Senior Director, Quantitative Systems Pharmacology

Join a Legacy of Innovation 110 Years and Counting!

Daiichi Sankyo Group is dedicated to the creation and supply of innovative pharmaceutical therapies to improve standards of care and address diversified, unmet medical needs of people globally by leveraging our world-class science and technology. With more than 120 years of scientific expertise and a presence in more than 20 countries, Daiichi Sankyo and its 16,000 employees around the world draw upon a rich legacy of innovation and a robust pipeline of promising new medicines to help people. In addition to a strong portfolio of medicines for cardiovascular diseases, under the Group’s 2025 Vision to become a “Global Pharma Innovator with Competitive Advantage in Oncology,” Daiichi Sankyo is primarily focused on providing novel therapies in oncology, as well as other research areas centered around rare diseases and immune disorders.

Job Summary:

The Senior Director, Quantitative Systems Pharmacology (QSP) will work within the Quantitative Clinical Pharmacology (QCP) group to develop and apply QSP models to aid in target prioritization, therapeutic modality selection, biomarker characterization and clinical trial design. In addition, he will develop a QSP strategy to address prioritization across the portfolio. This position requires extensive internal/external cross-functional collaboration to develop the QSP models and portfolio level strategy. This includes working with scientists in Research, Translational Science, Clinical Development, in addition to colleagues in QCP.

Responsibilities:

• Develop and apply Quantitative Systems Pharmacology (QSP) models to address drug-discovery and development questions

• Develop a QSP strategy to address prioritization across the portfolio

• Provide leadership to and collaboration with multidisciplinary project teams to develop and apply QSP models to aid in target prioritization, therapeutic modality selection, biomarker characterization and early clinical trial design

• Develop and rigorously assess the functionality, feasibility, efficiency and validity of new models

• Conduct extensive literature review to identify suitable mechanistic elements, interactions, rate constants and sub-modules for incorporation into systems (disease) models

• Contribute to the design, execution and interpretation of clinical studies.

• Partner with external groups to accelerate and supplement the internal QSP efforts in key disease indications

• Maintain effective collaboration with internal/external stakeholders across diverse functions to facilitate model development and application.

• Align QSP model deliverables with the Model-Based Drug Development (MBDD) plans

• Develop and align the disease area QSP strategy with key cross-functional stakeholders

• Utilize virtual population workflows and script-based analysis packages to generate clinically relevant hypotheses to inform clinical development programs

• Stay informed with emerging literature and science in the systems biology/pharmacology modeling and simulation sciences

• Build and maintain a personal track record of publication in the area of QSP

• Mentor and manage junior QSP scientists

Qualifications: Successful candidates will be able to meet the qualifications below with or without a reasonable accommodation.

Education:

• PhD Engineering, Mathematics, Bioinformatics, Pharmacometrics, Systems Biology/Pharmacology or a related field with a proven record of productivity as demonstrated by publications and conference presentations required

Experience:

• 10 or More Years Experience in industry/consulting developing and applying QSP/Systems Biology models required

• 7 or More Years Advanced understanding of theory, principles and statistical aspects of advanced mathematical modeling and simulation, including numerical methods, parameter estimation/optimization, ordinary differential equations (ODEs) and how these can be applied in the development of complex models of biological pathways/systems required

• 4 or More Years Experience with strategic application of QSP to address questions in Pharmaceutical R&D required

• 7 or More Years Expert knowledge of modeling software like Matlab/SimBiology and Julia required

• 4 or More Years Experience with general programming and data analysis tools/languages such as Python or R would be particularly desirable required

• 4 or More Years Contributions to the field of QSP and/or mechanistic modeling through manuscript publications or oral/poster presentations required

• 1 or More Years Experience training/mentoring junior scientists in QSP methods and application required

• 4 or More Years Experience as a modeling and simulation expert across clinical development teams with experts from different functional areas in Research and Development preferred

Travel:

• Ability to travel up to 5%

Daiichi Sankyo, Inc. is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer. Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, race, color, religion, national origin, disability, protected veteran status, age, or any other characteristic protected by law.