Director Science & Technology Scientific Office DS

Job Description Summary

Job Description

Key Responsibilities

• Provide early scientific and technical input to research teamsoffering leadership and guidance on candidate selection raising safety efficacy and developability concerns and ensuring research decisions account for development needs to reduce risk and delays prior handover to development.

• Enable portfolio oversight and cross-project knowledge flow by connecting learnings identifying platform-level issues and facilitating scientific exchange across projects and functions (drug substance drug product and analytical development).

• Apply structured scientific thinking to critical technical questions (including root-cause analyses); define options and trade-offs and provide clear recommendations to drive timely conclusions.

• Strengthen governance and decision-making at key development gates by applying scientific rigor enterprise thinking and a holistic portfolio perspective.

• Influence across Novartis and across sites to align diverse stakeholders (e.g. research development technical operations regulatory quality) and enable execution of the agreed scientific strategy.

• Coach and mentor teams and individuals by sharing experience and best practices helping them build scientific capability and embed a consultative collaborative way of working.

• Enable innovation for novel and complex modalities (e.g. conjugates/AOCs bispecific antibodies therapeutic proteins) by initiating early scientific exchange benchmarking external advances and translating insights into actionable guidance.

• Assess escalate and communicate critical risks with urgency proposing mitigations and driving alignment while upholding scientific rigor and balanced judgment to influence outcomes and support implementation.

• Partner with SMEs to capture prior knowledge in referenceable documents that support risk assessments and improve the quality of regulatory submissions.

• Ensure that upcoming new formats or technology platforms from research are established timely in development to be ready for transfer and scaling of the technologies

What Youll Bring to the Role

• Advanced degree (PhD preferred) in a relevant scientific discipline (e.g. biochemistry chemistry bioengineering pharmaceutical sciences) with strong scientific credibility.

• Extensive experience (15 years desirable) across the full development spectrumfrom early researchoriginated projects to late developmentenabling endtoend thinking and riskbased guidance.

• Cross-disciplinary breadth with deep expertise in at least one area; ability to connect analytical drug substance and drug product considerations.

• Strong internal and external network with demonstrated ability to influence across a complex matrix with resilience and perseverance.

• Excellent communication facilitation and stakeholder management skills; able to coach and mentor across levels and functions.

• Sound judgment and a strong sense of urgency for critical risks; able to escalate appropriately and drive balanced mitigations.

• Fluent English (written and spoken).

Desirable Requirements

• Experience with biologics cell and gene therapies (CGT) and/or complex modalities (e.g. conjugates/AOCs) with ability to translate innovation into practical development choices.

• Demonstrated ability to drive execution through othersmoving from recommendation to implementation in a matrix organization.

• Comfort working across multiple projects and competing priorities with a consultative mindset and a focus on scientific rigor and quality.

• The position may be appointed at either the Director or Associate Director level depending on the candidates experience and seniority.

Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion: Novartis is committed to building an outstanding inclusive work environment and diverse teams representative of the patients and communities we serve.

Accessibility and accommodation
Novartis is committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodation to all individuals. If because of a medical condition or disability you need a reasonable accommodation for any part of the recruitment process or in order to receive more detailed information about the essential functions of a position please send an e-mail to and let us know the nature of your request and your contact information. Please include the job requisition number in your message.

In accordance with Austrian law we are obliged to disclose the minimum salary as stated in the collective bargaining agreement. For this position the minimum salary is 85704.64 EUR/year (on a full time basis). The actual salary will be significantly higher as we strive to maintain a competitive position in the market and consider your previous experience qualifications and individual competencies

Skills Desired