Principal Scientist, Retinal Degeneration

Role Summary

Principal Scientist, Retinal Degeneration leads preclinical drug discovery programs for blinding retinal diseases, including age-related macular degeneration and glaucoma. Based in Cambridge, MA, you will apply innovative experimental approaches and advanced disease models to validate neuroprotective therapeutic strategies and identify promising drug candidates. You will collaborate in matrixed, cross-functional teams to generate high-quality data packages to nominate and advance candidates toward clinical development. This role helps shape the future of ophthalmology therapeutics and bring transformative vision-preserving treatments to patients around the world.

Responsibilities

• Apply scientific expertise and judgement to initiate, design, direct, and execute research studies to translate new targets from discovery to therapeutic disease programs and preclinical development
• Work independently, proactively and be an impactful contributor and leader of research projects and pipeline programs in a matrixed team environment to achieve go/no-go decisions
• Design, conduct, and direct in vitro mechanism-of-action, proof-of-concept, and biomarker studies to validate targets and evaluate neuroprotective therapeutic strategies
• Collaborate cross-functionally to screen preclinical candidates of diverse modalities using target- and disease-relevant functional readouts that inform on pharmacology and efficacy
• Actively contribute to interdisciplinary research programs in a highly collaborative manner across internal groups and with external partners
• Prepare high-quality analyses, interpretation, documentation, and presentations to support project milestones, publications, patent filings, and regulatory (IND/CTA) filings
• Present project data packages at governance meetings
• Grow a reputation in the internal and external scientific community through high impact publications, productive scientific collaborations and active participation in conferences

Qualifications

• Required: Earned Ph.D. or equivalent degree in cell biology, neuroscience, or other relevant scientific discipline, and 5+ years of research experience in biopharmaceutical or academic setting
• Required: Demonstrated experience (1 year or more ideally) in drug development at a biopharmaceutical company
• Required: Experience evaluating and validating new therapeutic targets required, preferably for retinal or neurodegenerative diseases
• Required: Extensive cell culture experience, including work with primary cells, iPSC-derived cells, or 3D in vitro models
• Required: Comprehensive experience with a broad range of molecular, cellular, and biochemical methods, assay development, and in vitro disease modeling
• Required: Experience preparing high-quality documents including experimental protocols, SOPs, technical reports, and presentations
• Required: Track record of significant contributions to research projects and scientific publications
• Preferred: Experience in retinal disease and degeneration or neurodegeneration research strongly preferred
• Preferred: Experience using computational approaches (e.g., R, Python) to analyze data strongly preferred
• Preferred: Program leadership experience in an industry setting
• Preferred: Experience authoring regulatory documents to support IND or CTA applications with agencies like the FDA and EMA
• Preferred: Experience managing studies at CROs
• Preferred: Familiarity with wide range of therapeutic modalities including biologics, small molecules, and/or genomic medicines
• Preferred: Experience in high-throughput assay development and using automated screening platforms and robotics
• Preferred: Experience with animal models of retinal disease and degeneration

Skills

• Ability to weigh and integrate information from a broad range of stakeholders with diverse backgrounds
• Ability to capture and translate complex data, concepts, and information into clear, well-articulated messages to guide and drive decision-making
• Ability to multi-task and adapt to rapidly changing priorities and deadlines
• Excellent critical thinking, analytical, and problem-solving skills
• Excellent written and oral communication skills, with the ability to communicate effectively in a multidisciplinary team as well as to senior leadership
• Strong interpersonal skills, with the ability to build excellent working relationships and mentor cross-functional team members
• Resourceful and proactive in managing cross-functional research project plans to achieve objectives and forecast resource requirements
• Exceptional organizational and time-management skills, lab notebook practices, and attention to detail

Education

• Ph.D. or equivalent degree in cell biology, neuroscience, or other relevant scientific discipline