Director or Senior Director, Translational Medicine

Location: Cambridge

Competitive salary and flexible benefits

Diverse Minds. Bold Disruptors. Meaningful Impact.

AstraZeneca is a global, innovation-driven BioPharmaceutical business that focuses on the discovery, development and commercialisation of prescription medicines for some of the world’s most serious disease. But we’re more than one of the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies.

Fast-paced and collaborative, this is a science-led organisation, regardless of the role you provide. It’s not every career that offers the chance to create a lasting impact on the human race and, as one our three strategic hubs, AstraZeneca UK is well positioned for scientific excellence and collaboration.

It takes resilience to embody our entrepreneurial spirit. For those who thrive on experimentation, you’ll get to work with knowns and unknowns. Exploring without limits!

Neuroscience team at Astrazeneca

With a rich heritage and an R&D focus on specific aspects of neurodegenerative diseases, analgesia and psychiatry, AstraZeneca continues to push the boundaries of science in neuroscience in collaboration with other innovative partners across industry and academia.

Join a small, agile business unit, which runs semi autonomously within AstraZeneca and has a biotech culture, which is continuing to evolve and grow with new products and talent joining year on year!

What you’ll do

You will contribute clinical insights and disease understanding to the selection and evaluation of targets. An understanding of translational approaches to clinical trial design and regulatory process, proof-of-concept studies, and identification and implementation of biomarkers is a pre-requisite.

You will help craft, implement and analyze translational biomarker studies to support clinical development, with an emphasis on proof of mechanism (PoM) and identification of patients likely to respond to the agent under development.

Responsibilities include:

• Working with Research Biology and Clin Dev to drive development of an overall translational (biomarker) strategy to support rapid progression of candidate molecules into early clinical development to demonstrate PoM (target engagement) and clinical PoC.

• Collaborating with internal and external partners, contribute to the design and conduct of disease linkage studies and methodology studies to support clinical indications, selection of patient population and biomarker development to impact early clinical trials.

• Help develop appropriate in vivo translational pharmacology models pertinent to the Neuroscience portfolio that will demonstrate target engagement and establish a relationship between dose, schedule, PK, and pharmacodynamics (with translational biomarkers) working in a matrix environment.

• Ensure quantitative PK/PD methods are applied to enable translation from preclinical research to clinical development, including dose selection in clinical trials working closely with DMPK and Clinical Pharmacology groups.

• Propose and develop quantitative clinical decision criteria and optimal trial design operating characteristics.

• Serve as key point person to coordinate early activities for successful translation of preclinical research to clinical settings to establish PoM and PoC.

• Identify, develop and qualify biomarker analytical methods through collaboration with internal laboratories or CROs, including laboratory oversight and project management.

• Provide input on biological sampling and biomarker assays in pre-clinical and clinical protocols, Investigator’s Brochure and regulatory documents.

• Set up and manage collaborations with academia, public-private partnerships and CROs to ensure project translational objectives are met.

• Lead translational working groups to address specific translational biomarker development challenges.

Essential Requirements

​We are seeking someone with an M.D / Ph.D. (pharmacology, clinical pharmacology, pharmaceutical science or biological sciences) with a proven track record in applying translational approaches to drug development, leading to clinical proof of concept (PoC). This role will play a key part in translating preclinical findings to impact early clinical development of novel molecules to treat chronic pain and neurodegenerative diseases.

You'll have a background in research and/or early clin dev of therapeutics, biomarker assay development and execution in clinical settings, PK/PD and regulatory requirements.

Strong project planning skills, management skills and experience with IND-enabling studies and clinical trials are also required as is proven industry experience with a record of effective project leadership and a good understanding of the drug development process, from target evaluation through clinical trials and a publication record demonstrating excellent scientific credentials.

The successful candidate should be able to work efficiently in a matrix team environment, as well as take ownership of multiple projects. The individual will support projects within Neuroscience and will serve as the Translational Medicine subject matter authority on product development teams.

Organisational skills with attention to detail and demonstrated ability to write technical reports, biomarker protocols, perform quantitative analyses, and graph and present data is a key attribute.

Desirable Skills/Abilities:

• Neuroscience training and experience in academia or industry, particularly in chronic pain or neurodegeneration

• Hands-on experience in development of in vitro and in vivo assays for research and clinical use, with the aim of assessing biomarkers for PoM and patient selection.

• Solid understanding of biologic and small molecule therapeutics. Experience with other modalities e.g. PROTACs, siRNA, gene editing would be desirable.

• Familiarity with predictive biomarkers and personalized medicine approaches

• Proven record in successful management/steering of external collaborations (academic, CRO, public-private consortia)

Are you already imagining yourself joining our team?

So, what’s next

This role is open from 5th July, and we encourage your application no later than

21st July.

Why AstraZeneca

At AstraZeneca when we see an opportunity for change, we seize it and make it happen, because any opportunity no matter how small, can be the start of something big. Delivering life-changing medicines is about being entrepreneurial - finding those moments and recognising their potential.

Join us on our journey of building a new kind of organization to reset expectations of what a bio-pharmaceutical company can be. This means we’re opening new ways to work, pioneering groundbreaking methods and bringing unexpected teams together.

Where can I find out more

Our Social Media

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Date Posted

Closing Date

AstraZeneca embraces diversity and equality of opportunity. We are committed to building an inclusive and diverse team representing all backgrounds, with as wide a range of perspectives as possible, and harnessing industry-leading skills. We believe that the more inclusive we are, the better our work will be. We welcome and consider applications to join our team from all qualified candidates, regardless of their characteristics. We comply with all applicable laws and regulations on non-discrimination in employment (and recruitment), as well as work authorization and employment eligibility verification requirements.