Director of Preclinical Research (Durham, NC)

The Client is seeking an experienced and high-agency individual to support the development of new treatments for Client, a rare bone cancer with no approved drug therapies. To date, we’ve developed a suite of research-enabling resources, funded or collaborated with over 120 researchers and companies, and launched our own research lab to support drug discovery and repurposing. Through these collective efforts, we’ve helped bring over 10 therapies into clinical trials for Client. With the goal of further increasing the pace of progress towards better treatments, we’re hiring a Director of Preclinical Research to help us pursue a growing number of research opportunities spanning resource development, target discovery, drug discovery, drug repurposing and translational research. In this position, you’ll play an instrumental role in enabling, supporting and driving research by:

• Awarding and managing grants, guiding collaborations, and outsourcing internally-conceived projects
• Developing, acquiring, and distributing research-enabling resources
• Establishing and maintaining relationships and alliances with investigators, companies, and other stakeholders around the world

Position Overview

• New, full-time position on the client research team
• Position is office-based (not lab-based)
• Travel 4-8 times per year for team meetings, collaborator/grantee visits and conferences
• Reports to the Chief Scientific Officer (CSO)
• Local or remote candidates are encouraged to apply
• Preferred start date is August 2025

Responsibilities
Preclinical research grants:

• Oversee our preclinical grants portfolio and manage the entire lifecycle of grantmaking activities, including RFP development, inviting/recruiting applicants, peer review, grant awards, and progress reporting
• Review progress reports, attend progress update meetings, record notes, offer scientific feedback
• Arm grantees with research-enabling resources, help them navigate barriers, identify opportunities for collaboration based on your bird’s eye view of the research ecosystem

Outsourced research projects:

• Identify appropriate opportunities to outsource projects to contract research vendors to advance our goals
• Oversee all aspects of the vendor management process including selection, project scoping, ensuring execution on time and on budget, and data analysis
• Assist CSO with the in vivo evaluation of promising therapeutic concepts in Client mouse models to develop rationale for new clinical trials

Research resource management:

• Oversee our repositories of models, biospecimens, and data, and manage associated vendors
• Distribute models, biospecimens, and data in support of global research efforts
• Identify and import new datasets or models developed by researchers into our repositories to facilitate resource centralization
• Stimulate the development of new preclinical models to fill gaps in our current repository, including immunocompetent models

Alliance management and ecosystem development:

• Assist CSO in forging and maintaining relationships with external stakeholders across our various research programs
• Facilitate effective and efficient preclinical research collaborations with academic investigators and companies
• Stimulate new research by recruiting investigators with relevant interests and capabilities and educating them about our research-enabling resources
• Assist CSO in writing grant applications to support internal research
• Develop new knowledge through attendance at relevant conferences, workshops, symposia, and staying up to date on the scientific literature
• Help our Development and Engagement teams develop research-related updates for various constituents, donors and funders
• Update and further develop content and resources on our website for researchers

Required Qualifications

• PhD, MD, PharmD or equivalent degree in the biological sciences
• At least 5 years of industry experience in oncology R&D
• Prior experience building and maintaining strategic relationships with CROs, companies, and academic researchers to achieve research goals
• Adept at navigating bureaucracies, can effectively persuade and influence external stakeholders
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills
• Experience with research grants (writing, reviewing, and/or managing)
• Highly organized, can effectively multitask and deliver results across multiple projects
• High agency, proactive, takes initiative, makes decisions independently, escalates issues when appropriate
• Must be legally authorized for employment in the U.S. We are not able to sponsor visas at this time