Director, Small Molecule Discovery Biology (Inflammation & Autoimmunity)

The Alumis team seeks a highly motivated Director in autoimmune discovery biology. The candidate should be well-versed in small molecule drug discovery and bring experience with a variety of target classes and modalities. The individual will take responsibility for important project-level biochemistry and biology efforts advancing our early portfolio of small molecule autoimmune therapies, as well as mentoring junior staff. The ideal candidate will bring expertise drawn from different areas of biology and immunology, such as biochemistry, pharmacology, cell biology, molecular biology, and chemical biology/proteomics. Prior experience will ideally span across the stages of drug discovery from lead finding through early clinical development.

Key Responsibilities:

• Taking biology department responsibility in discovery-stage small molecule projects including conceptualizing project strategy, recognizing knowledge gaps, formulating screening paradigms, overseeing SAR generation, coordinating among project stakeholders, and identifying potential new targets
• Overseeing development of both biochemical and cellular read-outs to support small molecule drug discovery efforts Support characterization of small molecule clinical candidates by employing autoimmune disease models and developing clinically relevant PD assays
• Providing both direct and indirect supervision of laboratory-based biology staff
• Manage external biology studies performed at CROs.
• Collaborating effectively with cross-functional teams including medicinal chemistry, DMPK, and preclinical development.
• Ensuring effective communication and coordination with departmental and company-wide leaders on project strategy and progress toward goals

Ideal candidate:

• PhD with 8+ years biopharma work experience in immunology-related small molecule drug discovery
• Prior experience with function-level oversight of project biology and/or biochemistry efforts, or overall project team leadership
• Knowledge of and hands on experience with emerging areas of small molecule drug discovery, such as protein-protein interaction inhibitors, degraders and molecular glues, and transcription factors
• Expertise spanning from early-stage target discovery and validation through early clinical development
• Awareness of methods for compound screening, characterizing mechanism of action, transcriptomics, and proteomics
• Familiarity with autoimmune disease biology including in vitro and in vivo immunology models, immortalized cell lines, isolation and characterization of primary immune cells, RNA-Seq, and cytokine detection methodologies
• Prior management of CRO collaborations, with an existing familiarity of a wide variety of biology CROs
• Excellent interpersonal skills with the ability to work both independently and cross-functionally to advance drug discovery programs; experience working with academic collaborators is a plus.
• Successful direct and indirect supervision of junior staff members
• Familiarity and enthusiasm for working in a small company environment
• Track record of scientific achievement and innovation

The salary range for this position is $200,000 USD to $240,000 USD annually. This salary range is an estimate, and the actual salary may very based on the Company’s compensation practices.