Senior Director, Scientific Project Lead (Oncology)
$210,000–$300,000 year
On-siteSomerville, Massachusetts, United States
Job Summary
Lead complex, cross-functional oncology programs from concept through preclinical development, driving scientific strategy, execution quality, and stage-gate readiness. Develop integrated program strategies that align objectives, timelines, and resourcing while identifying therapeutic opportunities by integrating disease biology, platform capabilities, and competitive intelligence. Facilitate cross-functional discussions to resolve divergent perspectives, own key scientific decisions, and drive timely go/no-go recommendations. Build effective operating mechanisms for governance, risk tracking, and accountability, ensuring scientific rigor and high-quality data packages across wet lab, computational, and translational workstreams. Manage and develop direct reports through clear objectives, performance management, and career development, fostering a high-performing team culture grounded in scientific rigor and collaboration.
Required Qualifications
- PhD, MD, or MD/PhD in cancer biology, immuno-oncology, or another discipline relevant to therapeutic discovery and development
- 12+ years of relevant experience in biotech, pharma, academia, or a related scientific environment
- Experience identifying, evaluating, or advancing therapeutic targets and preclinical programs in oncology
- Experience designing or interpreting preclinical oncology studies, including in vitro functional assays, in vivo efficacy models, and pharmacodynamic or mechanistic studies that connect mechanism to clinically meaningful hypotheses
- Experience managing and developing scientists or other technical professionals, combined with a strong record of leading multidisciplinary teams through influence
- Experience shaping program strategy, influencing senior stakeholders, and synthesizing complex scientific issues into sound decisions and clear governance recommendations, sometimes with incomplete information, while navigating scientific and resource tradeoffs in a matrixed environment
- Strong operational leadership, learning agility, intellectual curiosity, and comfort operating in ambiguous and evolving environments, with a practical approach to solving problems and unblocking teams
Desired Qualifications
- Experience with protein therapeutics and related modalities, including multispecific antibodies, immune engagers, antibody-drug conjugates, peptides, or other conjugate-based approaches
- Familiarity with computational protein design, machine learning-enabled discovery, or platform-scale biological systems
- Familiarity with IND-enabling studies and early clinical development for oncology therapeutics
- Experience working effectively with consultants, CROs, and other external partners
- Comfort using LLM-enabled tools and emerging agentic workflows to support scientific planning, analysis, and execution
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