Principal Scientist, Nonclinical Safety Lead

Johnson & Johnson Johnson & Johnson · Pharma · Spring House, PA +1

This role is for a Principal Scientist in Nonclinical Safety Lead at Johnson & Johnson, focusing on providing toxicology leadership for drug discovery and development projects. The role involves representing Nonclinical Safety (NCS) on project teams, developing nonclinical safety strategies, analyzing study results, and contributing to regulatory documents. The position requires a Master's degree in Toxicology or a related discipline and several years of industry experience in pre-clinical safety assessment.

What you'd actually do

  1. Represent NCS on global discovery and development project teams, serving as the single point of contact within NCS to the project team for toxicology expertise and guidance, and as the interface between the project team and senior management.
  2. Lead the team of nonclinical safety and Pharmacokinetic (PK) scientists (PSTS team) working on a project. Ensure the smooth transfer of necessary information to functional areas within PSTS in conjunction with the PSTS team.
  3. Collaborate with multi-disciplinary project teams to de-risk drug candidates and support clinical development. Provide input to the clinical protocols, informed consent forms, and monitoring based on nonclinical findings, target expression and target risk.
  4. Create target liability assessments and develop fit-for-purpose plans to screen for and manage potential liabilities of novel therapeutics.
  5. Develop nonclinical safety strategies for different modalities and/or routes of administration based on an integration of literature, regulatory guidance, and involvement with professional organizations to inform project advancement decisions.

Skills

Required

  • Master's degree in Toxicology, Pharmacology or a related discipline
  • 6 years of pharmaceutical/biotech industry experience in pre-clinical safety assessment supporting discovery/development (with Master's)
  • Broad understanding of the drug discovery/development process

Nice to have

  • Doctoral level degree (PhD, DVM, MD or equivalent) in Toxicology, Pharmacology or related discipline
  • 3 years of pharmaceutical/biotech industry experience in pre-clinical safety assessment supporting discovery/development (with Doctoral degree)
  • Experience with different therapeutic modalities (small molecules, peptides, antibodies, RNA-targeting, cell-based, gene therapy)
  • Experience representing toxicology/nonclinical safety on matrix project teams
  • Board certification (e.g. Diplomate of the American Board of Toxicology (DABT))