Director, Translational Lead – Renal, Inflammation and Fibrosis

At GSK, we have bold ambitions for patients, aiming to positively impact the health of 2.5 billion people by the end of the decade. Our R&D focuses on discovering and delivering vaccines and medicines, combining our understanding of the immune system with cutting-edge technology to transform people’s lives. GSK fosters a culture ambitious for patients, accountable for impact, and committed to doing the right thing, making sure that we focus our efforts on accelerating significant assets that meet patients’ needs and have the highest probability of success. We’re uniting science, technology, and talent to get ahead of disease together.

RIITU (Respiratory, Immunology and Inflammation Translational Unit) within RIIRU therapy area provides end-to-end disease-area translational science to inform therapy area and program level biomarker strategies from preclinical to launch. This includes generation of foundational data and disease biomarker development and validation that enable timely deployment of tools/biomarkers to support PoM, signs of clinical efficacy, PoC, and pairing MoAs with patient subtypes to predict responder populations. We are looking for a dynamic individual to excel in the following responsibilities.

Key Responsibilities

• Disease Biomarker Strategy Development and Delivery: Partner with Clinical Teams, Research Technologies and Development for the Renal, Inflammation and Fibrosis portfolio to identify, establish biomarkers for decision making throughout clinical development phases aligned with overall R&D goals. This includes identification, prioritisation and validation of disease-relevant biomarkers, mechanistic/surrogate biomarkers, patient stratification, and differentiated response prediction, their deployment into clinical studies and interpretation of data/results.
• Translational Leadership: Provide strategic leadership enabling deep understanding of disease areas and the development and execution of translational research strategies to support discovery and development of novel therapeutics, including evaluation and diligence of business development opportunities.
• Translational Innovation: Evaluate novel techniques and technologies (e.g., spatial transcriptomics) to inform translational initiatives and biomarker development and validation in collaboration with platform teams within a multi-functional matrix environment.
• Cross-functional Collaboration: Collaborate with Translational, Disease Teams, Human Genetics & Genomics, biology groups, biomarker platforms, Medicine Development Teams, HBSM, data-sciences, regulatory affairs, business development and commercial to ensure integration of translational research and biomarker strategies across the drug development lifecycle.
• External Partnerships: Establish and maintain strategic collaborations with academic institutions, CROs, and other external partners to access technologies, tools, reagents, biosamples, biomarker expertise, and research capabilities; foster a network of external experts and key opinion leaders to stay at the forefront of translational science; contribute to evaluation and diligence of business development opportunities.
• Matrix Leadership: Provide mentorship, guidance, and professional development to ensure a high-performing team; manage disease and project-level resources, budgets, and timelines to ensure successful execution of projects and achievement of milestones and RIITU objectives; represent RIITU at portfolio governance reviews providing input to pipeline and investment decisions.
• Why you?

Basic Qualifications

We are looking for professionals with these required skills to achieve our goals:

• Ph.D. in a relevant scientific discipline (e.g., Cell/Molecular Biology, Genetics, Pharmacology, Physical Chemistry or related field)
• Extensive experience in translational science and biomarker development, ideally within the pharmaceutical or biotechnology industry
• Recognised translational/biomarker expert in the scientific community through publications and contributions to the field
• Experience of translation and biomarker implementation in Renal, Inflammation and/or Fibrotic indications
• Experience of working in a clinical trial setting, contributing to clinical study and oversight of clinical and regulatory documents
• Knowledge of regulatory requirements, industry standards, best practices and compliance in Translational Research and biomarker development and validation
• Broad knowledge of technologies and methods used in translational research
• Proven track record of program decision making through biomarker strategies and delivering translational insights to support drug progression
• Experience leading external collaborations and evaluating business development opportunities
• Strong management skills, with ability to prioritize and manage multiple objectives to meet timelines while maintaining attention to detail
• Excellent inclusive matrix leadership skills, with ability to create psychological safety and motivate a team towards common goals
• Ability to adapt to a fast-paced research environment with strong problem-solving and critical-thinking skills

Preferred Qualifications

If you have the following characteristics, it would be a plus:

• Awareness of bioinformatic/computational methods supporting integrated analysis and interpretation of translational and biomarker-related data sets

Work Location

This role is based in the United Kingdom or the United States and offers a hybrid working model, combining on-site and remote work flexibility.

Join us in shaping the future of translational science and making a meaningful impact on patients' lives.

GSK is an Equal Opportunity Employer. This ensures that all qualified applicants will receive equal consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, gender identity, and sexual orientation), parental status, national origin, age, disability, genetic information, military service or any basis prohibited under federal, state or local law.

We believe in an agile working culture for all our roles. If flexibility is important to you, we encourage you to explore with our hiring team what opportunities are available.

Should you require any adjustments to our process to assist you in demonstrating your strengths and capabilities contact us on UKRecruitment.Adjustments@gsk.com or 0808 234 4391. The helpline is available 8:30am to 12:00 noon Monday to Friday. Bank holidays times may vary.

Additional guidance for inquiries not relating to adjustments is available via our UK Recruitment FAQ guide. Click the link and scroll to Careers for answers.

Important notice to Employment businesses/ Agencies GSK does not accept referrals from employment businesses and/or employment agencies without prior written authorization. For more information on CMS/Transparency requirements, visit the CMS website.