The Role:
Generate is seeking a Senior Director, Scientific Project Lead, Cardio-Renal-Metabolic to lead complex, cross-functional scientific programs from concept and early discovery through preclinical proof-of-concept, contribute to translational and early development strategy, and manage and develop scientific talent.
This role combines formal people management with broad cross-functional leadership across research, platform, translational, development, and portfolio functions. Working closely with functional, business and technical leaders, project managers, and senior and executive stakeholders, the Scientific Project Lead will bring scientific judgment in therapeutic discovery, strategic program leadership, and operational rigor to align multidisciplinary teams, guide key decisions, represent programs in governance forums, and contribute to portfolio prioritization.
Here's how you will contribute:
- Lead complex programs from concept and early discovery through preclinical proof-of-concept, with accountability for scientific strategy, execution quality, team effectiveness, risk management, and stage-gate readiness.
- Develop and maintain integrated program strategies and plans that align scientific objectives, timelines, and resourcing.
- Set scientific program direction, identify and advance therapeutic opportunities and target proposals by integrating biology, Generate’s differentiated platform capabilities, internal and external evidence, translational and clinical rationale, and competitive intelligence.
- Facilitate cross-functional discussions, resolve divergent perspectives, make clear recommendations, own key scientific decisions within the project team structure, and drive timely go/no-go recommendations.
- Drive execution across wet lab, computational, platform, and translational workstreams, ensuring scientific rigor, reproducibility, strong documentation, and high-quality data packages.
- Develop resource plans and budget assumptions, anticipate strategic inflection points, and proactively resolve risks, gaps, and cross-functional dependencies.
- Build effective operating mechanisms for program planning, governance preparation, risk tracking, decision-making, and cross-functional accountability.
- Manage, coach, and develop direct reports through clear objectives, regular feedback, performance management, and career development; mentor cross-functional team members in partnership with their functional managers.
- Set clear expectations and foster a high-performing team culture grounded in scientific rigor, accountability, transparency, urgency, collaboration, and constructive challenge.
The Ideal Candidate will have:
- PhD, MD, or MD/PhD in the life sciences or another discipline relevant to therapeutic discovery and development.
- 12+ years of relevant experience in biotech, pharma, academia, or a related scientific environment.
- Experience identifying, evaluating, and advancing therapeutic targets and programs in cardio-renal-metabolic diseases or related areas, including relevant in vitro and in vivo preclinical models and translational considerations such as biomarkers and PK/PD.
- Demonstrated success advancing complex programs across discovery and translational stages, including stage-gate reviews, prioritization decisions, and early development planning.
- Experience managing and developing scientists or other technical professionals, together with a strong record of leading multidisciplinary teams through influence.
- Strong scientific grounding in biology, experimental design, data interpretation, and synthesis across multiple technical domains.
- A track record of identifying, evaluating, and advancing novel targets or therapeutic opportunities with strong biological and translational rationale.
- Experience shaping program strategy, influencing senior stakeholders, and driving decisions in matrixed environments without relying solely on direct line authority.
- Ability to synthesize complex scientific issues, make sound recommendations with incomplete information, navigate scientific and resource tradeoffs, and communicate clearly in governance settings.
- Strong operational leadership, learning agility, intellectual curiosity, and comfort working in ambiguous and evolving environments, with a practical approach to solving problems and unblocking teams.
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience with protein therapeutics and related modalities, including peptides and conjugate-based approaches.
- Familiarity with computational protein design, machine learning-enabled discovery, or platform-scale biological systems.
- Familiarity with IND-enabling studies and early clinical development.
- Experience working effectively with consultants, CROs, and other external partners.
- Comfort using LLM-enabled tools and emerging agentic workflows to support scientific planning, analysis, and execution.
Who Will Love This Job:
- A biomedical scientist who enjoys identifying novel targets and turning early ideas into well-defined therapeutic opportunities.
- A scientifically grounded leader energized by complex programs, consequential decisions, and incomplete information.
- An entrepreneurial, hands-on problem solver who thrives at the interface of biology, platform technologies, translational science, and portfolio strategy.
- A matrix leader who builds trust, sets a high bar, and aligns strong cross-functional partners through influence.
- A people leader who enjoys developing talent while building resilient, collaborative, and high-performing teams.
About Generate Biomedicines
We are a clinical-stage generative biology company pioneering the AI revolution in drug design and development. We are advancing a new approach to drug creation—one grounded in the ability to design proteins with defined biological intent. By integrating machine learning with large-scale experimentation, this approach aims to