Principal Scientist - Global Drug Discovery

About the Department
Our Research & Development organization brings together the best minds in life science innovation. The teams located in facilities in Lexington, Watertown, Cambridge and Seattle reflect the full R&D continuum, from early research through late-stage clinical development. Here, we are building for the future, creating a distinct R&D community based on collaboration, partnerships, and cutting-edge research across multiple modalities and therapeutic areas. We recognize that improving human health starts here and that patients rely on us. Our R&D hub merges biotech speed and agility with large pharmaceutical company quality, resources, and stability, uniting the best of both worlds to develop new medicines for patients.
The Position
Global Drug Discovery (GDD) is engaged in accelerating the path of novel cardiometabolic therapies for clinical development within Novo Nordisk. A main focus is discovery and evaluation of novel targets that can modulate cardiometabolic disease and advance the projects to deliver to the Novo Nordisk pipeline. The therapeutic area (TA) teams collaborate closely with the teams in GDD and Novo Nordisk sites around the globe. The TA will drive a high level of scientific innovation in the scientific and therapy area of diabetes and obesity to assure the key and scientific topics and areas are being pursued to support Novo Nordisk's Global Drug Discovery (GDD) aspirations.
The Principal Scientist will, through external innovation, provide scientific leadership in the identification and validation of new drug targets, advancing novel therapies and developing technologies to accelerate drug research. This will be achieved by functioning as a subject matter expert that provides strategic guidance to both internal and external project teams.
This position has responsibility for managing one external project independently and assisting more experienced team members with their projects, as well as providing scientific input as a disease-area expert.
Physical Requirements
10% overnight travel
Relationships
Reports to the Senior Director in Metabolic Research, Diabetes, Obesity and MASH Therapeutic Area, Global Drug Discovery at Novo Nordisk based in Lexington, MA. Internal relationships include working with research employees, project managers, as well as colleagues across therapeutic areas. External relationships include collaborations, partnerships, and academic collaborators.
Essential Functions

• Assume project oversight roles on drug programs run in external alliances and arising from external discovery efforts.
• Conduct due diligence and ensure scientific drive and value generation of external collaborations, in support of the strategy of the therapeutic area.
• Contribute subject matter expertise to develop the external research agenda
• Maintain a deep understanding of theoretical knowledge and a connection to the external scientific community across Diabetes and Obesity fields
• Drives key external collaborations independently with organizational impact
• Share responsibility for target progression and external pipeline support across GDD
• Apply and integrate new technology, including AI & ML capabilities
• Challenge the scientific rationale, hypothesis and result interpretation of ongoing projects
• Communicate the scientific strategy effectively to the key members of research committees, peers as well as key collaborators.

Qualifications

• A PhD in relevant field is required.
• Minimum of 10+ years' relevant experience in early drug discovery, including target discovery and validation in Obesity and Diabetes.
• Demonstrated experience in providing technical & strategic understanding in Obesity and Diabetes
• Demonstrated experience in working in close collaboration with in vivo and in vitro teams.
• Strong project management experience and drug discovery skills to drive projects.
• Experience in driving innovation through the application of state-of-the-art tools and technologies.
• Demonstrates excellent verbal and written communication skills.
• High level of personal integrity and confidentiality.
• Excellent in establishing trustful relationships, and cross-cultural understanding to manage diverse stakeholders.
• Good collaboration and negotiation skills. A strong team player that brings people along through a supportive, engaged, and creative way of working.
• Flexibility, resiliency, and the ability to work in a fast-paced, team-oriented environment are required.

We commit to an inclusive recruitment process and equality of opportunity for all our job applicants.
At Novo Nordisk we recognize that it is no longer good enough to aspire to be the best company in the world. We need to aspire to be the best company for the world and we know that this is only possible with talented employees with diverse perspectives, backgrounds and cultures. We are therefore committed to creating an inclusive culture that celebrates the diversity of our employees, the patients we serve and communities we operate in. Together, we're life changing.
Novo Nordisk is an equal opportunity employer. Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, ethnicity, color, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, protected veteran status or any other characteristic protected by local, state or federal laws, rules or regulations.
If you are interested in applying to Novo Nordisk and need special assistance or an accommodation to apply, please call us at 1-855-411-5290. This contact is for accommodation requests only and cannot be used to inquire about the status of applications.