The Next Wave team is responsible for advancing Scholar Rock’s portfolio of pipeline programs from translation to clinical proof-of concept. This role, reporting to the VP, Head of Program Leadership & Management, will ensure the Next Wave team urgently progresses future innovation with precision, alignment and cross-functional rigor. The position is designed for a high-accountability individual who partners seamlessly with the Program Leader and requires the professional range and horsepower to be the operational anchor for multiple development programs at different stages, while also serving as a strategic thought-partner to the Program Leader.
Operational Excellence & Team Effectiveness
- Operational Leadership: Operationalize the transitions that move medicines forward for the Next Wave team. You are responsible for the team’s day-to-day functionality, ensuring that cross-functional workflows are clear, dependencies are managed, and the "machinery" of the program runs without friction.
- Meeting Governance & Rigor: Own the architecture of Team interactions. This involves more than scheduling; you will drive the agenda to ensure decision-making, personally capture and disseminate critical actions, and relentlessly follow up to ensure completion.
- Information Flow: Facilitate clear, accurate communication across functions and sub-teams. You are responsible for ensuring that all functions are working from the same assumptions and that critical information—including sensitive or confidential updates—is shared with the right stakeholders at the right time.
- Proactive Risk Mitigation: Build and maintain integrated program plans that drive performance through critical path planning and identification of risks. Serve as the team’s early warning system for operational risks — particularly those in the "white space" between functions — and drive them to resolution before they impact the critical path.
Portfolio Execution & Planning
- Portfolio Ownership: Support the early pipeline beyond any single study. You will help the team and Program Lead manage the complexity of advancing multiple programs in the context of shared resources & infrastructure, ensuring focus on the critical path for each.
- Scenario Planning: Partner with the Program Leader to scope and tackle operational & strategic scenarios. You will provide the feasibility assessments and data required to evaluate trade-offs and make informed business decisions.
Candidate Requirements
- Education: MS or BS Degree in a Scientific or related field
- Experience: Minimum of 8 years of experience in pharmaceutical or biotechnology drug development, with specific experience leading teams through Ph1 and Ph2 clinical study start-up
- Pipeline Skillset: Must possess a strong knowledge of early-to-mid stage clinical development including regulatory milestones, clinical operation activities and CMC needs. The ideal candidate has experience across the drug lifecycle, from translation to Ph2 clinical trials, and understands how program needs evolve.
- Professional Orientation: A low-ego, high-output mindset. You prioritize team success over hierarchy and demonstrate a willingness to own tasks of all sizes—from strategic planning to administrative execution—to ensure the program succeeds.
- Discretion: Demonstrated ability to handle confidential and potentially material information with professional judgment and integrity.
- Technical Proficiency: Day-one ability to develop and implement project management best-practices utilizing project management tools (e.g., Smartsheet, MS Project)
Skills Required
- MS or BS Degree in a Scientific or related field
- Minimum of 8 years of experience in pharmaceutical or biotechnology drug development
- Experience leading teams through Phase 1 and Phase 2 clinical study start-up
- Strong knowledge of early-to-mid stage clinical development including regulatory milestones, clinical operations activities and CMC needs
- Experience across the drug lifecycle from translation to Phase 2 clinical trials
- Ability to handle confidential and potentially material information with professional judgment and integrity (discretion)
- Day-one ability to develop and implement project management best-practices using project management tools (e.g., Smartsheet, MS Project)
- Low-ego, high-output professional orientation; willingness to own tasks from strategic planning to administrative execution
What We Do
Scholar Rock is a biopharmaceutical company that discovers, develops, and delivers life-changing therapies for people with serious diseases that have high unmet need. As a global leader in the biology of the transforming growth factor beta (TGFβ) superfamily of cell proteins and named for the visual resemblance of a scholar rock to protein structures, the clinical-stage company is focused on advancing innovative treatments where protein growth factors are fundamental. Over the past decade, the company has created a pipeline with the potential to advance the standard of care for neuromuscular disease, cardiometabolic disorders, cancer, and other conditions where growth factor-targeted drugs can play a transformational role. Scholar Rock is the only company to show clinical proof of concept for a muscle-targeted treatment in spinal muscular atrophy (SMA). This commitment to unlocking fundamentally different therapeutic approaches is powered by broad application of a proprietary platform, which has developed novel monoclonal antibodies to modulate protein growth factors with extraordinary selectivity. By harnessing cutting-edge science in disease spaces that are historically under-addressed through traditional therapies, Scholar Rock works every day to create new possibilities for patients. Learn more about the company’s approach at ScholarRock.com and follow @ScholarRock and on LinkedIn. For additional information on our guidelines, please visit https://scholarrock.com/community-guidelines/ For more information on how Scholar Rock collects, uses, and shares personal information, please visit: https://scholarrock.com/privacy-policy
