What are the responsibilities and job description for the Director / Senior Director, Antibody Therapeutics position at Aclaris Therapeutics, Inc.?
Description
The Director / Senior Director, Antibody Therapeutics will provide scientific, strategic, and organizational leadership for antibody-based therapeutic programs from discovery through IND-enabling development and early clinical translation. This position requires deep expertise in antibody biology, immunology, translational pharmacology, regulatory strategy, and cross-functional program execution. The successful candidate will be responsible for defining program strategy, leading scientific teams, guiding IND-enabling activities, and partnering with internal and external stakeholders to advance high-quality biologics candidates toward clinical development.
What You'll Do
Requirements
What You Bring
Work Environment
The Director / Senior Director, Antibody Therapeutics will provide scientific, strategic, and organizational leadership for antibody-based therapeutic programs from discovery through IND-enabling development and early clinical translation. This position requires deep expertise in antibody biology, immunology, translational pharmacology, regulatory strategy, and cross-functional program execution. The successful candidate will be responsible for defining program strategy, leading scientific teams, guiding IND-enabling activities, and partnering with internal and external stakeholders to advance high-quality biologics candidates toward clinical development.
What You'll Do
- Provide scientific and strategic leadership for antibody and engineered biologics programs in immunology, inflammation, and related immune-mediated diseases.
- Define testing cascades, and candidate-selection criteria.
- Oversee antibody characterization, functional assays, and related analytical approaches to support program decisions.
- Design and guide IND-enabling plans, including pharmacology, PK/PD, regulatory documentation, and supporting technical inputs.
- Lead stage-gate decision making, risk assessment, and go/no-go recommendations based on scientific, translational, regulatory, and technical evidence.
- Recruit, lead, mentor, and develop high-performing scientific teams while establishing clear priorities, accountability, and development expectations.
- Lead cross-functional program teams and coordinate internal and external activities across discovery, pharmacology, toxicology, regulatory, clinical, intellectual property, business development, and technical operations.
- Manage CROs, consultants, academic collaborators, budgets, timelines, scopes of work, and milestone-driven execution plans.
- Communicate program objectives, risks, decisions, and recommendations to executive leadership, collaborators, and external partners.
Requirements
What You Bring
- PhD in immunology, molecular biology, biochemistry, pharmacology, or a related life-science discipline.
- Minimum of 12 years of biotechnology or pharmaceutical industry experience, with significant leadership responsibility in antibody therapeutics or engineered biologics.
- Demonstrated experience advancing antibody-based programs from discovery toward IND-enabling or early clinical development.
- Deep expertise in immunology, antibody mechanism of action, translational pharmacology, and relevant antibody characterization methods.
- Proven ability to lead scientific teams, mentor scientists, manage CROs, and coordinate cross-functional work in a matrixed environment.
- Experience contributing to regulatory submissions, briefing documents, IND-enabling reports, or equivalent development documentation.
- Self-starter and strategic thinker with demonstrated ability to drive innovation and address high-impact project issues.
- Team oriented, highly motivated, execution focused, and able to communicate complex scientific concepts to internal and external stakeholders.
Work Environment
- Laboratory and casual office setting.