About Empress

Flagship Pioneering is a biotechnology company that invents and builds platform companies, each with the potential for multiple products that transform human health or sustainability. Since its launch in 2000, Flagship has originated and fostered more than 100 scientific ventures, resulting in more than $90 billion in aggregate value. Many of the companies Flagship has founded have addressed humanity’s most urgent challenges: vaccinating billions of people against COVID-19, curing intractable diseases, improving human health, preempting illness, and feeding the world by improving the resiliency and sustainability of agriculture. Flagship has been recognized twice on FORTUNE’s “Change the World” list, an annual ranking of companies that have made a positive social and environmental impact through activities that are part of their core business strategies, and has been twice named to Fast Company’s annual list of the World’s Most Innovative Companies. Learn more about Flagship at www.flagshippioneering.com.

Founded by Flagship Pioneering in 2020, Empress Therapeutics generates good medicines, fast, by starting with chemistry inside the human body. The Empress Chemilogics™ platform uses novel insights that connect the lines of code in DNA with drug-like chemistry made in the human body to create first- or best-in-class oral medicines for a broad range of diseases quickly, predictably, and cost-effectively.

About the Position

Empress Therapeutics is seeking an innovative Director of Cellular and In vitro Pharmacology. As a critical member of the Empress drug discovery and scientific leadership teams, you will guide efforts to profile candidate therapeutic compounds in cellular assays to identify the most promising compounds to progress. You will manage and develop a team responsible for characterizing and validating targets for small molecules of interest in the context of biochemical, cellular and ex vivo assays.

Core Responsibilities 

• Provide hands-on leadership, mentoring, and training for the Cellular and In vitro Pharmacology team in collaboration with immunology, genomics and broader Empress teams.
• Run small molecule drug discovery programs in collaboration with chemistry colleagues.
• Support target ID, characterization and validation for high priority compounds in biochemical and cellular systems, including cell lines and primary culture systems, combining small molecule and molecular genetic perturbation with a variety of read-outs including multi’omics.
• Collaborate with immunology, computational and genomics teams on design and interpretation of experiments to support progression of programs and ongoing development of platform.
• Drive optimal selection and best use of internal and external resources to enable timely collection and rigorous interpretation of critical data.

• Evaluate new biochemical and cellular screening and assay technologies and platforms as needed.
• Interface with scientific leadership team to help set goals, prioritize resources and communicate progress to internal and external stakeholders.

• Mentor and train new project leaders across Empress.

Qualifications and Skills

• PhD in pharmacology, cell biology, biotechnology, bioengineering, or a related field.
• 7 years of experience in mammalian cell biology or cell pharmacology or cellular immunology, in a biotechnology or pharmaceutical discovery environment.
• Experience driving biology on drug discovery programs, including demonstrated strength steering programs and initiatives through collection of critical data to enable timely decision making.
• Collaborative team builder and leader.
• Creativity, self-drive and an ability to thrive in a fast-paced, multidisciplinary biotech environment.

The preferred candidate will ideally also possess the following:

• Experience with target engagement assays in cells in context of immune, inflammatory and/or oncology models.
• Exposure to chemoproteomic methods for identification of proteins which bind to compounds of interest.
• Familiarity with CRISPRi, CRISPRa, RNAi and other molecular genetic perturbation techniques and their use in target identification and validation.
• Previous experience with automation and liquid handling in support of cellular assays.
• Strong data assessment, visualization and presentation skills.

What We’ll Offer You

• Comprehensive, competitive healthcare and dental coverage through Blue Cross Blue Shield, vision coverage through VSP, family leave, paid time off, 401k retirement plan, disability and life insurance, and fully covered parking/commuter benefits.
• A dynamic early-stage work environment and highly interdisciplinary, talented, and collaborative team.
• Opportunities to invent and discover.

At Flagship, we recognize there is no perfect candidate. If you have some of the experience listed above but not all, please apply anyway. Experience comes in many forms, skills are transferable, and passion goes a long way. We are dedicated to building diverse and inclusive teams and look forward to learning more about your unique background.

Recruitment & Staffing Agencies: Flagship Pioneering and its affiliated Flagship Lab companies (collectively, “FSP”) do not accept unsolicited resumes from any source other than candidates. The submission of unsolicited resumes by recruitment or staffing agencies to FSP or its employees is strictly prohibited unless contacted directly by Flagship Pioneering’s internal Talent Acquisition team. Any resume submitted by an agency in the absence of a signed agreement will automatically become the property of FSP, and FSP will not owe any referral or other fees with respect thereto.