Senior Director, PHAROS Program

RXinsider LTD.; Rockville (MD); Hybrid; USD 206,000 - 292,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Company-paid time off

Healthcare options

Retirement savings

Job summary

U.S. Pharmacopeial Convention (USP) seeks a Senior Director to lead the PHAROS program, integrating advanced sensing, AI/ML analytics, and multimodal data fusion. You will drive cross‑functional teams, partnerships, and prototype development from concept through field testing.

The role demands 12+ years in scientific/engineering leadership, with deep pharmaceutical and regulatory science experience and strong communication skills.

Qualifications

• 12+ years of relevant experience, including leadership of complex scientific, engineering, technology, or product development programs.
• At least five years of accountable program, product, or technical leadership experience with multiple workstreams and external partners.
• Experience in pharmaceutical science, analytical technologies, compendial science, or regulatory science.

Responsibilities

• Lead integrated PHAROS execution with milestones, resources, risks, and sponsor commitments to deliver a field-deployable prototype by year 4.5.
• Coordinate USP teams and external consortium partners to deliver an integrated program outcome.
• Develop PHAROS as a hardware-software-data system from requirements through prototype integration, verification, validation, and field testing.

Skills

Program leadership

Pharmaceutical science

AI/ML

Systems integration

Education

Bachelor's degree in relevant scientific, engineering, computing, or quantitative discipline

Job description

Description

The U.S. Pharmacopeial Convention (USP) is an independent scientific organization that collaborates with the world’s leading health and science experts to develop rigorous quality standards for medicines, dietary supplements, and food ingredients. At USP, we believe that scientific excellence is driven by a commitment to fairness, integrity, and global collaboration. This belief is embedded in our core value of Passion for Quality and is demonstrated through the contributions of more than 1,300 professionals across twenty global locations, working to strengthen the supply of safe, high-quality medicines worldwide.

At USP, we value inclusive scientific collaboration and recognize that attracting diverse expertise strengthens our ability to develop trusted public health standards. We foster an organizational culture that supports equitable access to mentorship, professional development, and leadership opportunities. Our partnerships, standards, and research reflect our belief that ensuring broad participation in scientific leadership results in stronger, more impactful outcomes for global health.

USP is proud to be an equal employment opportunity employer (EEOE) and is committed to ensuring fair, merit-based selection processes that enable the best scientific minds—regardless of background—to contribute to advancing public health solutions worldwide. We provide reasonable accommodations to individuals with disabilities and uphold policies that create an inclusive and collaborative work environment.

Brief Job Overview

Lead the development of the future of pharmaceutical product screening and help ensure counterfeit, substandard, and poor-quality medicines do not enter the United States. USP’s PHAROS Program (Pharmaceutical Holistic Authentication, Reference Intelligence, and Outcome Screening) is the answer to ARPA=H’s FASTPaSS initiative to develop and deploy rapid, through-package screening for all drugs entering the United States at the border. USP has assembled a winning coalition of organizations that include MIT Research Laboratory for Electronics, UCLA Samueli School of Engineering, Physical Sciences, Inc., the Martinos Center, LookIn, Inc., InforMetrix, Commonwealth Center for Advanced Manufacturing, National Association of Boards of Pharmacy, and STAQ Pharma.

The Senior Director, PHAROS Program will lead USP’s multidisciplinary initiative integrating advanced sensing, AI/ML-enabled analytics, multimodal data fusion, reference science, and physical product development. The role has end-to-end accountability for program execution across USP and consortium partners, including technical integration, partner coordination, prototype development, field testing, risk management, and sponsor commitments.

The successful candidate will combine strong program leadership and physical product/system development experience with technical depth in either Technical Area 1 (TA1) - Rapid, through-package sensing - or Technical Area 2 (TA2) - AI/ML-driven quality decision engine. Expertise in both technical areas is not required but would be welcome.

How will YOU create impact here at USP?

As part of our mission to advance scientific rigor and public health standards, you will play a vital role in increasing global access to high-quality medicines through public standards and related programs. USP prioritizes scientific integrity, regulatory excellence, and evidence-based decision-making to ensure health systems worldwide can rely on strong, tested, and globally relevant quality standards.

