Lead Scientist, Operational Excellence & Target Discovery

Novo Nordisk A/S; Oxford; Hybrid; GBP 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

Novo Nordisk A/S in Oxford is seeking a Principal Scientist, Operational Excellence to drive continuous improvement across TIM. You will optimise workflows, strengthen quality systems, and lead cross-functional improvement initiatives to enable scientists to focus on discovery while ensuring scalable, high-quality execution.

You will mentor colleagues, shape research strategy, and partner with external vendors to deliver interoperable data.

Qualifications

• PhD or Master’s degree in molecular biology, biochemistry, cell biology, or a related scientific discipline.
• Typically 7 to 10 years of pharmaceutical or biotechnology industry experience, with demonstrated expertise in operational excellence, experimental workflow optimization, and/or target identification and validation.
• Strong knowledge of experimental design and statistics, data interpretation, and quality systems, with the ability to ensure reliable, reproducible, and decision-grade scientific outputs.
• Proven ability to apply governance and compliance principles (e.g., documentation, traceability, control strategies) and to embed quality-by-design practices into day-to-day operations.
• Solid experience and demonstrated success in driving adoption of new ways of working, including leading change management activities, embedding standardized processes, and achieving sustained impact across scientific teams.
• Demonstrated capability to mentor and develop scientific colleagues, build effective cross-functional collaborations, and communicate complex scientific and operational concepts to multidisciplinary stakeholders.
• Experience working with external partners/vendors, including defining scientifically aligned requirements, assessing quality/performance, and enabling delivery of interoperable, interpretable, and traceable data outputs (FAIR practices preferred).

Responsibilities

• Lead operational excellence initiatives in In Vitro Science, standardising end-to-end workflows from experimental design to reporting, decision-making and target validation.
• Partner with scientific leads to improve and implement experimental approaches and enabling technologies that strengthen reproducibility, robustness and compliance with governance and quality expectations.
• Embed quality-by-design practices by defining performance metrics, success criteria, documentation standards and control strategies aligned with relevant policies and regulations.
• Assess outsourcing opportunities for data generation, aligning vendors and partners to scientific priorities, quality standards and outputs that are interoperable, interpretable and traceable to project progression.
• Build cross-functional and external collaborations with scientific leaders, operational stakeholders, academic groups, biotechnology partners and service providers to expand capabilities and accelerate discovery.
• Mentor scientists by sharing operational best practices, championing emerging technologies, and promoting FAIR data practices that increase target discovery impact.

Skills

Operational excellence

Stakeholder engagement

Structured problem solving

Scientific leadership

Mentorship

Education

PhD in molecular biology/biochemistry/cell biology

Master’s in related field

Job description

Novo Nordisk A/S in Oxford is seeking a Principal Scientist, Operational Excellence to drive continuous improvement across TIM. You will optimise workflows, strengthen quality systems, and lead cross-functional improvement initiatives to enable scientists to focus on discovery while ensuring scalable, high-quality execution.

You will mentor colleagues, shape research strategy, and partner with external vendors to deliver interoperable data.