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Relay Therapeutics Verified
Biotechnology, Pharmaceuticals, Precision Oncology, Drug Discovery

Associate Director, Drug Substance

Cambridge, MAOnsiteFull TimeDirector$145,000–$207,000 /yrPosted 27 days agoVisa sponsorship available

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Required skills

  • drug substance
  • small molecule
  • API
  • process development
  • manufacturing
  • tech transfer
  • CRO
  • CMO
  • cGMP
  • QbD

Nice to have

  • discovery-based company
  • early-stage pipeline
  • late-stage pipeline
  • drug candidates
  • virtual pharmaceutical industry
  • accelerated environment

Role summary

This leadership role is for an Associate Director of Drug Substance at a clinical-stage precision medicines company. The position focuses on the development and execution of robust, cost-effective processes for new small molecule APIs. Responsibilities include managing late-stage drug substance development and manufacturing activities at global CRO/CMO sites, ensuring regulatory compliance, and leading efforts toward commercialization. The role requires strong technical expertise in process development, validation, cGMP, QbD tools, analytical chemistry, and regulatory documentation, along with significant outsourcing experience. The ideal candidate will have a Bachelor's or higher in chemical engineering or organic chemistry with 7+ years of relevant experience.

The Opportunity:

This is a highly visible leadership opportunity to join an attractive discovery-based company that has diverse early and potential late-stage pipeline of drug candidates. In this role you will provide leadership in development and execution of robust and cost-effective processes for new small molecule APIs.

Your Role:

  • Manage all late-stage small molecule drug substance development and manufacturing activities at global CRO/CMO sites.
  • Ensure regulatory compliance at vendor site.
  • Lead all late-stage drug substance development efforts toward the commercialization of the small molecule drug candidates.
  • Display the leadership and technical skills necessary to lead the development and manufacturing activities at CRO/CMO sites with minimal supervision.
  • Identify and develop in- process controls for potential commercial process validation. Act as the key technical transfer resource, in implementation of optimized processes on manufacturing scale. Trouble shoot and conduct problem solving of scale-up and manufacturing issues.
  • Review and approve specifications, batch records and other critical documents.
  • Work with other process chemists to support early-stage manufacturing process development/manufacturing and move the project to late-stage development.
  • Collaborate with QC, supply chain and quality assurance to ensure alignment on deliverables.
  • Write and review regulatory documents (NDA and MAA).

    • Your Background:

  • Bachelor or above in chemical engineering/Ph.D. or equivalent in organic chemistry with 7+ years of relevant late-stage Process Development and manufacturing, tech transfer experience in a virtual pharmaceutical industry.
  • Demonstrated ability in late-stage manufacturing process development, validation, and commercial manufacturing at global CMOs in an accelerated environment.
  • Demonstrated ability in cGMP and the development of synthetic methodology and scale-up of new technology.
  • Experience with QbD tools including risk assessment, design of experiments and data analysis, process analytical technologies and their application in identifying CQA, CPP and establishing the appropriate control strategy.
  • Strong outsourcing experience in working with external partners.
  • Analytical skills should include all modern spectroscopic techniques including: NMR experimentation and techniques; IR; mass spectroscopy, ReactIR and UV/Vis; separation techniques including chromatography: HPLC, GC, TLC, flash chromatography, chiral separations and derivitization; solid state characterization; gravimetric analysis and titration.
  • Complete familiarity with the chemical literature and literature searching techniques are required.
  • Strong communication, analytical and problem-solving skills.
  • Good verbal and written communication skills are essential. Strong interpersonal skill set to effectively work with internal and external stakeholders.
  • Knowledge of US FDA and EMEA and ICH guidelines.
  • Work efficiently with multidisciplinary teams within the company and CMO sites.
  • Experience in process validation and NDA or MAA filing is must.

    • Estimated Salary Range: [$145,000 - $207,000].

    The range provided above is based on what we believe to be a reasonable estimate for this job at the time of posting. Actual base salary will depend on a number of factors, including but not limited to, a candidate’s education, experience, skills and location.

    #BP1

    About Relay Therapeutics

    Relay Therapeutics is a clinical-stage precision medicines company transforming the drug discovery process with the goal of bringing life-changing therapies to patients. Built on unparalleled insights into protein motion and how this dynamic behavior relates to protein function, we aim to effectively drug protein targets that have previously been intractable, with an initial focus on enhancing small molecule therapeutic discovery in targeted oncology. Our Dynamo platform integrates an array of leading-edge experimental and computational approaches to provide a differentiated understanding of protein structure and motion to drug these targets. We have built a world-class team of leading experts from each of these disciplines, and they are driven by a deep collaboration at every step of our drug discovery process.

    Our team is equal parts fearless and relentless, with a shared passion for working collaboratively in intellectually stimulating environments. If you’re excited by the challenge of putting protein motion at the heart of drug discovery and passionate about making a difference in the lives of patients, join us!

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