Principal Scientist - Cell Therapy Translational Research

At Bristol Myers Squibb, our employees often ask, “Who are you working for?”—a question that fuels collaboration, accountability, and urgency in our work. Our purpose-driven culture inspires us to discover, develop, and deliver innovative medicines to prevail over serious diseases. We offer uniquely interesting and meaningful work, opportunities for growth, and a supportive environment that values inclusion, wellbeing, flexibility, and comprehensive benefits. This is work that transforms the lives of patients, and the careers of those who do it.

The Cell Therapy Thematic Research Center is one of BMS’s differentiated research platforms delivering innovative therapies to patients. Our mission is to drive leadership in the use of cellular therapies to harness the power of the immune system in treating hematologic malignancies, solid cancers, and autoimmune disease. More specifically, our discovery and translational scientists are focused on developing next-generation, engineered cell-based therapies. The team is committed to discovering and developing transformative therapies that harness the power of the immune system to improve patient outcomes.

Position Summary

The candidate will join the Cellular Therapy Translational Research group in Seattle, WA and will support cell therapy development programs in autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. The successful candidate will be an experienced, self-motivated, and resourceful researcher responsible for driving and implementing translational development strategies and clinical biomarker plans for BMS cellular therapy clinical studies. The individual will work with contract research organizations, and internal and external collaborators, to design, execute, and interpret translationally focused experiments and analyses. Activities include biomarker identification, generation and analysis of data that support pharmacodynamic evaluation and mechanism of action in the clinical trial setting to inform development of cell therapy products, as well as contribute to relevant global regulatory submission activities to advance cellular therapeutics.

Position Responsibilities

In the role as a Principal Scientist within the Cell Therapy Translational Research team, the ideal candidate:

• Develop and implement end-to-end translational research strategies for cell therapy clinical trials
• Partner with biostatisticians and computational biologists to provide timely analysis and communication of data and present its context and impact
• Develop concepts and mechanism of action hypotheses identifying distinguishing characteristics of BMS cell therapy products alone or in combination with other therapies
• Maintain a deep understanding of biomarker assays including flow cytometry, transcriptomics, proteomics and the application and use of these technologies in the clinical trial setting
• Independently manage internal projects in cell therapy drug development
• Serve on internal cross functional project teams and committees as scientific functional lead
• Oversight and management of CROs and academic collaborators
• Communicate regularly and prepare and make presentations within the department, externally, and to internal governance committees as required.
• Contribute to the writing of investigator brochures, IND applications, clinical protocols, regulatory annual reports, and other regulatory documents when appropriate
• Support regulatory submissions and interactions, write/review translational sections for global regulatory response and queries

Experience

Basic Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s Degree

• 8+ years of academic and / or industry experience

Or

• Master’s Degree

• 6+ years of academic and / or industry experience

Or

• Ph.D. or equivalent advanced degree in the Life Sciences

• 4+ years of academic and / or industry experience

Preferred Qualifications:

• M.S. or Ph.D. in immunology, molecular and cellular biology, or relevant discipline
• M.S. with 10+ years or Ph.D with 5+ years of experience, preferably in the biotechnology or pharmaceutical industry setting, or demonstrated deep experience in immunology or cell therapy academic research
• Expertise in immunology or cellular biology is required, knowledge of fundamentals of autoimmune and inflammatory diseases is desirable
• Familiarity with and experience in the drug development process from IND filing to market authorization in an industry setting is desirable
• Expertise in developing and analyzing biomarkers for clinical trials
• Experience analyzing high content (eg, transcriptomic, proteomic) datasets
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, evidenced by strong ability to interact with and influence research scientists, project teams, outside collaborators and commercial vendors
• Detail-oriented with the ability to identify and implement creative solutions
• Ability to prioritize and manage time efficiently

#LI-Onsite

We hire for skills and capabilities, not just credentials – if this role excites you, but doesn’t perfectly match your resume, we encourage you to apply anyway.

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