Business Lead, AI-native Small Molecule Discovery

Job Description Takeda is transforming how medicines are discovered by building a new Research engine where AI, advanced data platforms, and laboratory automation are embedded directly into how scientists design and discover molecules, run experiments, and make decisions.

Our Labs of Tomorrow vision connects computational science, scientific data, and automated experimental workflows into a closed-loop discovery engine that will enable us to design smarter studies, shorten learning cycles, and deliver clearer evidence earlier in discovery with the ultimate goal of discovering differentiated medicines for patients.

The Business Lead, AI-native Small Molecule Discovery is central to realizing this vision. The scientist will be responsible for Takeda’s next-generation small molecule discovery AI-native software products: owning the scientific vision, customer experience, product strategy, roadmap, adoption, and ultimately the value it creates for our drug discovery.

The Business Lead will define and answer what the small molecule discovery platform should be in a future where AI agents, predictive models, scientific data and automated experimentation are the basis of small molecule drug discovery.

Our ambition is for this product to become the primary environment through which Takeda scientists will design and discover the small-molecule medicines of the future.

Purpose

The Business Lead, AI-native Small Molecule Discovery is a foundational leadership role, acting as the owner of Takeda's Small Molecule discovery product family, an integrated family of capabilities spanning the full small molecule discovery journey. The role refines the strategic vision for future-state AI-native Small Molecule Labs of Tomorrow capabilities and drives its translation into AI-enabled discovery workflows, product direction, adoption, and measurable scientific and business value by working with both relevant internal and external stakeholders.

The successful candidate will lead this portfolio as a business owner on the side of the internal customer, combining deep small molecule discovery expertise with computational, data, and technology fluency to ensure that the products built are science-first, grounded in real discovery workflows, and capable of delivering meaningful value across the small-molecule portfolio.

Your customers will be Takeda’s medicinal chemists, computational chemists, structural biologists, DMPK scientists, safety scientists, and biologists.

The role carries sufficient technical fluency to provide informed direction on the strategic technology choices underpinning the product family, at the level of intent and trade‑off rather than detailed evaluation or execution.

This is a unique opportunity for an exceptional leader who can combine deep understanding of small molecule discovery with strong computational, data, and technology fluency, and who will ensure that the applications developed are scientifically grounded, technically actionable, adoptable by end users, and aligned with Takeda's business priorities.

This role operates at the program leadership level, collaborating directly with Takeda's “Labs of Tomorrow” leadership team to shape portfolio priorities, resolve strategic tradeoffs, and ensure future-state small‑molecule discovery capabilities advance from vision to measurable scientific and business impact.

The role provides day‑to‑day direction to the technical leads and development squads working on the Small Molecule discovery product family, and is interacting closely with the SME leads.

The role will also interface with the other Business Leads to ensure extensibility across the suites of products.

Accountabilities

Own and refine the strategic vision for future-state Small Molecule capabilities, articulating the future-state small molecule discovery journey, redesigned for AI-native, and increasingly automated drug discovery, and breaking it into the underlying capabilities delivered under a single mandate, in alignment with overall Research strategy.

Deliver against that vision by providing business leadership, partnering with technical leads and development squads on scope, sequencing, and priority, and holding product teams accountable for outcomes, adoption, and measurable scientific and business impact.

Define, track, and own KPIs, business value, adoption, and scientific impact across the product family, maintaining the integrated portfolio view that gives Research leadership a consolidated perspective on progress, dependencies, risks, and opportunities.

Deeply understand the customer, the re‑imagined AI-native workflows, the decisions they make, and unmet needs and represent them throughout development, working closely with the lead Subject Matter Experts to define target scientist experiences and to keep development anchored on discovery science needs and on the priority capabilities that improve how discovery work gets done.

Set business priorities and direction across Research, Digital Data & Technology (DD&T), Computational Science, and external build partners, driving the cross-functional alignment needed to resolve risks, dependencies, and blockers across the product family.

Work with the broader “Labs of Tomorrow” leadership team to set the digital product roadmap, scope, requirements, and investment priorities, balancing scientific value, strategic importance, and implementation readiness.

Provide informed direction on the strategic technology choices underpinning the product family, including platform direction, architecture, and development sequencing, at the level of intent and trade‑off rather than detailed evaluation or execution.

Identify where AI agents, predictive models, data, and automation can fundamentally redesign scientific workflows and translate those into opportunities in the products.

Plan and drive adoption of delivered capabilities across the small-molecule portfolio, ensuring that they lead to measurable scientific and business value.

Qualifications & Competencies

Expected: Ph.D. in computational chemistry, structural biology, data science, medicinal chemistry or related field with 10+ years of progressively responsible experience in pharmaceutical or biotech R&D.

Demonstrated ownership of a product, platform, or capability portfolio end to end, including roadmap, delivery, and adoption