VP, CAR Immunology and Preclinical

​Senior/Vice President, CAR Immunology and Preclinical

About us:

We are a revolutionary biotech with East and West Coast presence, aimed to improve the current standards of cell therapy for cancer and beyond. Spun off from an Ivy league school, we leverage proprietary, next-level gene editing platforms for highly efficient engineering of therapeutic immune cells to develop the best cell therapy candidates that can overcome the hurdles in today’s cancer treatment.

​

The Role: We are looking for a Senior/Vice President, CAR Immunology and Preclinical Development with expertise in adoptive cell therapy and CAR immune cell engineering. In this role, the candidate is expected to lead the research and preclinical development of our research pipeline. The candidate will supervise, motivate and grow the Research Director/groups, including: T cell Engineering, Vector Engineering, NK Cell Engineering and Bioinformatics teams. They are expected to lead, supervise and perform technical experiments, including but not limited to: primary immune cell handling, CRISPR-mediated therapeutic cell engineering, CAR construction and testing, flow-cytometry based immunophenotyping,in vivomanipulation of mouse tumor models, andin vitroandin vivocytotoxicity, IND-enabling experiments for adoptive cell therapy and other phenotypic assessments. Prior demonstration of leadership role and good understanding of pre-clinical development for cell therapy and CMC processes is needed to be successful in this role.

We are looking for candidates who enjoy working in a team and can leverage the growth opportunities that an early startup provides. This is an exceptional opportunity for someone who is excited about cell therapy development and pioneering scientific efforts.

​

Responsibilities:

• Works with leadership team to provide strategy and vision; makes decisions that establish objectives for the overall direction for our research

• Leads preclinical development work, including

  in vitro

  pharmacology,

  in vivo

  pharmacology, toxicology, and translational biology

• Leads, motivates, and grows the T-cell/NK-cell/vector/bioinformatics teams in the achievement of corporate objectives

• Oversees the development of preclinical IND packages for portfolio products, including nonclinical study reports and regulatory documents

• Develop key methods for identification of clinical biomarkers and correlatives; ensure the appropriate collection, processing, and analysis of clinical samples

• Works with the Clinical team to develop target candidate profile and design experiments that supports clinical plans

• Innovates novel scientific projects /platforms for the company

• Regularly presents experimental findings to the leadership team and supervises the biology team members as they generate, record, and present data

• Helps draft progress reports, summaries for patent applications and/or scientific publications and provide an external representation at conferences and via publications

​

Qualifications:

• PhD in immunology, genetics, bioengineering, or a related field with >10 years of postdoctoral experience and >5 years biotechnology/pharmaceutical related experience, including experience performing immuno-oncology research

• Broad scientific and technical expertise in immunology and tumor biology, cell and gene therapy and related scientific disciplines

• Demonstrated ability to lead a team of experienced leaders

• Experience with writing regulatory documents to support FIH studies

• Takes accountability for actions and drives results

• Strong interpersonal and presentation skills with good judgment and ability to communicate with a diverse range of individuals

​

We are an equal opportunity employer.

Ideally, the candidate is expected to relocate to areas proximal to CT.

We will provide a competitive compensation package based on the level of the experience of the candidate.

I manage a range of other permanent and contract positions for a broad portfolio of clients (Biotech, CRO and Pharma). If the above role isn’t for you but you’d nevertheless like to discuss your options in the market, I’d welcome a confidential discussion by phone or email. Contact Surbhi Dhar at +1 (619) 329 7878 or surbhi.dhar@rbwconsulting.com