Head of Translational Immunology

About This Role

As the Head of Translational Immunology, you will play a critical leadership role in driving innovation and advancing the organization's research and development initiatives. You will join a dynamic team dedicated to the discovery, development, implementation, and interpretation of translational and clinical biomarker strategies to support the Immunology portfolio.

Key responsibilities include leading the design, execution, and integration of biomarker strategies from early Research through early clinical development. A central focus of this role is advancing innovative translational approaches that integrate diverse human datasets-including genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, cellular models, and clinical data-to inform novel therapeutic targets, generate actionable hypotheses, and provide supporting evidence for programs across the Immunology pipeline.

What You'll Do

Strategic Leadership and Team Building

• Lead and mentor a high-performing team of research and clinical stage biomarkers scientists
• Formulate and implement a strategic vision for Translational Immunology to drive the development of innovative clinical biomarkers across our Immunology portfolio, supporting future research targets, indication expansion, and mechanism of action (MOA) insights.
• Matrix-manage biomarker and systems biology scientists across various sub-functions to collaboratively develop and implement integrated biomarker strategies, while fostering a culture of innovation, collaboration, and scientific excellence within the Biomarkers and Systems Biology function and across the Research organization.

• Provide strategic, technical, and scientific leadership in designing, validating, implementing, and interpreting data from an integrated clinical biomarker plan to support first-in-human studies, decision-making, and proof-of-biology studies for clinical programs.
• Emphasize human-focused approaches, leading efforts to prioritize the use of human model systems, including human pathology samples and human clinical trial data, to ensure translational relevance and directly inform therapeutic development, using human data as the foundation for uncovering disease mechanisms and identifying therapeutic opportunities.
• Partner with the computational biology team to harness the integration of human omics datasets (e.g., genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics) as tools to identify novel translational insights into disease mechanisms and therapeutic opportunities from internal and external sources

• Maintain scientific excellence in immunology-relevant biomarkers, assay development and validation, patient characterization, and relevant diagnostics
• Identify and establish partnerships with academic institutions, specialty startups, CROs, and industry consortia to enhance internal capabilities and expedite the achievement of biomarker objectives
• Leverage external expertise and resources, including the latest advancements in translational Immunology approaches, to complement internal research efforts

• Work closely with cross-functional teams, including other biomarker and systems biology colleagues, biologists, chemists, clinicians, and development colleagues, to integrate a comprehensive Immunology Biomarker approach
• Promote seamless collaboration between team members and biomarker analytical scientists to drive data-driven decision-making
• Lead cross-functional initiatives aimed at developing and applying novel Immunology approaches, focusing on biological networks and disease processes to enable clinical decisions

• 12+ years of experience in immunology, with a focus on biomarker/translational approaches, multiomics data integration, computational modeling, and hypothesis generation within pharma and biotech
• PhD in immunology or molecular biology with a focus on immunology
• Immunology Knowledge: Deep understanding of immunology, immune mechanisms, pathways, and disease biology.
• Clinical Biomarker Development: Expertise in identifying, developing, and validating biomarkers to inform patient stratification, therapeutic response, and disease progression
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Proven ability to work effectively with interdisciplinary teams, including scientists, biologists, clinicians, to develop and execute biomarker/translational plans

• Medical, Dental, Vision, & Life insurances
• Fitness & Wellness programs including a fitness reimbursement
• Short- and Long-Term Disability insurance
• A minimum of 15 days of paid vacation and an additional end-of-year shutdown time off (Dec 26-Dec 31)
• Up to 12 company paid holidays + 3 paid days off for Personal Significance
• 80 hours of sick time per calendar year
• Paid Maternity and Parental Leave benefit
• 401(k) program participation with company matched contributions
• Employee stock purchase plan
• Tuition reimbursement of up to $10,000 per calendar year
• Employee Resource Groups participation