Sr. Director, New Product Planning, Autoimmune

The Senior Director will shape product and development strategy across the autoimmune portfolio. They will connect each program’s mechanism of action with disease biology to identify where it could deliver meaningful clinical benefit and change treatment decisions. They will translate that opportunity into target product profiles, indication and development choices, and recommendations on how programs and opportunities should be prioritized across the portfolio. Working with program leaders and colleagues across Research, Development, Commercial, and Manufacturing, they will lead strategic discussions from discovery through clinical proof of concept.

The successful candidate will bring a deep understanding of autoimmune disease biology and the ability to independently evaluate mechanisms and clinical evidence. They will bring a systems-thinking approach, connecting scientific evidence with patient populations, treatment decisions, regulatory requirements, and evolving market and competitive dynamics to shape program and portfolio strategy. They will provide an independent perspective in areas of uncertainty and present recommendations to senior leaders on which opportunities to advance and where to focus investment and resources before development and commercial paths are fully defined.

Here’s What You’ll Do

Scientific and disease understanding

• Develop a deep understanding of Moderna’s platform and its application to autoimmune diseases.
• Develop a deep, independent understanding of autoimmune disease biology, patient heterogeneity, and biomarkers, and assess how each program’s mechanism of action could affect the disease.
• Assess clinical, translational, and biomarker evidence and develop a detailed understanding of diagnosis, disease progression, and clinical endpoints.
• Engage directly with scientific evidence and external experts to evaluate competing hypotheses and identify unresolved biological questions.

Market and competitive understanding

• Understand how patients move from diagnosis and referral through treatment selection, assessment, switching, and discontinuation.
• Identify who makes each decision and how clinical evidence, physician judgment, patient preferences, and access shape those choices, including unmet needs within current standards of care.
• Evaluate approved therapies, emerging mechanisms, and competitor programs, including their clinical evidence, development timelines, and potential strengths and limitations.
• Develop scenarios for how standards of care and treatment pathways may evolve, including changes in treatment sequencing and the requirements for future differentiation.
• Use direct conversations with KOLs, treating physicians, and other internal and external experts, together with scientific and market evidence, to test program assumptions and resolve questions that affect development choices.

Product and development strategy

• Lead a disciplined strategy process with program teams: frame the choices, identify the information needed, structure debate around alternatives and tradeoffs, and make the logic for program decisions explicit.
• Apply a biotech investment mindset to program development, identifying the most efficient path to reduce key risks and reach proof of concept.
• Define the evidence needed to justify further investment and adapt recommendations as data emerge.
• Shape strategy and prioritization across the autoimmune portfolio.
• Develop and present recommendations to senior leaders on which opportunities to advance and where to focus investment and resources, with clear alternatives, tradeoffs, and evidence gaps.
• Integrate scientific, disease, market, and competitive insights to define where each autoimmune program can succeed and prioritize indications, patient populations, treatment settings, and lines of therapy.
• Develop and refine target product profiles with program teams that connect the program’s mechanism of action and disease biology to a defined patient population, treatment setting, and clinical benefit.
• Define the efficacy, safety, durability, and dosing and administration requirements, together with the supporting evidence, needed for differentiation and to change treatment choices as standards of care evolve.

Here’s What You’ll Bring to the Table (Basic Qualifications)

• Bachelor’s degree or higher in a scientific, medical, business, or related field.
• At least 10 years of experience in the pharmaceutical or biotechnology industry, including significant experience in new product planning, research strategy, program leadership, global marketing, portfolio strategy, or a related function.
• Demonstrated experience leading product and portfolio strategy across multiple programs in discovery and early clinical development, including influencing senior decisions on program advancement, investment, and resource allocation.
• Deep understanding of autoimmune disease biology and the ability to independently evaluate mechanistic, translational, and clinical evidence.

Here’s What You’ll Bring to the Table (Preferred Qualifications)

• Experience in autoimmune or immune-mediated diseases, including familiarity with treatment pathways, clinical endpoints, patient segmentation, and the evolving competitive landscape.
• Strong analytical skills and the ability to build, challenge, and communicate assumptions.
• Demonstrated ability to use AI-supported evidence workflows to investigate program questions, test competing explanations, evaluate underlying sources, and identify when expert input or additional data is needed.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to present a concise recommendation to senior leaders and defend it objectively.
• The ability to influence across functions without direct authority and establish productive working relationships with scientific, clinical, and commercial colleagues.