Company Description
Bicycle Therapeutics is a clinical-stage pharmaceutical company developing a novel class of medicines, referred to as Bicycle® molecules, for diseases that are underserved by existing therapeutics. Bicycle molecules are fully synthetic short peptides constrained with small molecule scaffolds to form two loops that stabilize their structural geometry. This constraint facilitates target binding with high affinity and selectivity, making Bicycle molecules attractive candidates for drug development. The company is evaluating zelenectide pevedotin (formerly BT8009), a Bicycle® Toxin Conjugate (BTC®) targeting Nectin-4, a well-validated tumor antigen; BT5528, a BTC molecule targeting EphA2, a historically undruggable target; and BT7480, a Bicycle Tumor-Targeted Immune Cell Agonist® (Bicycle TICA®) targeting Nectin-4 and agonizing CD137, in company-sponsored clinical trials. Additionally, the company is developing Bicycle® Radio Conjugates (BRC™) for radiopharmaceutical use and, through various partnerships, is exploring the use of Bicycle® technology to develop therapies for diseases beyond oncology.
Bicycle Therapeutics is headquartered in Cambridge, UK, with many key functions and members of its leadership team located in Cambridge, Mass.
Culture is key and all Bicycle employees actively embrace and role model our company values:
- We are Adventurous. We believe it's the way to deliver extraordinary results for our patients.
- We are Dedicated to our Mission. You can't change the world if you don't have determination
- We are One Team. We only succeed when we work together.
Job Description
We are seeking an experienced Research Project Leader (PL) to join the Bicycle Therapeutics team on a permanent, full-time basis. In this role you will provide leadership of projects spanning the drug discovery process from Lead ID to the selection of clinical Bicycle® Radio Conjugate (BRC™) candidate molecules.
In this leadership role, the Research Project Leader will lead a matrix team with accountability for defining, implementing, and overseeing the discovery strategy for Bicycle® molecules. Collaboration, influence and strong communication skills are critical to this position as the role requires working with various stakeholders across the Research organisation, obtaining and managing resources, and delivering evidence to support candidate discovery.
Key Responsibilities:
Leadership:
- Closely work with subject matter experts to develop a plan to deliver on the medicine vision for the potential drug candidate
- Lead the multidisciplinary matrix team to plan and execute the project
- Responsible for establishing the inflection points that enable data driven project decision-making
- Efficiently work with the project team to identify core risks and mitigation plans for to the delivery of the candidate molecule
- Define and execute the lead identification and lead optimization strategies for your projects
- Drive urgency across your project team(s) to deliver timely data-driven project recommendations
- Present project plans, progress, risks and issues to senior management and governance boards
Cultural Fit:
- Promote innovative approaches to problem solving, communicate ideas persuasively, decisively confront and resolve issues and work constructively under pressure.
- Excellent communication and people skills; collaborate effectively with stakeholders across functions to align on priorities and make sure that interdependencies are clear.
- Embrace rapid change and ambiguity, proactively identifying opportunities for improving ways of working within the program.
- Build strong relationships with internal and external stakeholders, fostering a collaborative and inclusive work environment.
- Communicate effectively with senior leadership in a clear, concise, and confident matter.
Qualifications
Essential:
- Educated in biological sciences field with extensive industrial experience
- Knowledge of the drug discovery and development process (preferably oncology)
- Project leadership experience delivering clinical candidates (preferably in the area of oncology)
- A demonstrable ability to influence in a highly matrixed environment
Desirable:
- Experience leading projects in the area of radiopharmaceuticals will be an advantage
- Proven ability to think and plan strategically, to lead and work with members of other functions within a matrix environment.
- Ability to integrate and lead a team of multi-discipline experts including chemistry, biology, DMPK, nonclinical toxicology, translational scientists, and others.
- Ability to identify resource gaps and secure appropriate resources to deliver on objectives
- Create and lead an empowered, motivated team where diversity of thought is encouraged.
- Experience of all phases of early drug discovery from Lead ID to candidate selection.
- Previous leadership of project(s) that have delivered candidates for clinical progression
Additional Information
- State-of-the-art campus environment with on campus restaurant and Montessori nursery
- Flexible working environment
- Competitive reward including annual company bonus
- Employee recognition schemes
- 28 days annual leave in addition to bank holidays + option to buy up to 5 additional days annually
- Employer contribution to pension (employee does not have to contribute)
- Life assurance cover 4x basic salary
- Private Medical Insurance, including optical and dental cover.
- Group income protection
- Employee assistance program
- Health Cash Plan
- Access to company subsidized gym membership.
- Eligibility for an option grant to subscribe to shares in Bicycle Therapeutics plc.
- Cycle to work scheme
Bicycle Therapeutics is committed to building a diverse workforce that is representative of the communities we serve. We recognize that diverse and inclusive teams build a stronger and more innovative company. Therefore, all qualified applicants will be considered for employment, and we do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, colour, gender, sexual orientation, age, disability status, marital status, or veteran status.
What We Do
We are Bicycle Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company. We didn’t wait for the next advance against cancer. We created it.
Based on groundbreaking work conceived in the laboratory of Sir Greg Winter with the help of Professor Christian Heinis, we are pioneering the development of bicyclic peptides, or Bicycles® – a novel class of versatile, chemically synthesized medicines. Bicycles are fully synthetic short peptides constrained to form two loops which stabilize their structural geometry. This constraint is designed to confer high affinity and selectivity, and the relatively large surface area presented by the molecule allows targets to be drugged that have historically been intractable to non-biological approaches. Bicycles represent a unique therapeutic class, combining the pharmacological properties normally associated with a biologic with the manufacturing and pharmacokinetic advantages of a small molecule, yet with no signs of immunogenicity observed to date.
Bicycles can be used as Bicycle conjugates to deliver toxin payloads and to precisely target local immune activation within tumors and as Bicycle T-cell modulators, which activate cytotoxic T-cells while circumventing the limitations of antibody and biologic therapies and better enabling combination therapy. Our lead product candidate, BT1718, is a Bicycle toxin conjugate currently being investigated in a Phase I/IIa open label dose escalation and expansion clinical trial sponsored by Cancer Research UK. BT1718 targets Membrane Type 1 Matrix Metalloproteinase (MT1-MMP), also known as MMP-14, which is highly expressed in many solid tumors.
Our strategic collaborations are based on the ability of Bicycles to address a wide variety of targets. Through collaborations with AstraZeneca, Oxurion, Innovate UK and the Dementia Discovery Fund, we work with companies that have deep therapeutic expertise outside of oncology to enable us to more efficiently develop novel medicines for patients.
