Position Summary:

Orbital is seeking a Vice President of Translational Biology with expertise in immunology including vaccine, autoimmunity, and protein therapeutics. Reporting to the CSO, the candidate is expected to lead the areas of the company’s therapeutic efforts. The candidate will supervise, motivate, and grow the immunology and protein engineering groups. They are expected to lead, supervise, and analyze technical experiments, including but not limited to immunological, cell biology and protein assays.

We are looking for candidates who enjoy working in a team and can leverage the growth opportunities that an early-stage startup provides. This is an exceptional opportunity for someone who is excited about cell therapy development and pioneering scientific efforts.

Responsibilities:

• Work with the leadership team to provide strategy and vision as well as make decisions that establish objectives for the overall direction for our research.
• Innovate novel scientific projects/platforms for the company.
• Lead research work, including vaccine, immunology, and protein therapeutics/engineering.
• Develop key methods for identification of clinical biomarkers and correlatives including ensuring the appropriate collection, processing, and analysis of clinical samples.
• Motivate and grow research teams to achieve corporate objectives.
• Oversee the development of preclinical IND packages for portfolio products, including nonclinical study reports and regulatory documents.
• Work with the Clinical team to develop target candidate profile and design experiments that support clinical plans.
• Regularly present experimental findings to the leadership team and supervise the team members as they generate, record, and present data.
• Helps draft progress reports, summaries for patent applications and/or scientific publications and provide external representation at conferences.

Qualifications:

• Ph.D. in Immunology, Genetics, Bioengineering, or a related field.
• Must have 12 years of postdoctoral experience as well as 7 years within biotechnology/pharmaceutical, including experience performing immuno-oncology research.
• Broad scientific and technical expertise in immunology and immune-oncology, particularly CAR T cells approach.
• Scientific and technical expertise in cell and gene therapy would be a plus.
• Demonstrated ability to lead a team of experienced leaders.
• Experience with writing regulatory documents to support FIH studies.
• Takes accountability for actions and drives results.
• Strong interpersonal and presentation skills with good judgment and ability to communicate with a diverse range of individuals.