Director, External Innovation, DPDS (In Silico Discovery)

About Innovative Medicine

Our expertise in Innovative Medicine is informed and inspired by patients, whose insights fuel our science-based advancements. Visionaries like you work on teams that save lives by developing the medicines of tomorrow. Join us in developing treatments, finding cures, and pioneering the path from lab to life while championing patients every step of the way.

Purpose

As the molecular invention and product development engine of Research & Development for J&J Innovative Medicine, Discovery, Product Development and Supply (DPDS) aims to unlock the potential of the most promising disease targets and drug candidates, regardless of source, stage, or modality, to discover, develop and deliver transformational medicines for patients. Within DPDS, the External Innovation team is now looking for an extraordinary Director who is passionate about identifying, shaping, onboarding, and nurturing external partnerships that support the DPDS innovation strategy. You will be a member of the Global External Innovation Team DPDS with strategic and operational responsibility for scouting and evaluation of external opportunities across the globe focused on computational approaches (AI/ML, physics-based) to enable drug discovery. You will be operating at the cutting edge of drug discovery and development technology, enabling productive interactions between external and internal scientists at various levels in the organization. You will conduct strategic technology landscape reviews, support the identification of external partnering opportunities and take ownership of all steps in the process of scientific and strategic evaluations of such opportunities, while engaging with internal and external stakeholders constructively and effectively. The role requires both a broad knowledge (in silico & experimental) of enabling technologies and platforms, creativity to relate these with evolving discovery and development needs, and goal-orientation to establish partnerships that will effectively promote innovation and further the Janssen R&D portfolio.

Responsibilities

• Advance technological innovation within DPDS in alignment with the strategy and in support of the vision of Janssen R&D with a primary focus on AI-based molecular design across drug modalities. Additionally, there will be non-primary focus areas including (1) strategies to leveraging and generating high-dimensional datasets to discover biological insights and enable model building, (2) approaches to developing self-driving labs, (3) exploring computational tools to enable drug discovery, and (4) special projects to conceptualize, incorporate and scale the latest technological advances in drug discovery
• Identify, evaluate, develop, and execute value-creating opportunities, scientific breakthroughs including structuring, negotiating, and closing of contracts with preferred partners
• Conduct strategic technology landscape reviews by monitoring and processing data from competitive intelligence resources focused on AI/ML-enabled drug discovery
• In partnership with J&J Global External Innovation, Janssen Business Development and the DPDS organization, contribute to sourcing and validating input for scientific assessments
• Manage and enable the workflow for a portfolio of technology assessment projects across DPDS functional disciplines
• Develop areas of interest to support investment recommendations
• Work in support of the head of DPDS External Innovation In Silico Discovery to ensure objectives and timelines are met
• Ensure Credo Values are demonstrated in all day-to-day interactions

Qualifications / Requirements

Education: Minimum of a Master’s degree is required. PhD is preferred. Concentration/Major in any the following: Medicinal Chemistry, Biochemistry, Cell/Molecular Biology or Pharmaceutical Sciences is preferred (but not required).

• Minimum of 10 years of relevant experience
• Bilingual in computational (dry-lab) and experimental (wet-lab) approaches to enable drug discovery, with the ability to flex between scientific / technical detail and big picture strategy
• Experience with modern techniques, such as AI/ML driven discovery, with a track record of delivering exceptional results
• Project management skills as well as a demonstrable ability to think strategically and deliver on strategic objectives
• Proficiency in planning, proactivity, self-motivation, and the ability to work independently
• Excellent oral and written communication skills
• Authentic, humble, able to build a positive team spirit and lead through the ups and downs, puts success of team above own interests

Preferred

Understanding of medicinal chemistry, antibody discovery, analytical sciences, biochemistry, cellular/molecular biology, pharmacology, drug delivery, drug metabolism and pharmacokinetics, in at least some of these domains are highly preferred.