Job Description

We are looking for a dynamic program manager to work with an interdisciplinary research team and provide overall management, integration and coordination of activities for a large scientific research and development program that is using human Organ Chips to model human injury induced by acute radiation exposure and enable discovery of new medical countermeasure drugs and diagnostics.

About Us:
The Wyss Institute’s mission is to transform healthcare and the environment by emulating the way nature builds. We harness the imagination of academia and the focus of industry to translate ground-breaking technologies into commercial products that solve big problems. We support research that universities, companies, and venture capital firms don’t fund because they view it as too risky. We prefer to use the word “challenging,” and we love challenges.

About You:
You are a collaborative program manager with significant scientific acumen and experience in meeting program goals on a defined schedule. You have experience working with managing complex research and development grants or contracts, as well as supervising Contract Research Organizations, while ensuring that program reporting requirements, milestones and deliverables are met. You want to be a part of a dynamic team dedicated to tackling an ambitious program in a fast-paced, entrepreneurial-minded environment with resources and support from top-notch scientific, operations, and administrative professionals. You enjoy working with highly motivated, diverse teams and leveraging your expertise to create innovations that can change the world.

About the Role:
Reporting to the Senior Principal Scientist and working under the scientific direction of the Institute’s Founding Director and Principal Investigator on the program, you will serve as one of the main contacts with the government agency that funds this program. Working closely with the Principal Investigator and senior scientific staff, you will be responsible for the day-to-day oversight, integration, and coordination of all program activities, including technical operations, administrative infrastructure, and financial reporting to ensure the efficient planning, initiation, implementation, direction, and completion of the program. The scope of work for this program focused on radiation injury and the development of medical countermeasures includes carrying out preclinical studies using human Organ Chip models of lung, intestine, bone marrow, and lymph nodes in combination with computational drug repurposing and rational design approaches.

What you'll do:
Program Leadership:

Provide high level organizational leadership and scientific support to the Principal Investigator and Senior Staff lead to ensure integrated and efficient execution of the grant objectives across teams on time and on budget as outlined in the integrated master schedule
Serve as one of the primary points of contact with the funding agency for the program of work and all related grant activities
Become familiar with the extensive requirements of this complex Federal Contract and work with the grants management team to review monthly invoicing, properly allocate costs, manage and report personnel changes on the award, and adhere to the extensive reporting requirements.
Develop protocols and collate, write, and present progress reports on all research activities including regular program review meetings as well as preparation of monthly, annual, and final reports
Generate Gantt charts and manage budget and resource allocation to ensure milestones are met on time and on budget
Regularly review and manage budgets in coordination with Wyss grants management team
Ensure good laboratory practices across all teams, serve as a resource and contact for the Institute’s lab management team
Oversee and organize all relevant IACUC, IRB, COMS, and ESCRO protocols, in partnership with Clinical team
Maintain a list of all MTA, NDAs, and points of contact with industrial, investor, foundation, and government collaborators relevant to the grant; ensure all are up to date and in place when needed
Ensure compliance of Wyss team and subcontractors with all relevant sponsor requirements as well as manage Quality Assurance and Data Management Plans
Manage transfer of data files, development of technology transfer packages, and delivery of any other required materials to funding agency
Assist research team in preparation of reports of invention, patent submissions, and technology translation working closely with the Wyss intellectual property and business development teams, as well as Harvard's Office of Technology Development
Scientific Contribution and Support:
Provide scientific support for teams and serve as a resource to advise and troubleshoot scientific challenges and opportunities that arise
Help to coordinate scientific insights across teams to ensure that learnings are shared to promote an integrated, scientific knowledge base
Recruit outside experts, consults, and engagements as needed to deepen scientific understanding, incorporate new scientific methods, execute critical work efforts, and/or identify new opportunities to improve experimental protocols
Identify additional collaborators or funding opportunities to promote the translation of new fundamental insights and manage relationships with vendors, subcontractors ,and CROs
Assist researchers in the experimental design, analysis, writing, and preparation of figures for manuscripts, abstracts, posters, other publications of research findings, and additional related grant applications
Maintain all technical documentation relevant to radiation sources, dosing, and equipment maintenance
Team Engagement and Integration
Maintain dynamic collaborations with open communications among all interacting technical teams to ensure Program success
Motivate and inspire team. Provide advice and mentorship to all team members
Work closely with senior technical staff members to ensure appropriate staffing allocation to ensure adequate resources and expertise across teams to achieve grant objectives. Identify, recruit and nurture relationships with internal and external experts to advance the scientific agenda when needed
Cultivate a culture of open innovation to rapidly identify and troubleshoot any problems or barriers to the research agenda so that solutions may be identified and implemented in a timely manner
Demonstrate a commitment to diversity, inclusion, and cultural awareness through actions, interactions, and communications with others

What you'll need:

Advanced Degree in a life science, medicine, and/or engineering required.
A minimum of six years’ experience performing project management or related work with multidisciplinary research and development teams in the biopharmaceutical, biotechnology, diagnostics and/or other industry. A PhD/MD may count towards years of experience.


Desirable skills:

Prior scientific or professional experience in radiation biology is strongly preferred
Prior program management of BARDA, DARPA, or other large U.S. government-funded projects strongly preferred
Demonstrated success in leading and working in cross-functional teams
Excellent management, organizational, documentation, analytical, communication, and interpersonal skills.
Comfortable in a fast-paced translational environment and able to troubleshoot problems to ensure objectives are met on time and on budget