AD-Director Translational Immunologist - Translational Medicine

SoseiHeptares Cambridge United Kingdom
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Company Description

Sosei Heptares is an international biopharmaceutical company with a mission to make a significant contribution to improving the quality of life and health of people around the world. To achieve this, we will discover, design, and develop the most innovative and effective medicines for patients worldwide, through our world-leading patent-protected technology and platform.

Our core focus is on the discovery and early development of new medicines originating from our proprietary G Protein-Coupled Receptor (GPCR) targeted StaR® technology and Structure Based Drug Design (SBDD) platform capabilities. Today, we are advancing a broad and deep pipeline of novel medicines across multiple therapeutic areas, including neurology, immunology, gastroenterology, and inflammation diseases.

We have established partnerships with some of the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies and multiple emerging technology companies, including AbbVie, AstraZeneca, Biohaven, Genentech (Roche), GSK, Neurocrine Biosciences, Novartis, Pfizer, Takeda and Verily.

Sosei Heptares is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan with corporate and R&D facilities in London and Cambridge, UK. We have approximately 170 employees based at our state-of-the-art R&D research centre at Granta Park, Cambridge. The size of our company ensures optimum agility and transparent linkage between all activities from early discovery through to clinical development.

For more information, please visit https://soseiheptares.com/. LinkedIn: @soseiheptaresco | Twitter: @soseiheptaresco | YouTube: @soseiheptaresco

Position

The Target Biology group in Translational Medicine is seeking an immunologist at Associate Director or Director level to join our R&D team in Cambridge, UK.

In this role, you will be responsible for developing and implementing translational strategies to support progression and effective decision making across our immunology portfolio targets.

Do you feel passionate about the possibilities to make a meaningful difference to patients’ lives? Are you driven by scientific challenges? If you are an exceptional immunologist who is seeking drug discovery opportunities in the Immunology therapeutic area, this role may be for you.

At Sosei Heptares we believe in targeting GPCRs to deliver transformative medicines for patients. To do this our world class scientists have developed a proprietary structure based drug design (SBDD) platform to improve the design of safer & more effective GPCR drugs. Our approach has been validated with multiple programs progressing from structure to the clinic.

This is an exciting time to join our company, as we enter the next phase of growth. We have recently developed a new Translational Medicine function to accelerate and deliver programs into early clinical development to POM/POC, underpinned by a strong understanding of the biological mechanism of action. The position reflects our commitment to secure world class translational medicine capabilities to support one of our core therapeutic areas in immunology.

We are seeking an exceptional, passionate, and innovative Translational Immunologist who is ready to leverage their extensive lab-based expertise in a non-lab based role in the identification, validation, and development (discovery and development phases) of novel GPCR immunology targets to support our growing Immunology pipeline. This is an exciting opportunity to lead and develop the translational strategy for Immunology programs and help the progression of candidate molecules through preclinical research and early clinical development.

As part of our multi-disciplinary team, you will work closely with members within the Discovery / Translational Medicine organisations and external collaborators to build an end-to-end translational strategy for our Immunology programs.

Come and join us in our R&D team in Cambridge UK and realise the opportunity to put your outstanding immunological experience into practice to deliver transformative GPCR medicines to patients.

Requirements

The ideal candidate will have:

  • Essential
    • PhD or a BSc with a minimum of 5 years drug discovery or development experience in an immunology-related therapeutic area. Equivalent experience gained in an academic background may also be considered.
    • Strong proven technical knowledge in interrogating immunological mechanisms using a range of in vitro and ex vivo immunological assays (e.g. isolated leukocyte subset functional assays, flow cytometry, RNA expression analysis, biochemical signalling, MSD/ELISA, imaging)
    • Strong track record in human and rodent primary cell immunology assay development and optimisation
    • Good understanding of Home Office legislation governing in vivo research and direct experience in the experimental design and oversight of in vivo studies.
    • Hands-on experience in managing outsourced studies with CROs or academic partners
    • Proven ability to work effectively in a multidisciplinary matrix team environment; Excellent interpersonal skills.
    • Experience of carrying out both independent and collaborative research
      • Proven ability in data analysis and problem-solving
  • Desirable
    • Experience in developing strategies for target engagement biomarker discovery and development
    • Experience in applying and analysing imaging techniques, multi-omics approaches to solve programme questions strongly desirable
    • Experience of genetic modification of proteins in primary cells or cell lines (e.g. CRISPR-Cas9, siRNA silencing)

