Senior Director, Translational Medicine, CNS - Early Development

Senior Director Translational Medicine Cns Therapeutic Area

The Senior Director will serve as the Translational Medicine CNS Therapeutic Area Head, reporting to the VP, Translational Medicine and Early Clinical Development within OPDC's Early Development Organization (EDO). The Senior Director Translational Medicine will oversee a small team of CNS Translational Medicine Experts reporting to her/him on the early development CNS portfolio and Early Development Teams. This Senior Director is a strategic scientific and clinical leader accountable for the end-to-end translational strategy and execution for Otsuka's early phase portfolio, with emphasis on CNS, particularly psychiatry, neurodegenerative disease, and neuroinflammation. The role shapes program strategy from indication selection through early clinical development (pre-IND through first-in-human and clinical proof of concept), and go/go no decisions based on clinical and/or biomarker driven endpoints ensuring seamless integration across discovery, nonclinical, clinical pharmacology, regulatory, and commercial functions. As an industry-leading expert and trusted advisor to senior leadership, this leader directs complex, cross-functional initiatives with enterprise impact, and helps define the operating model and culture of the EDO.

Key Responsibilities

• Enterprise and Portfolio Leadership
• Translational and Clinical Development
• Cross-Functional and Governance Leadership
• People and Organizational Leadership

Qualifications Required

• MD, PhD, or MD/PhD with subspecialty training in neurology or psychiatry strongly preferred.
• 10–15+ years of translational and/or medical/clinical/development experience with a track record of advancing biologics and/or small molecules through IND and FIH/PoC.
• Recognized thought leader with scientific contributions (publications, presentations); expert understanding of industry best practices and adjacent functional areas.
• Proven success leading complex, cross-functional teams in a matrixed, global environment; exceptional strategic thinking and decision-making under uncertainty.
• Demonstrated experience in early development and Health Authority interactions (e.g., pre-IND, IND, End-of-Phase 2) and high-quality health authority engagement.
• Outstanding communication skills with the ability to synthesize complex data and influence executive stakeholders.

Preferred

• Deep expertise in CNS, particularly psychiatry, neurodegenerative disease, and neuroinflammation.
• Experience implementing clinical study plans to drive decision-making.
• Experience with external collaborations, including collaborative animal model experiments, key opinion leader interactions and advisory boards.
• Prior experience building or scaling early development operating models and ways of working.

Competencies

• Accountability for Results
• Strategic Thinking & Problem Solving
• Patient & Customer Centricity
• Impactful Communication
• Respectful Collaboration
• Empowered Development