The Executive Director of Cancer Vaccine Neoantigen Engineering will lead the molecular engineering and construction of a portfolio of cancer vaccines designed to generate broad, potent, and durable anti-tumor cellular immunity. The role will identify, prioritize, and engineer diverse tumor antigen classes and translate them into precision multi-antigen/epitope constructs optimized for T-cell breadth, clonal expansion, functional potency, and long-term immune surveillance.
The Executive Director will build deep capabilities to master the rules governing antigen processing, pMHC presentation, and TCR recognition, integrating genomic, transcriptomic, immunopeptidomic, structural, and TCR repertoire data to understand what makes an antigen naturally presented, immunologically visible, and capable of driving functional tumor-cell killing. These insights will establish predictive design principles for epitope selection and immunogen engineering. A major focus will be developing innovative antigen-cassette architectures that robustly induce cellular immunity. Designs will seek to balance immunodominance, coordinate CD8⁺ cytotoxicity with CD4⁺ T-cell help, minimize antigen escape, and maximize the magnitude, breadth, polyfunctionality, cytotoxicity and persistence of vaccine-induced T-cell responses.
The Executive Director will establish an integrated antigen-engineering engine connecting computational design with experimental validation and iterative optimization. Working across immunology, oncology, computational sciences, protein engineering, and translational sciences, the role will build differentiated capabilities and intellectual property in engineered immunogens, multi-antigen cassette architectures, immune-routing strategies, and sequence-design algorithms, creating a scalable platform for the predictive design of best-in-class cancer vaccines.
Accountabilities:
Establish a best-in-class epitope discovery, validation, and engineering pipeline
Optimize epitope sequence design and create a multi-antigen architectural design tool
Engineer antigen expression constructs that maximize T cell breadth, clonal expansion, and durability
Create differentiated intellectual property around epitope design and antigen construct architecture
Work with cross-disciplinary teams to guide iterative antigen design and preclinical evaluation
Establish strategic relationships across the organization and functions
Build group and expertise around the design of vaccine candidates taking into account target antigens and target indications
Create and foster effective relationships with senior and executive stakeholders in Research, Bioprocess Development, Clinical and Translational Medicine and Global Project Teams to ensure alignment across functions
Pioneer AI based strategies to accelerate the pace of innovation at all levels of research
Collaborate and guide the evaluation of novel business development opportunities
Communicate results internally and externally, as well as their associated risks, uncertainties and limitations
Define the training standards for junior colleagues in line with best practices and principles
Essentials
PhD or equivalent in bioinformatics, immunology, oncology, molecular biology, biochemistry or a related discipline with 10+ yrs industry experience
Proven experience developing vaccines to target different antigens in a variety of disease settings
Proven experience with generating multiple vaccine constructs and testing constructs to identify optimal design of vaccine candidates
Experience working in a cross-functional team to maximize expertise and accelerate success
Experience developing and implementing novel methods to support vaccine development
Experience supporting or leading interdisciplinary vaccine discovery or development programs
Proven experience leading and managing junior colleagues
Proven experience developing and controlling budgets
Excellent written and verbal communication, business analysis, and…