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Director, Precision Medicine Group Job

Employer
Merck
Location
Boston MA
Closing date
Oct 17, 2016

Job Details

Director, Precision Medicine Group-BIO004647

Description

Merck & Co., Inc. Kenilworth, N.J., U.S.A. known as Merck in the United States and Canada, is a global health care leader with a diversified portfolio of prescription medicines, vaccines and animal health products. Today, we are building a new kind of healthcare company – one that is ready to help create a healthier future for all of us.

Our ability to excel depends on the integrity, knowledge, imagination, skill, diversity and teamwork of an individual like you. To this end, we strive to create an environment of mutual respect, encouragement and teamwork. As part of our global team, you’ll have the opportunity to collaborate with talented and dedicated colleagues while developing and expanding your career.


We are currently recruiting for a key individual to contribute to Merck’s human genetics effort. This Director will perform both a critical strategic role, as well as hands-on role, in overseeing the scientific direction of programs involving precision medicine for target identification and validation.

This Boston-based position will report into the VP of Genetics and Pharmacogenomics. The qualified individual will be a recognized expert in field of statistical genetics, bioinformatics, or genetic epidemiology (with an emphasis on human genetics of complex traits) and have a strong understanding of functional interrogation of genetic findings, systems biology, and drug development. In addition to providing strategic and operational leadership, the incumbent will sit on the local site management team for Boston, lead a team of approximately 6 direct reports, and work closely with teams in discovery genetics (approximately 12 individuals) and functional biology (approximately 30 researchers). He/she will be expected to operate in a highly collaborative environment, partnering with peers on site (all therapeutic areas, pharmacology, chemistry, experimental medicine) and at other locations in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and emerging markets. This position will also require extensive interactions with external partners, including leaders in academia as well as other Pharma/biotech companies.

Specific responsibilities include:

- Participating as part of 8-person leadership team (including VP) in developing, and driving, the strategy to identify and prioritize programs entering the early pipeline across all therapeutic areas.
- Leading a team of ~6 individuals – including the hiring of new, outstanding scientists in statistical genetics, genetic epidemiology, and bioinformatics – responsible for applying these tools to target identification and validation rooted in human genetics.
- Managing a budget responsible for the application of human genetics to drive target identification and validation.
- Developing new external collaborations with academia and industry partners to leverage tools to exploit human genetics in order to discover new drug targets.
- Partnering with a dedicated team of geneticists and functional biologists to build biological packages in support of targets that emerge from human genetics.
- Engaging with internal peers in diverse areas – informatics, pharmacology, chemistry, therapeutic area biology, experimental medicine – to identify opportunities for drug development based on human genetic discoveries.
- Integrate diverse ‘omics / biological datasets with human genetic data to identify novel pathways for drug development across all therapeutic areas.
- Providing Genetics expertise to Boston site.
- Collaborating across functional areas and in a matrixed environment to develop integrated research plans, optimize resource allocation, and maximize efficiencies to best execute on programs.
- Participating in the Boston site leadership and coordination team including maintaining a high visibility on site and being regularly involved in site-wide management activities.
- Working closely with genetic discovery, functional biology, and clinical teams to design genetic studies, including writing and defending project approval documents
- Analyze and integrate large-scale genetic data sets, including next-generation sequencing (WGS, WES, RNA-Seq) and GWAS/RVAS data
- Working with other data analysts and experimentalists to identify genes and variants associated with human phenotypes in families with rare Mendelian traits, as well as individuals from the general population, or distinct population cohorts;
- Integrating genetic data with other ‘omics data sets to identify causal alleles, genes and pathways relevant to a wide-range of human diseases, particularly with respect to non-coding variants
- Use of interrogation tools including Mendelian randomization and PheWAS to evaluate potential genetic targets for drug discovery
- Identify dose-response-relationships between genetic perturbation of putative novel drug targets, and conducting comparative analysis of genetics with pharmacological perturbation;
- Written and verbal communication of study results to project team and the scientific community, including proposals for further experiments and publications in leading journals;
- In collaboration with strategic operations, manage a portfolio of projects to review and prioritize new and on-going projects

Qualifications

Education :

- MD or PhD required

Required:

- Demonstrated expertise in human statistical genetics, genetic epidemiology, or bioinformatics (peer reviewed publication, history of achievement, patents, etc.) with an appreciation of the role of human genetics for target identification and validation.
- Demonstrable leadership skills. Proven ability to create and work within high performance teams and/or matrix organization, strong influencing skills.
- Demonstrated ability to conduct research individually and collaboratively and prioritize work against departmental and company goals.
- Excellent oral and written communication skills, ability to establish and maintain productive cross-site and high caliber external collaborations.
- Proficiency to critically evaluate scientific and therapeutic proposals and adopt novel technologies to facilitate groundbreaking research.
- Proven track record in change management including ability to eliminate obstacles/barriers in order to implement change.
- Ability to create partnerships with key stakeholders.

Our employees are the key to our company’s success. We demonstrate our commitment to our employees by offering a competitive and valuable rewards program. Our Company’s benefits are designed to support the wide range of goals, needs and lifestyles of our employees, and many of the people that matter the most in their lives. If you need an accommodation for the application process please email us at staffingaadar@merck.com.

Search Firm Representatives Please Read Carefully:

Merck & Co., Inc. is not accepting unsolicited assistance from search firms for this employment opportunity. Please, no phone calls or emails. All resumes submitted by search firms to any employee at Merck via email, the Internet or in any form and/or method without a valid written search agreement in place for this position will be deemed the sole property of Merck. No fee will be paid in the event the candidate is hired by Merck as a result of the referral or through other means.

For more information about personal rights under Equal Employment Opportunity, visit:

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Merck is an equal opportunity employer, Minority/Female/Disability/Veteran – proudly embracing diversity in all of its manifestations.


Job: Biology-Discovery

Job Title:Dir, Biology-Discovery

Primary Location: NA-US-MA-Boston

Employee Status: Regular

Travel: Yes, 20 % of the Time

Number of Openings: 1

Shift (if applicable): 1st

Company Trade Name:Merck

Company

Our vision is to make a difference in the lives of people globally through our innovative medicines, vaccines, biologic therapies, consumer health and animal products. We aspire to be the best healthcare company in the world and are dedicated to providing leading innovations and solutions for tomorrow.

We have made it our mission to provide innovative, distinctive products and services that save and improve lives, satisfy customer needs and to be recognized as a great place to work

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