Sr Principal Scientist/Principal Scientist

Role Summary

Sr Principal/Principal Scientist in Discovery Toxicology (DT) within the Pharmaceutical Candidate Optimization (PCO) organization at Bristol Meyers Squibb. Responsible for identifying and addressing toxicology issues across discovery programs to inform on program advancement, lead optimization, and progression into development. Leverages computational toxicology tools and big data analytics to generate mechanistic insights and guide safety assessment decisions. Serves as a core discovery team member to provide actionable insights related to target and compound safety and other critical attributes of drug candidates.

Responsibilities

• Design, execute, interpret and report toxicology studies for evaluating potential toxicity of new drug targets, including new approach methodologies, within drug discovery and communicate results across multiple disciplines and governance bodies
• Perform multifaceted data analysis using specialized software, including analysis of large data sets and/or use of statistical programming to analyze large biological datasets, including transcriptomics and proteomics, for the investigation of mechanisms of toxicity
• Apply appropriate models and testing strategies to elucidate mechanisms of toxicity, assess human relevance, and design tools for proactive evaluation and prediction of liabilities
• Participate in drug discovery teams as a toxicology expert including communication of issues, experimental strategies for resolution and interpretation of results
• Discuss and enable transition of drug candidates into the BMS Development organization
• Contribute to the collective research expertise in DT including laboratory efforts to advance new tools and innovation in mechanistic toxicology research

Qualifications

• Required: PhD with 6+ years of academic / industry research experience in toxicology, or a closely related field
• Required: Experience with computational toxicology approaches (e.g., in silico modeling, predictive toxicology, cheminformatics) and/or large-scale data analysis, including machine learning, to translate findings into actionable safety insights
• Required: Proficiency in computational methods to identify and evaluate emerging trends and advise on their adoption for early toxicology risk assessment
• Required: Ability to generate thorough toxicology target liability assessments for proposed drug discovery targets, including suggested approaches and follow-up based on weight of evidence
• Required: Strong verbal and written communication skills; ability to work collaboratively with an enterprise mindset and patient-focused values
• Preferred: PhD with 6+ years of postdoctoral and pharmaceutical industry experience in drug discovery
• Preferred: Broad knowledge of toxicology with emphasis on molecular mechanisms of toxicity
• Preferred: Experience collaborating with computational teams and IT to develop innovative approaches
• Preferred: Practical experience with organoids, microphysiological systems or other new approach methodologies
• Preferred: Experience in systems pharmacology or metabolism-mediated toxicity
• Preferred: Skill set in design and implementation of mechanistic toxicology studies across in vivo, ex vivo and in vitro models; ability to design in vivo studies across species

Skills

• Toxicology study design and interpretation
• Computational toxicology and data analytics
• Machine learning and big data analysis in toxicology
• Cross-disciplinary collaboration
• Communication of complex scientific results

Education

• PhD in toxicology or a closely related field (required); postdoctoral/pharma experience preferred