Senior Director, Personalized Cancer Vaccine Research

The Role:

Moderna is dedicated to maximizing the impact of our cancer vaccine platform on human health including with our Personalized Cancer Vaccines (PCV). We are committed to expanding the clinical impact of our PCVs in more patients with our current platform and through optimizing our approach in future generations of PCVs. Are you the right person to lead the Research Team that will help make this happen?

This is a great opportunity to lead and grow a Research team focused on providing scientific guidance on imminent PCV pivotal trial(s) and bringing forth next generation PCVs that expand on our current demonstration of clinical benefit: through improving the vaccine format including the algorithm utilized for personalized antigen choice, establishing novel PCV combinations with other mRNA-based therapeutics in addition to other modalities, and advancing the ways we currently generate our PCVs with development and incorporation of new assays and technologies.

We are looking for a talented, innovative, motivated and proven leader with experience in supporting ongoing trials and well as leading next generation concepts to expand on promising clinical signals. She/he/they will expand and lead the PCV Research Team as well as work closely with our other Cancer Vaccine Research groups (Platform and Off-the shelf Target Specific Vaccine teams), Immuno-Oncology Research team, Translational Research and cross-functionally with the wider Non-clinical Sciences and Clinical Development organizations with the common goal of helping as many cancer patients as possible. The successful candidate must be an outstanding scientist, exemplary leader and collaborator, effective communicator and thrive in a fast-paced/results-oriented environment managing several workflows in parallel.

Heres What Youll Do:

• Further build and lead the PCV Research Team

• Research Program Leader for clinical stage PCV programs

• Work with the Translational and Development teams to further establish a robust immunogenicity and phenotyping benchmark of the current platform to which future iterations can be compared

• Generate and execute on research plans to evaluate all potential changes considered for PCVs including advancements in PCV manufacturing, vaccine format and antigen choice

• Working with the Translational Research team, recommend new indications and patient populations in which PCVs will likely exert clinical benefit based on internally and externally generated pre-clinical and clinical data

• Help define and provide justification for rational PCV combinations with mRNA-based approaches as well as with standards of care and other emerging therapies, including generating appropriate pre-clinical data.

• Generate data and provide justification for dose, schedule, and treatment sequencing refinement for new clinical PCV applications

• Working with the Cancer Vaccine Platform team, identify and develop new approaches to optimize the generation of our PCVs, from antigen and normal samples collection to profiling of unique muteomes to input into current and future algorithms

• Work cross functionally and particularly with our Computational Sciences team to lead the effort to make our PCV algorithm even more impactful, through utilization of internal and external data and technologies

• Identify and lead external collaborations to advance the PCV Research agenda

• Establish group goals, associated budgets and set timelines for deliverables

• Present internally and externally to a wide array of audiences (small team meetings to Board meetings and external international conferences)

• Supervise and mentor scientists, and help direct reports effectively manage their reports

Heres What Youll Bring to the Table:

• Ph.D. in Cancer Biology, Immunology, Immuno-oncology (IO) or related field relevant to the role with 15+ years of overall experience and >8 years in industry

• Deep expertise in vaccinology; advantage to have direct experience with nucleic acid-based vaccine technologies

• Experience working on cross functional pre-clinical and clinical stage program teams

• Technical expertise for deep analyses of pre-clinical and clinical samples, such as with genomic profiling, bulk and single cell RNA sequencing, multi-parameter flow/CyTOF panels

• Bioinformatics familiarity to analyze/understand large patient derived datasets either directly or via team members

• Immuno-Oncology experience to contribute to Mechanisms of Action and Resistance MOA/MOR evaluations as well as knowledge of emergent and current standards of care to help define rational combinations

• Leadership and management experience, including oversight of financial, IP and legal aspects

• Ability to effectively lead and collaborate in a dynamic, cross-functional matrixed environment

• Experience working with and overseeing partnerships with academic, industrial, governmental, and other non-governmental organization

• Outstanding communication skills (verbal and written)

• Ability to manage multiple projects in a fast-paced environment with aggressive timelines

• Respectful and inclusive attitude for your colleagues/team members, in addition to your exemplary collaborative nature, boldness, curiosity and relentlessness

Moderna is pleased to provide you and your family with a comprehensive and innovative suite of benefits, including:

• Highly competitive and inclusive medical, dental and vision coverage options
• Flexible Spending Accounts for medical expenses and dependent care expenses
• Lifestyle Spending Account funds to help you engage in personal enrichment and self-care activities
• Family care benefits, including subsidized back-up care options and on-demand tutoring
• Free premium access to fitness, nutrition, and mindfulness classes
• Exclusive preferred pricing on Peloton fitness equipment
• Adoption and family-planning benefits
• Dedicated care coordination support for our LGBTQ+ community
• Generous paid time off, including:
  Vacation, sick time and holidays
  Volunteer time to participate within your community
  Discretionary year-end shutdown
  Paid sabbatical after 5 years; every 3 years thereafter
• Generous Paid Leave offerings, including 18 weeks of 100% paid parental leave for all new parents
• 401k match and Financial Planning tools
• Moderna-paid Life, LTD and STD insurance coverages, as well as voluntary benefit options
• Complimentary concierge service including home services research, travel booking, and entertainment requests
• Free parking or subsidized commuter passes
• Location-specific perks and extras!

Candidates should be aware that Moderna currently maintains a policy requiring all US-based employees to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and receive a booster shot once eligible. Newly hired employees must be vaccinated and boosted prior to their employment start date. Moderna is an equal opportunity employer and will provide a reasonable accommodation to those unable to be vaccinated or receive a booster where it is not an undue hardship to the company to do so as provided under federal, state, and local law.

About Moderna

In over 10 years since its inception, Moderna has transformed from a research-stage company advancing programs in the field of messenger RNA (mRNA), to an enterprise with a diverse clinical portfolio of vaccines and therapeutics across seven modalities, a broad intellectual property portfolio in areas including mRNA and lipid nanoparticle formulation, and an integrated manufacturing plant that allows for rapid clinical and commercial production at scale. Moderna maintains alliances with a broad range of domestic and overseas government and commercial collaborators, which has allowed for the pursuit of both groundbreaking science and rapid scaling of manufacturing. Most recently, Moderna's capabilities have come together to allow the authorized use and approval of one of the earliest and most effective vaccines against the COVID-19 pandemic.

Moderna's mRNA platform builds on continuous advances in basic and applied mRNA science, delivery technology and manufacturing, and has allowed the development of therapeutics and vaccines for infectious diseases, immuno-oncology, rare diseases, cardiovascular diseases and autoimmune diseases. Moderna has been named a top biopharmaceutical employer by Science for the past seven years. To learn more, visit www.modernatx.com.

Moderna is a smoke-free, alcohol-free and drug-free work environment.

Moderna is committed to equal employment opportunity and non-discrimination for all employees and qualified applicants without regard to a persons race, color, gender, age, religion, national origin, ancestry, disability, veteran status, genetic information, sexual orientation or any characteristic protected under applicable law. Moderna will make reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with known disabilities, in accordance with applicable law.

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