Sr. Director, New Product Planning, Oncology
Moderna
Summary
Building on the success of our platform in infectious diseases and positive INT data, Moderna is expanding its footprint in oncology. We are seeking a Senior Director of New Product Planning for our early oncology programs, from discovery through clinical proof of concept. The Senior Director will shape product and development strategy across the early oncology 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. Working with program leaders and colleagues across Research, Development, Commercial, and Manufacturing, 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. The successful candidate will bring demonstrated ability to lead program and portfolio strategy and a systems-thinking approach to integrating scientific, clinical, and market evidence. They will frame choices, lead cross-functional debate, and present recommendations to senior leaders on which opportunities to advance and where to focus investment and resources before development paths are fully defined.
Job description
Here's What You'll Do
Scientific and disease understanding
- Develop a deep understanding of Moderna's platform and its application to oncology.
- Work with scientific and clinical colleagues to assess how each program's mechanism of action could affect disease, including the implications of tumor biology, patient heterogeneity, and biomarkers.
- Independently evaluate mechanistic, translational, and clinical evidence and its implications for program strategy, including disease progression and clinical endpoints.
- Engage directly with scientific evidence and external experts to evaluate competing hypotheses and identify unresolved biological questions that affect development choices.
Market and competitive understanding
- Understand how patients move through diagnosis, staging, biomarker testing, treatment selection, assessment, and subsequent treatment.
- 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.
- Integrate market and competitive expertise into early program decisions.
- 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 early oncology 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 oncology 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.
- Shape clinical and evidence-generation plans, including patient selection, biomarkers, endpoints, and the evidence required for regulatory approval, physician adoption, reimbursement, and access.
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.
- Strong understanding of oncology biology and clinical development, with the ability to independently evaluate mechanistic, translational, and clinical evidence and connect it to treatment decisions.
Here's What You'll Bring to the Table (Preferred Qualifications)
- Experience in oncology, 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, lead teams through competing views, and establish productive working relationships with scientific, clinical, and commercial colleagues.
Requirements
- 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.
- Strong understanding of oncology biology and clinical development, with the ability to independently evaluate mechanistic, translational, and clinical evidence and connect it to treatment decisions.
- Experience in oncology, 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, lead teams through competing views, and establish productive working relationships with scientific, clinical, and commercial colleagues.
Benefits
- Competitive healthcare
- Voluntary benefit programs
- Fitness support
- Mindfulness support
- Mental health support
- Fertility support
- Adoption support
- Surrogacy support
- Paid time off
- Volunteer days
- Sabbatical
- Global recharge days
- Year-end shutdown
- Savings and investments
- Annual discretionary bonus
- Equity award
Company overview
Moderna, Inc. is a pioneering American biotechnology and pharmaceutical company headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, that has revolutionized the field of medicine through its groundbreaking messenger RNA (mRNA) technology. Founded in 2010, the company has established itself as a global leader in RNA therapeutics, primarily focusing on mRNA vaccines and treatments. Moderna's innovative platform uses mRNA to provide cellular instructions for producing proteins that trigger immune responses, creating a new category of medicines with significant potential to improve patient outcomes across various therapeutic areas. The company gained worldwide recognition during the COVID-19 pandemic for developing one of the earliest and most effective mRNA vaccines, which demonstrated the transformative potential of its technology platform. Beyond infectious diseases, Moderna is advancing a diverse pipeline of 44 treatment and vaccine candidates across infectious diseases, immuno-oncology, rare diseases, cardiovascular diseases, and autoimmune conditions. With approximately 5,800 employees and a strong commitment to scientific innovation, Moderna continues to expand its manufacturing capabilities and research initiatives to deliver the greatest possible impact through mRNA medicines.