Senior/Executive Director, Reverse Translation, Oncology Translational Research

At Johnson & Johnson, we believe health is everything. Our strength in healthcare innovation empowers us to build a world where complex diseases are prevented, treated, and cured, where treatments are smarter and less invasive, and solutions are personal. Through our expertise in Innovative Medicine and MedTech, we are uniquely positioned to innovate across the full spectrum of healthcare solutions today to deliver the breakthroughs of tomorrow, and profoundly impact health for humanity. Learn more at jnj.com

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About Innovative Medicine

Our expertise in Innovative Medicine is informed and inspired by patients, whose insights fuel our science-based advancements. Visionaries like you work on teams that save lives by developing the medicines of tomorrow.

Join us in developing treatments, finding cures, and pioneering the path from lab to life while championing patients every step of the way.

Learn more at https://www.jnj.com/innovative-medicine

About Oncology

Our expertise in Innovative Medicine is informed and inspired by patients, whose insights fuel our science-based advancements. Visionaries like you work on teams that save lives by developing the medicines of tomorrow.

Our Oncology team is focused on the elimination of cancer by discovering new pathways and modalities to finding treatments and cures. We lead where medicine is going and need innovators with an unwavering commitment to results.

Join us in developing treatments, finding cures, and pioneering the path from lab to life while championing patients every step of the way.

We are searching for the best talent for an Senior/Executive Director, Reverse Translation (Oncology Translational Research) position in Spring House, PA, Cambridge, MA or San Diego, CA.

This is a cross-functional leadership role with scope across the entire oncology therapeutic area. The leader runs a laboratory-based reverse-translation group within Translational Research — a talented and highly interactive translational group — built in alignment with Discovery, and consolidates bench scientists currently spread across disease-area programs into a single team. This leader is a member of the Core SLT for Translational Research.

The role carries two mandates. First, it independently leads and is resourced to pursue key mechanistic questions across the TA, developing those insights into hypotheses that inform ongoing programs and the pipeline. Second, it responds to active scientific-support questions from the disease-area TR leads — working their mechanism, resistance, and combination questions in the laboratory. The common thread is working backward from clinical observations to biology, in close collaboration with Discovery and with Clinical, Medical Affairs, and Commercial partners.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead independent studies on high-priority mechanistic questions that cut across the TA, with the mandate and resources to pursue them.
• Prioritize across three question types: disease-focused/cross-MOA, MOA-focused/cross-disease, and shelved programs mined for learnings that inform live assets.
• Develop findings into next-generation hypotheses and combination strategies that feed pipeline growth with Discovery.
• Take in and prioritize active mechanistic questions from the disease-area TR leads across all solid and heme indications.
• Lead laboratory-based research to address why programs work, why they fail, and how resistance develops — returning usable answers on a defined clock.
• Design and test combination strategies that potentiate benefit and break resistance.
• Build and run the lab; consolidate DAS-program scientists under one leader, and structure resources to support deep expertise on the different key anticancer MOAs.
• Own the platform — omics, functional/perturbation biology, and in vitro/in vivo and organoid models — for mechanistic characterization of drugs and TR samples.
• There may be opportunity to grow the team strategically as the mandate expands.
• Serve as a member of the Core SLT for Translational Research, contributing to org-wide scientific strategy and priorities.
• Serve as the scientific link between reverse translation and Discovery, with scope jointly defined with Discovery leadership; may be heavily involved in early-development and Discovery governance meetings.
• Align closely with Medical Affairs and Commercial to connect mechanistic insight to lifecycle and portfolio priorities.
• Drive mechanism-driven, TR-led publications, including the Mechanism Series.
• Mentor scientists and build a culture of rigor and candid scientific debate.
• Measure the group by impact on program and portfolio decisions, not activity.

Qualifications

Required

• PhD, MD, or MD/PhD in cancer biology, molecular biology, immunology, pharmacology, or related.
• 10+ years (Sr Director) / 12+ years (Exec Director) in oncology discovery or translational research, including hands-on lab leadership.
• Broad MOA/MOR expertise and a track record turning clinical observations into testable lab hypotheses.
• Built and led wet-lab teams and run omics and functional-characterization platforms.
• Effective at the Discovery–TR interface in a matrix, across multiple disease areas.
• Strong publication record (first/last author) and clear scientific communication.

Preferred

• Command of multiomics, perturbation biology, organoid models, and computational data integration.
• Experience mining shelved programs for portfolio-relevant learnings.
• Track record designing combination and resistance-reversal strategies across modalities.
• Experience partnering with Medical Affairs and Commercial on lifecycle-relevant science.

Subject to the terms of their respective plans, employees are eligible to participate in the Company’s consolidated retirement plan (pension) and savings plan (401(k)).

This position is eligible to participate in the Company’s long-term incentive program.

Subject to the terms of their respective policies and date of hire, employees are eligible for the following time off benefits:

• Vacation –120 hours per calendar year
• Sick time - 40 hours per calendar year; for employees who reside in the State of Colorado –48 hours per calendar year; for employees who reside in the State of Washington –56 hours per calendar year
• Holiday pay, including Floating Holidays –13 days per calendar year
• Work, Personal and Family Time - up to 40 hours per calendar year
• Parental Leave – 480 hours within one year of the birth/adoption/foster care of a child
• Bereavement Leave – 240 hours for an immediate family member: 40 hours for an extended family member per calendar year
• Caregiver Leave – 80 hours in a 52-week rolling period10 days
• Volunteer Leave – 32 hours per calendar year
• Military Spouse Time-Off – 80 hours per calendar year

For additional general information on Company benefits, please go to: - https://www.careers.jnj.com/employee-benefits

Johnson & Johnson is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, national origin, disability, protected veteran status or other characteristics protected by federal, state or local law. We actively seek qualified candidates who are protected veterans and individuals with disabilities as defined under VEVRAA and Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act. 

Johnson & Johnson is committed to providing an interview process that is inclusive of our applicants’ needs. If you are an individual with a disability and would like to request an accommodation, external applicants please contact us via https://www.jnj.com/contact-us/careers , internal employees contact AskGS to be directed to your accommodation resource.

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