Additionally, USP’s People and Culture division, in partnership with the Equity Office, invests in leadership and workforce development to equip all employees with the skills to create high-performing, inclusive teams. This includes training in equitable management practices and tools to promote engaged, collaborative, and results-driven work environments.

Responsibilities

• Lead integrated PHAROS execution, including scope, milestones, deliverables, resources, dependencies, risks, and sponsor commitments to ensure the ultimate program deliverable is realized – a field-deployable prototype that meets all program requirements by the end of 4.5 years.
• With the dedicated support from the GHMS Program Delivery Team, coordinate USP teams, technical leaders, and external consortium partners to deliver an integrated program outcome.
• Lead development of PHAROS as a hardware-software-data system, from requirements and architecture through prototype integration, verification, validation, and field testing.
• Drive iterative design-build-test cycles and progression toward a reliable, usable, field-deployable solution.
• Establish effective program governance, decision-making, risk management, performance reviews, and partner accountability.
• Make and facilitate cross-program technical and programmatic tradeoffs while preserving the scientific leadership of the Co-Principal Investigators.
• Contribute technical expertise from either TA1—such as analytical science, spectroscopy, NMR, sensing, instrumentation, or pharmaceutical science—or TA2—such as AI/ML, chemometrics, signal processing, multimodal fusion, or digital decision systems.
• Apply systems thinking to evaluate evidence, challenge assumptions, manage technical interfaces, and resolve integration issues.
• Leverage USP’s standards, reference science, Expert Committees, industry relationships, and sample-access capabilities to strengthen PHAROS development and validation.
• Represent PHAROS with ARPA-H, consortium partners, industry and healthcare stakeholders, and USP leadership.

Who is USP Looking For?

The Successful Candidate Will Have a Demonstrated Understanding Of Our Mission, Commitment To Excellence Through Inclusive And Equitable Behaviors And Practices, Ability To Quickly Build Credibility With Stakeholders, Along With The Following Competencies And Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in relevant scientific, engineering, computing, or quantitative discipline, or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Minimum 12 years of relevant experience, including leadership of complex scientific, engineering, technology, or product-development programs.
• At least five years of accountable program, product, or technical leadership experience involving multiple workstreams, external partners, or matrixed teams.
• Experience in pharmaceutical science, analytical technologies, compendial science, or regulatory science.
• Technical depth in at least one PHAROS-relevant TA1 or TA2 discipline.
• Demonstrated ability to lead across organizational boundaries, make complex technical and programmatic tradeoffs, manage risk, and drive results.
• Strong executive, technical, written, and interpersonal communication skills.

Additional Desired Preferences

• Advanced degree in a relevant discipline.
• Demonstrated experience leading development or integration of a physical or digital-physical product/system, including prototype development, systems integration, verification/validation, and field or operational testing.
• Experience with advanced sensing/instrumentation, AI/ML, chemometrics, signal processing, or multimodal analytics.
• Experience with systems engineering, hardware/software integration, requirements management, human factors, or field-deployable technology.
• Experience leading multi-institutional industry, academic, government, healthcare, or nonprofit partnerships.
• Experience with federally sponsored advanced technology programs such as ARPA-H, DARPA, BARDA, FDA, or DoD.
• Experience transitioning prototypes toward operational products or sustained programs.

Supervisory Responsibilities

Provides direct and matrix leadership across PHAROS program resources, USP technical teams, TA1 and TA2 Co-PIs, consortium partner leads, and product-development/integration teams.

Benefits

USP provides the benefits to protect yourself and your family today and tomorrow. From company-paid time off and comprehensive healthcare options to retirement savings, you can have peace of mind that your personal and financial well-being is protected.

Compensation

Base Salary Range: USD $206,201.00 – $291,947.00 annually.

Target Annual Bonus: % Varies based on level of role.

Individual compensation packages are based on various factors unique to each candidate’s skill set, experience, qualifications, equity, and other job-related reasons.

Note: USP does not accept unsolicited resumes from 3rd party recruitment agencies and is not responsible for fees from recruiters or other agencies except under specific written agreement with USP.

Equal Opportunity Employer/Protected Veterans/Individuals with Disabilities

This employer is required to notify all applicants of their rights pursuant to federal employment laws.

For further information, please review the Know Your Rights (https://www.eeoc.gov/poster) notice from the Department of Labor.

Job Category Technical Programs

Job Type Full-Time