We are the Indiana Biosciences Research Institute (IBRI). We are a leading translational research institute that advances academic and industry science through collaboration to improve patient health outcomes. Building your career at the IBRI in Indianapolis’ 16 Tech Innovation District, means being part of a team of renowned scientists, creative thinkers, and innovative leaders.

Today’s research is being driven by significant advances in our abilities to study complex disease processes and propose new ways to improve patients’ lives. To reflect the evolving nature of life sciences research and encourage synergies through collaboration, we’re enhancing our integrated capabilities, adding depth to how we approach patient-informed translational science and pursuing four foundational areas of scientific focus. These four areas will provide us the core talent and capability to pursue translational science in this new patient-centric framework:

• Diseases, Systems, Pathways – We’re working to better understand diabetes, cancer and neurodegeneration in new ways. We apply shared learning from common systems and pathways to combat these devastating diseases.
• Molecular Innovation – We’re developing new capabilities for molecular design and drug discovery to investigate disease processes and pursue new therapeutic approaches.
• Integrated Data Sciences – We’re pursuing advanced data sciences to create novel end-user inspired solutions that address complex analysis, simulation, and prediction across the translational sciences.
• Enabling Technologies – We’re building a rich platform of enabling technologies that give our scientists, partners, and collaborators access to the best tools to solve complex scientific problems.

The IBRI’s vision is to build a world-class organization of researchers, innovators and business professionals that catalyze activities across the Indiana (and beyond) life sciences community. To achieve that vision, we look for curious and collaborative team members who are energized by innovation, guided by integrity, and inspired by diversity.

The Opportunity:

We are seeking a Director of Scientific Project Management to develop and implement project management capabilities at the IBRI. You will provide project management support for a multi-institution academic drug discovery Center aimed at developing new medicines for Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The TREAT-AD Centers aim to identify and validate novel targets from the NIH Accelerating Medicines Partnership for AD (AMP-AD). The Centers develop Target Enabling Packages (TEPs) to explore novel therapeutic target hypotheses beyond amyloid. Following open science principles, data, methods, and tools are shared freely via the AD Knowledge Portal. 

The Indiana University School of Medicine-Purdue University TREAT-AD Center includes an Administrative Core and four technical cores: Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, Structural Biology and Biophysics, Assay Development and High Throughput Screening, and Medicinal Chemistry and Chemical Biology. The Core leaders collaborate to identify novel biological targets, assess their druggability, and enable the most promising for drug discovery campaigns. This leadership role within Administrative Core will have a wide range of responsibilities across the center focused on coordination, communication, data management, and relationship management of the portfolio. These responsibilities require a combination of broad scientific knowledge, strong project management skills, and relationship management abilities.

Key Responsibilities:

Scientific Project Management

• Establishing Capabilities: work with IBRI executive leadership, scientific leadership, and administrative teams to build project management capabilities across the TREAT-AD platform, ensuring effective management of the Center’s portfolio of projects.
• Managing a Portfolio of Projects: be responsible for arranging and leading meetings, facilitating discussions, and documenting and communicating results across the Center.
• Building Target Enablement Packages (TEPs): work with the TREAT-AD Core leaders to achieve target enablement milestones. TEPs are comprehensive collections of data, assays, and pharmacological tools that advance potential drug targets toward a Lead Development program. Support technical documentation, publications, and grant writing to effectively document, communicate, and capitalize on results.
• Achieving Milestones: work with the TREAT-AD Core leaders to ensure projects are progressing according to plan and that key milestones are achieved on schedule. Track portfolio progress, identifying and addressing any issues or delays, and adjusting plans, as necessary.
• Identifying New Opportunities: work with the TREAT-AD Core leaders to organize outreach initiatives including workshops and symposia. This includes identifying collaborators beyond the Center and additional funding to advance the Center's goals.

Operational Excellence 

• Leading a Team of Teams: be responsible for organizing and facilitating project teams to integrate the work of various technical cores, and project teams. Most importantly the Director of Scientific Project Management will be responsible for guiding the conversation to ensure each team's activities align with the Center’s objectives. This responsibility also requires understanding the scientific content discussed during meetings, interpreting data, and asking relevant questions. The Director of Scientific Project Management would also need to resolve any conflicts that might arise and ensure that all team members have a chance to contribute.

Relationship Management

• Contract Research Organizations (CROs): The Director may act as the primary point of contact with CROs working on behalf of the IBRI. This task requires excellent interpersonal skills, negotiation skills, and an understanding of contract management. The Director of Scientific Project Management may also need to monitor the CROs' performance and handle any issues that arise, ensuring that the quality of work meets the project's standards.

Job Requirements:

• PhD in neuropharmacology or related field PLUS minimum of 4 years of scientific project management experience.
• Previous experience working across matrixed organizations.
• Superior organizational skills.
• Experience with non-profit organizations preferred.
• Demonstrated independent judgement, good discretion, and decision-making skills.
• Must possess cultural awareness, strong relationship management skills and emotional intelligence.
• Extensive experience with MS Office suite, Teams, and Outlook.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.

 Equal Employment Opportunity:

The IBRI provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants and does not discriminate on the basis of age, race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, national origin, protected veteran status, disability or any other legally protected status.