The Role
Building on the success of our mRNA platform in infectious diseases and the growing clinical evidence in oncology, Moderna is expanding into autoimmune diseases. We are seeking a Senior Director of New Product Planning to shape the strategy for our autoimmune programs and help translate our platform into medicines for patients.
The Senior Director will shape product and development strategy across the autoimmune portfolio. They will connect each program’s mechanism of action with disease biology to identify where it could deliver meaningful clinical benefit and change treatment decisions. They will translate that opportunity into target product profiles, indication and development choices, and recommendations on how programs and opportunities should be prioritized across the portfolio. Working with program leaders and colleagues across Research, Development, Commercial, and Manufacturing, they will lead strategic discussions from discovery through clinical proof of concept.
The successful candidate will bring a deep understanding of autoimmune disease biology and the ability to independently evaluate mechanisms and clinical evidence. They will bring a systems-thinking approach, connecting scientific evidence with patient populations, treatment decisions, regulatory requirements, and evolving market and competitive dynamics to shape program and portfolio strategy. They will provide an independent perspective in areas of uncertainty and present recommendations to senior leaders on which opportunities to advance and where to focus investment and resources before development and commercial paths are fully defined.
Here’s What You’ll Do
Scientific and disease understanding
Develop a deep understanding of Moderna’s platform and its application to autoimmune diseases.
Develop a deep, independent understanding of autoimmune disease biology, patient heterogeneity, and biomarkers, and assess how each program’s mechanism of action could affect the disease.
Assess clinical, translational, and biomarker evidence and develop a detailed understanding of diagnosis, disease progression, and clinical endpoints.
Engage directly with scientific evidence and external experts to evaluate competing hypotheses and identify unresolved biological questions.
Market and competitive understanding
Understand how patients move from diagnosis and referral through treatment selection, assessment, switching, and discontinuation. Identify who makes each decision and how clinical evidence, physician judgment, patient preferences, and access shape those choices, including unmet needs within current standards of care.
Evaluate approved therapies, emerging mechanisms, and competitor programs, including their clinical evidence, development timelines, and potential strengths and limitations.
Develop scenarios for how standards of care and treatment pathways may evolve, including changes in treatment sequencing and the requirements for future differentiation.
Use direct conversations with KOLs, treating physicians, and other internal and external experts, together with scientific and market evidence, to test program assumptions and resolve questions that affect development choices.
Product and development strategy
Lead a disciplined strategy process with program teams: frame the choices, identify the information needed, structure debate around alternatives and tradeoffs, and make the logic for program decisions explicit.
Apply a biotech investment mindset to program development, identifying the most efficient path to reduce key risks and reach proof of concept. Define the evidence needed to justify further investment and adapt recommendations as data emerge.
Shape strategy and prioritization across the autoimmune portfolio. Develop and present recommendations to senior leaders on which opportunities to advance and where to focus investment and resources, with clear alternatives, tradeoffs, and evidence gaps.
Integrate scientific, disease, market, and…