitment & Staffing Agencies: Flagship Pioneering and its affiliated Flagship Lab companies (collectively, “FSP”) do not accept unsolicited resumes from any source other than candidates. The submission of unsolicited resumes by recruitment or staffing agencies to FSP or its employees is strictly prohibited unless contacted directly by Flagship Pioneering’s internal Talent Acquisition team. Any resume submitted by an agency in the absence of a signed agreement will automatically become the property of FSP, and FSP will not owe any referral or other fees with respect thereto.