Executive Director, Translational Lead - Cardiovascular

Role Purpose

We are seeking an experienced Executive Director to join our R&D Translational Sciences team to lead the translational strategy for our current and future cardiovascular portfolio. The successful candidate will be responsible for innovative disease area translational initiatives to grow and progress the pipeline from target identification to clinical development phases.

They will develop and deliver disease area and programme biomarker strategies to support higher confidence decision making and increased probability of success in the GSK portfolio in cardiovascular, including accountability for development of a foundational data strategy and identification and deployment of biomarker programmes to support earlier understanding of mechanism, efficacy and patient selection.

The successful candidate will be a member of the Translational Sciences Leadership Team, developing our overall translational strategy and delivery across R&D, working closely with senior stakeholders and partners across GSK including the Early Pipeline Unit, Biology Unit, R&D Technologies, Development Sciences, Asia R&D and Clinical Development teams.

Key Responsibilities

• Provide strategic leadership in defining and delivering a compelling translational strategy to discover and develop novel differentiated therapeutics in cardiovascular disease through internal and external business development opportunities.
• Evaluate and apply novel approaches and technologies to deliver translational insights, biomarker discovery, development and validation in partnership with multi-disciplinary teams.
• Identify and guide validation of human assays (cells, tissues and organs) to enhance human translation and predictive value.
• Partner with Disease Area Acceleration Teams, R&D Technologies and the Development organisation to identify and establish disease biomarkers for decision making throughout pre-clinical and clinical development phases.
• Identify, prioritise and validate disease relevant biomarkers, mechanistic/surrogate biomarkers, patient stratification, and differentiated response prediction through to deployment into clinical studies.
• Collaborate closely with cross-functional teams to ensure seamless integration of translational research and biomarker strategies across the drug development lifecycle.
• Identify, establish and maintain strategic collaborations with academic institutions, CROs, and other external partners to access cutting-edge technologies, tools, reagents, biosamples, biomarker expertise, and research capabilities.
• Represent GSK externally and foster a network of external experts and key opinion leaders.
• Contribute to and lead evaluation and diligence of business development opportunities.
• Provide mentorship, guidance, and professional development opportunities to ensure a high-performing and motivated team.
• Manage disease and project level resources, budgets, and timelines to ensure successful execution of projects and achievement of milestones.
• Represent Translational Sciences at portfolio governance reviews providing critical input to pipeline and investment decision making.
• Foster a culture of innovation, collaboration, and continuous professional learning within the team.

Basic Qualifications

• MD PhD; Completion of a formal postgraduate clinical training, clinical residency or specialty training in a cardiovascular specialty, including cardiology or cardiovascular surgery.
• Extensive experience in cardiovascular disease, translational science and biomarker development within the pharmaceutical or biotechnology industry.
• Recognized expert in cardiovascular disease scientific community through publications and contributions to the field.
• Experience of working in a clinical trial setting, working as part of a clinical study and experience of authoring and oversight of clinical and regulatory documents.
• Knowledge of regulatory requirements, industry standards, best practices and compliance considerations in Translational Research and biomarker development and validation.
• Excellent and proven leadership skills, with the ability to motivate and focus a team towards achieving common goals.

Preferred Qualifications

• Awareness of bioinformatic / computational methods supporting integrated analysis and interpretation of translational and biomarker-related data sets.
• Experience and understanding of causal methods applied to human data.
• Deep expertise in cardiovascular pathophysiology, vascular biology, cardio-renal-metabolic syndromes, pulmonary vascular disease, fibrosis, inflammation, and age-related organ dysfunction.
• Proven track record of influencing decision making through delivery of translational science insights in support of drug progression through clinical transition milestones.
• Extensive experience of influencing senior stakeholders internally and externally.
• Understanding leading/managing complex collaborations and evaluation of business development opportunities, including scientific, clinical and commercial due diligence considerations.
• Ability to adapt to a fast-paced and evolving research environment, with strong problem-solving and critical-thinking skills.
• Strong executive management skills, with the ability to prioritize and manage multiple projects to meet timelines while maintaining attention to detail and high-performance standards.