Lead Scientist, Obesity Mechanisms & MoA

Novo Nordisk; Lexington (MA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 235,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, vision

Life insurance

401(k) savings plan

Tuition reimbursement

Employee assistance program

Disability insurance

Flexible spending accounts

Parental leave policy

Job summary

Novo Nordisk seeks a highly motivated Principal Scientist to join the Emerging Obesity Mechanisms team in the US Obesity Research Department. You will lead the obesity and cardiometabolic comorbidity portfolio from discovery through IND‑ready data packages and collaborate across sites and with external partners.

As a disease expert, you will drive target identification, MoA narratives, and governance reviews to accelerate first‑in‑human decisions.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree required; relevant post-graduate or industry experience.
• 22+ years of relevant experience required; MSc with 16+ yrs or PhD with 10+ yrs can be considered.
• Experience with small molecules and/or RNAi/siRNA modalities.
• Strong leadership, communication and stakeholder management preferred.
• Excellent verbal and written communication.

Responsibilities

• Serve as biology and disease-area expert for MASH and obesity-related comorbidities.
• Lead target identification, validation and maturation across modalities.
• Build MoA narrative and prepare data packages for governance and IND readiness.
• Provide cross-functional leadership across biology, pharmacology, omics, and Denmark-based teams.
• Cultivate external collaborations to source targets and de-risk mechanisms.
• Drive scientific communication through publications and conferences.
• Mentor junior scientists toward autonomy and leadership.
• Champion human-centric drug discovery using primary human cells and multi-omics models.
• Bring receptor-pharmacology MoA expertise to build translatable MoA datasets.

Skills

Leadership

Communication

Stakeholder management

MoA expertise

Education

Bachelor’s degree

Postgraduate/Industry experience

PhD

Job description

Novo Nordisk seeks a highly motivated Principal Scientist to join the Emerging Obesity Mechanisms team in the US Obesity Research Department. You will lead the obesity and cardiometabolic comorbidity portfolio from discovery through IND‑ready data packages and collaborate across sites and with external partners.

As a disease expert, you will drive target identification, MoA narratives, and governance reviews to accelerate first‑in‑human decisions.