Responsibilities:

This is an exciting opportunity to work across diverse functional groups within Sosei Heptares and with external industrial and academic collaborators. Working within research-phase and development-phase project teams, your primary responsibility will be to shape, own and deliver translational immunology research plans. You will:

  • Work collaboratively with internal Sosei Heptares colleagues and external (academic and industrial) collaborators to support Immunology programs
  • Be responsible for leading the design, delivery, analysis, and reporting of outsourced assays
  • Lead and oversee the development and optimisation of functional immunology assays at CROs
  • Develop networks to access patient samples and tissues to support molecular profiling and underpin human target validation.
  • Develop robust TE biomarkers strategy to support clinical-stage programmes

What’s in it for you?

  • State-of-the-art R&D centre located in the heart of the Cambridge science cluster
  • Competitive compensation package including discretionary cash bonuses
  • Eligible for grants of Restricted Stock Units in Sosei Group Corporation
  • 25 days annual leave in addition to public holidays
  • Employer contribution to pension
  • Private Medical Insurance and a cash plan for dental and optical reimbursement
  • Health and wellbeing benefits including a subsidised individual gym membership
  • Income protection to cover long term absences due to ill health
  • Group Death in Service equal to 4x basic annual salary

Why Sosei Heptares?

At Sosei Heptares, we are dedicated to the pursuit of scientific innovation. Our mission is to make a significant contribution to improving the quality of life and health of people around the world. To achieve this, we will discover, design, and develop the most innovative and effective medicines for patients worldwide, through our world-leading patent-protected technology and platform

Working at Sosei Heptares

The Sosei Heptares R&D centre is a modern, state-of-the-art centre located within easy shuttle reach of Cambridge and Whittlesford Parkway train stations. We offer a collaborative, diverse and inclusive working environment that considers your individual needs and believes in maintaining a sustainable work-life balance. You will be welcomed by a team of colleagues with decades of accumulated experience in their areas of expertise, happy to help you develop your own skills in a highly collaborative environment and who are keen to provide guidance and support in your personal and career development plans.

Our Vision and Values

To become one of Japan’s science and technology-led biopharmaceutical drug discovery champions. To achieve this, we will leverage our global know-how and operating agility to deliver a sustainable pipeline of first or best-in-class therapeutics, ensuring our place amongst the next generation of leading innovators.

We are guided by three fundamental values.

  • Limitless Compassion
  • Unswerving passion
  • Continuous self-innovation

These unchanging set of core values that serves as a guide across all our activities

Join Us!

Other information

The successful candidate will be employed by Heptares Therapeutics Ltd, a UK wholly owned subsidiary of Sosei Group Corporation.

Sosei Heptares is committed to building a diverse and ambitious workforce, and to promoting equal opportunities in employment. We recognize that diverse and inclusive teams build a stronger and more innovative company. Therefore, all qualified applicants will be considered for employment: we do not discriminate based on age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, or any other classification prescribed by law.

Applications should include a CV and covering letter, providing a short description of the background of your interest in the role, and apply via our on-line jobs’ portal in pdf format, quoting reference number 2022-AD-Dir-TM-Immu. Closing date 31st July 2022.

Sosei Heptares does not accept speculative or unsolicited CVs from agencies. All speculative or unsolicited CVs submitted without an agreement in place will be considered Sosei Heptares property and will not obligate us to pay a referral fee.

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