Senior Director, Autoimmune Translational Medicine Leader

Moderna Therapeutics; Cambridge (MA); On-site; USD 197,000 - 353,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Healthcare benefits

Well-being resources

Generous PTO

Job summary

Moderna seeks a senior translational medicine leader to drive strategy across autoimmune programs, integrating disease biology, pharmacology, biomarkers, and safety to enable decisive development decisions.

The role requires deep human immunology expertise, experience leading cross-program translational efforts, and a track record of mentoring scientific leaders in a fast-growing company.

Qualifications

• PhD, MD, MD/PhD, PharmD, or equivalent advanced degree in immunology, autoimmune disease, translational medicine, or a related discipline.
• Typically 10+ years of relevant scientific and drug-development experience following advanced training, with substantial biotechnology/pharmaceutical and/or human translational medicine experience.
• Demonstrated track record leading translational strategy for multiple clinical-stage immune-mediated or autoimmune programs.
• Broad and deep expertise in human immunology and autoimmune disease mechanisms, including strong command of adaptive and innate immunology, T-cell regulation, B-cell and autoantibody biology, antigen presentation, and inflammatory signaling.

Responsibilities

• Lead clinical-facing translational strategy for multiple programs and/or the most scientifically complex assets, integrating biology, mechanism, patient heterogeneity, pharmacology, biomarkers, safety, and outcomes.
• Define evidence required to establish mechanism confidence, therapeutic window, and translational uncertainties; develop focused evidence-generation plans.
• Shape portfolio strategy by establishing common frameworks for tolerance, immune reset, durability, relapse, and non-response; inform prioritization.
• Provide senior leadership in human translational immunology; establish state-of-the-art approaches to evaluate T-cell and B-cell biology, autoantibodies, innate immunity, and immune networks.
• Advance cross-program biomarker and translational technology strategy, including high-dimensional flow cytometry, immune monitoring, transcriptomics, proteomics, and tissue-based approaches.
• Partner with Clinical and Quantitative Pharmacology to integrate PK/PD and exposure-response frameworks linking dose to outcomes.
• Shape translational safety strategy by anticipating risks and integrating mechanistic monitoring into plans.
• Serve as senior translational voice in governance; defend recommendations on mechanism, population, dose, and PoC.
• Lead cross-program reverse translation to inform target selection and portfolio understanding of mRNA/LNP in autoimmune applications.
• Mentor Directors and scientists; lead cross-functional initiatives to elevate scientific quality and speed.
• Lead external scientific engagement, collaborations, and publication strategies.
• Additional duties as assigned.

Skills

Translational immunology

Strategic leadership

Mentoring

Executive communication

Education

PhD/MD/MD-PhD/PharmD or equivalent

Tools

Flow cytometry

Biomarker assays

Job description

Moderna seeks a senior translational medicine leader to drive strategy across autoimmune programs, integrating disease biology, pharmacology, biomarkers, and safety to enable decisive development decisions.

The role requires deep human immunology expertise, experience leading cross-program translational efforts, and a track record of mentoring scientific leaders in a fast-growing company.