SUMMARY: The Director, Tumor Biology & Biomarker Research will grow and lead a fast-paced, dedicated team of biologists to provide strategic and operational disease biology direction, specifically tumor biology, for a discovery portfolio of oncology programs. The ideal candidate must be independently driven, passionate, innovative, and an excellent leader and team player. The role will involve the development and implementation of strategic approaches to halt pathogenic protein formation, exploring the MOAs, and supervise the timely generation of high-quality data to drive programs forward with scientific excellence and urgency.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Lead, develop, and provide scientific leadership and disease biology direction with a focus on tumor biology and develop PD biomarkers to support in vivo studies, through the creation and execution of high-quality integrated discovery and translational plans to support small molecular programs at preclinical and clinical stages.
• Develop, refine, and implement the research strategy in tumor biology with a focus on linking target biology to human disease with contributions to therapeutic target selection, evaluation, and prioritization.
• Lead an internal cell-based biology team in proving hands-on troubleshooting for lab work, setting scientific goals to deliver, executing comprehensive approaches to drive for results and to drive for results, and ensuring delivery in a timely manner.
• Provide day-to-day scientific and organizational leadership, serve as a mentor and role model with the goal of developing a high-performing cell-based biology team and scientific talents.
• Work with the Discovery leadership to allocate appropriate resources to ensure timely achievement of pipeline goals.
• Foster a science-driven, goal-oriented culture that values innovation, teamwork, agility, transparency, accountability, and empowerment.
• Engage, and ensure the success of collaborations across internal and external scientific research.
• Stay current on the latest scientific advancements and is well informed about current trends in oncology research and development to support discovery pipelines.
• Manage innovation to reality, review scientific progress and direction of reports on a consistent basis.
• Participate with other function leaders to provide input on effectiveness and development of company operational policies and procedures.
• Conduct scientific presentations to senior management, project teams, and internal collaborators.
• Maintain laboratory records in a complete, consistent, and concise manner in accordance with company intellectual property policies and practices.
• Comply with company health and safety policies and general laboratory practices.

Key leadership competencies:

• Highly self-motivated, dedicated, proactive, and organized with strong management and presentation skills.
• A dedicated leader, efficient manager, effective team builder and a productive collaborator who will provide strong organizational and scientific leadership consistent with Initial culture of mutual respect and trust within a cohesive teamwork.

· Foster effective communications between cross-functional teams and to support the senior leadership.

· Directly supervises employee(s).

· Directs and controls the activities of one or more functional areas, or groups through managers with overall responsibility for the direction of those assigned areas. Has overall responsibility for planning and implementing budget.

EDUCATION/EXPERIENCE/SKILLS:

Education:

• An experienced cancer biologist with a Ph.D. in biochemistry, tumor biology, cell biology, immunology, pharmacology or a related scientific field and a minimum of ten years of relevant industry experience in oncology drug discovery; or,

· Equivalent combination of education and experience.

Experience:

· Experience managing projects and/or work groups in biotechnology or pharmaceutical organizations including experience with budget procedures and management/coaching of employees.

· Demonstrated experience in advancing novel research programs in drug discovery from target identification through preclinical development

· Proven track record of scientific innovation and accomplishment in the field as evidenced by publication record, patents, and conference presentations.

Knowledge/Skills/Abilities:

· Excellent team player to build strong relationships with cross-function leader and peers to enable higher performance.

· Proven strong track-record of assay development, target validation, lead optimization to IND filing.

· Demonstrated ability to think strategically, translate strategy to research initiatives, and drive for results.

· Strong collaborator with the ability to manage interdisciplinary and cross-functional teams.

· Learns fast, grasps organizational priorities, and can change course quickly where indicated.

· Strong translational research expertise in the field of oncology and ribosomal biology is a plus

· Excellent interpersonal and analytic skills, high ethical standards, and outstanding written and verbal communication skills.

· Sets goals with understanding of priority and impact to program, department, and organization.

· Applies highly advanced expertise in multiple scientific fields and to developing future projects and products.

· Makes effective and persuasive presentations on sensitive or complex topics to senior management, external customers, collaborators, and public groups.