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Senior Director/VP, Translational Medicine and Diagnostics

South San Francisco, CA

The Opportunity

insitro is using machine learning to yield new, clinically actionable insights into critical unmet needs for patients. We aim to "go fast and improve things" across the entire drug development process from platform to pipeline to patients and back again.

The SD/VP Translational Medicine is an opportunity to directly improve patients' lives by leading translational science and medicine across four areas, each informed by machine learning: neurology/neurodegeneration, metabolism, oncology, and innovative companion diagnostics. We are devoted to the effort to make clinical trials more helpful for patients and for drug developers. We believe that by focusing on what's best for patients, we can do what's best for drug development at the same time.

You will build and then lead the translational medicine function at insitro, including by developing and implementing translational strategies to support the development of multiple therapeutics and diagnostics. You will also be at the forefront of implementing new, objective, data-driven, and ML-informed translational approaches and influencing key translational medicine stakeholders more generally.

You will report directly to the Chief Medical Officer. This role can be either onsite (3 days per week) in our South San Francisco office or hybrid (~1 week per month) in our office. Additional travel may be needed to relevant medical and translational science conferences and health authorities.

This is an excellent opportunity for a seasoned translational medicine professional who is passionate about using their skills and experience to accelerate the drug development process and bring better drugs to the patients who can benefit most.

Responsibilities

  • Build and lead the translational medicine function (current focus is IND/CTA through clinical proof-of-concept) across metabolic disease, neurodegeneration, and oncology. Our clinical trials will utilize laboratory and digital biomarkers, diverse therapeutic modalities, innovative regulatory pathways, and AI/ML approaches.
  • Be accountable for end-to-end translational medicine strategy, good clinical practice, adherence to regulatory standards, site and regulatory authority translational medicine documents and interactions, and biospecimen CRO selection and oversight.
  • Design innovative strategies to generate proof-of-mechanism evidence that supports objective, data-driven go-no-go decisions and shortens the development cycle.
  • Serve as translational lead for the initial clinical-stage asset(s); over time, build and manage a focused, effective team of translational scientists to match our growing pipeline.
  • Interpret regulatory translational medicine requirements and quantify return on investment for translational strategies.
  • Influence emerging policy for applying artificial intelligence and machine learning to translational science through original publications, presentations, and stakeholder engagement.
  • Collaborate with key counterparts in preclinical, clinical, regulatory, and computational.

About You

  • Advanced degree in life sciences, technology, chemistry or related discipline, or equivalent practical experience.
  • 10+ years of experience in translational science in biotechnology and/or pharmaceutical industries, directly as translational lead and in a leadership management role to deliver therapeutic(s) and diagnostic biomarker(s) in one of our key therapeutic areas (metabolic disease, neurology/neurodegeneration, oncology) to the clinic from FIH through proof-of-concept to NDA/BLA submission.
  • Exposure to AI/ML methods is very nice to have.
  • Key competencies: demonstrated understanding of regulations and guidelines governing diagnostic and device development, good clinical practice, clinical trial design and execution, the patient journey, clinical pharmacology, biostatistics, clinical operations as they relate to translational studies, and application of computation to drug development.
  • Capable of communicating and collaborating with people of diverse backgrounds and job functions, with a demonstrated a track record of collaborating with diverse stakeholders, including other clinical, translational, computational, and life scientists.
  • Strong interpersonal skills that motivate others to excel and achieve their very best.
  • Passion for providing better medicine to patients in need

Compensation & Benefits at insitro

Our target starting salary for successful US-based applicants for this role is $250,000 - $310,000. To determine starting pay, we consider multiple job-related factors including a candidate's skills, education and experience, market demand, business needs, and internal parity. We may also adjust this range in the future based on market data.

This role is eligible for participation in our Annual Performance Bonus Plan (based on company targets by role level and annual company performance) and our Equity Incentive Plan, subject to the terms of those plans and associated policies.

In addition, insitro also provides our employees:

  • 401(k) plan with employer matching for contributions
  • Excellent medical, dental, and vision coverage (insitro pays 100% of premiums for employees on our base plans), as well as mental health and well-being support
  • Open, flexible vacation policy
  • Paid parental leave
  • Quarterly budget for books and online courses for self-development
  • Support to occasionally attend professional conferences that are meaningful to your career growth and development
  • New hire stipend for home office setup
  • Monthly cell phone & internet stipend
  • Access to free onsite baristas and cafe with daily lunch and breakfast
  • Access to free onsite fitness center
  • Commuter benefits
About insitro
 
insitro is a drug discovery and development company using machine learning (ML) and data at scale to decode biology for transformative medicines. At the core of insitro’s approach is the convergence of in-house generated multi-modal cellular data and high-content phenotypic human cohort data. We rely on these data to develop ML-driven, predictive disease models that uncover underlying biologic state and elucidate critical drivers of disease. These powerful models rely on extensive biological and computational infrastructure and allow insitro to advance novel targets and patient biomarkers, design therapeutics and inform clinical strategy. insitro is advancing a wholly owned and partnered pipeline of insights and therapeutics in neuroscience, oncology and metabolism. Since launching in 2018, insitro has raised over $700 million from top tech, biotech and crossover investors, and from collaborations with pharmaceutical partners. For more information on insitro, please visit www.insitro.com.

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