What is the role?
The Chief Medical Officer (CMO) at Aerogen Pharma will serve as a key member of the executive leadership team of a small, innovation-driven pharmaceutical company focused on transforming neonatal care. The CMO will shape the company's medical, clinical, and scientific strategy while contributing broadly to corporate strategy, portfolio decisions, company building, partnering, and organizational development.
As the company's senior medical leader, the CMO will represent Aerogen Pharma with neonatologists, investigators, key opinion leaders, regulators, professional societies, advocacy groups, strategic partners, investors, and other stakeholders globally. Internally, the CMO will provide collaborative, hands-on leadership across clinical, medical with strong partnership to regulatory, research, and commercial functions,
This is a exciting opportunity with a growing company to shape organizational design and culture while transforming the future of surfactant delivery for neonatal respiratory distress syndrome globally.
What are the key responsibilities?
• Accountable for overall medical/clinical strategy while contributing to portfolio priorities, target product profiles and major development decisions
• Accountable for medical registration strategy, benefit-risk, pivotal evidence package and readiness for submission/approval.
• Provide medical input into regulatory strategy and documentation, including clinical sections of INDs, NDAs/MAAs, protocols, investigator brochures, clinical study reports, and responses to health authority inquiries.
• Contribute to safety oversight activities, including review of adverse events, risk management plans, and benefit-risk assessments in collaboration with Pharmacovigilance.
• Develop and deliver scientific communications such as medical presentations, congress materials, publications, abstracts, and internal training content.
• Ensure all activities comply with applicable laws, regulations, industry codes of practice, and internal policies.
• Support continuous improvement of medical processes, governance, and standards to advance the Aerogen Pharma medical function.
• Partner cross-functionally with Clinical Operations, Regulatory Affairs, Pharmacovigilance, Commercial, Market Access, and R&D to deliver product-driven initiatives and ensure consistent medical messaging.
• Act as a scientific resource for internal stakeholders to ensure accurate and compliant dissemination of medical information.
• Accountable medical executive for Board/investor communication, business development diligence and medical recommendations on major investment/go/no-go decisions.
What education and experience are required?
• MD with specialty in neonatalogy, pulmonology, adult/pediatric critical care or pediatrics with 15+ years across clinical development/medical leadership, including senior leadership responsibility for pharmaceutical drug/device combination development programs.
• Prior leadership of at least one late-stage/Phase 3 program, ideally through pivotal data readout and NDA/BLA/MAA preparation or approval. Demonstrated ability to define registrational strategy and interpret benefit-risk.
• Significant direct experience with FDA and/or EMA, ideally including IND/CTA, EOP2/Phase 3 interactions and pre-NDA/BLA/MAA meetings.
• Established credibility with investigators and KOLs in the relevant therapeutic area; experience with advisory boards, steering committees, publications and external scientific communication
• Prior leadership across Clinical Development, Clin Ops, Regulatory, Statistics, Safety, Clin Pharm and nonclinical functions. Experience building/managing teams and external development partners.
• Previous exposure to executive/Board-level decision making and ability to communicate complex clinical risk and value clearly. Experience with investors, partnering/BD and due diligence highly desirable for a startup CMO
• Demonstrable history of making or recommending high-consequence development decisions based on incomplete clinical/scientific evidence and balancing medical, regulatory, operational and commercial considerations
What key skills will make you great at the role?
• Hands on, results oriented with strong initiative, accountability and willingness to take ownership and drive projects to completion.
• Demonstrated strategic capability and ability to see the overall, 'big' picture, along with examples of showing courage and confidence to develop, lead and implement change across disciplines.
• Strong written and oral communications skills.
• Preference for location near Raleigh, North Carolina. Candidates in San Mateo California will also be considered.
• Must be available for Travel within US, up to 30% of time.
