The Opportunity
As a Principal Scientist in Translational Medicine Oncology, you will serve as a vital scientific anchor bridging discovery research and clinical development. You will lead biomarker discovery and translational strategy for innovative oncology clinical pipelines, working directly on early- to late-stage clinical programs. In this role, you will:
- Design, implement, and drive end-to-end pharmacodynamic and predictive biomarker strategies across first-in-human through registrational clinical studies.
- Champion hypothesis-driven translational research to identify novel biomarkers of therapeutic response, mechanisms of clinical resistance, and tumor microenvironment dynamics.
- Integrate and leverage high-dimensional data—including multi-omic profiling, spatial biology, single-cell platforms, and functional immune assays—in partnership with computational scientists and AI-driven platforms.
- Lead the authoring, review, and strategic integration of biomarker and translational sections within clinical trial protocols, regulatory submissions, clinical study reports, and investigator brochures.
- Partner cross-functionally across Research, Clinical Development, Clinical Pharmacology, Companion Diagnostics, Biostatistics, and Clinical Operations to ensure seamless scientific alignment.
- Partner with Operations team to provide scientific leadership and strategic guidance for trial design, implementation, and conduct.
- Drive scientific engagement externally with academic collaborators, clinical trial investigators, and key opinion leaders (KOLs) while disseminating breakthrough science via high-impact peer-reviewed publications and conference presentations.
Who you are
- Hold a PhD, MD, or MD/PhD in Molecular Biology, Cancer Biology, Immunology, Computational Biology, Bioinformatics, or a related life sciences discipline.
- Possess significant graduate or postdoctoral research experience demonstrating scientific excellence and rigor through a record of first-author publications in peer-reviewed journals.
- Prior post-graduate industry experience or significant postdoctoral experience is required.
- Bring hands-on experience or deep technical fluency in translational research methodologies, including molecular profiling, multi-omics, single-cell genomics, spatial biology, or functional immune assays.
- Exhibit exceptional cross-functional collaboration and communication skills, with a proven ability to translate complex biological concepts into actionable clinical insights across multidisciplinary teams.
Preferred
- Prior industry experience within oncology drug discovery, translational oncology, or clinical development.
- Deep subject matter expertise or focused research background in oncogenic signaling, RAS biology, non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), or colorectal cancer (CRC).
- Demonstrate proficiency with or solid exposure to computational biology workflows and biological data analysis (familiarity with R and/or Python).
- Practical experience or strong enthusiasm for leveraging machine learning and emerging agentic/generative AI tools to accelerate translational discovery and multi-modal data interpretation.
- Experience collaborating on companion diagnostics (CDx) development and clinical protocol execution.
This role is based in South San Francisco and offers a hybrid schedule working 3 days per week on campus.
No relocation benefits are available for this posting
The expected salary range for this position based on the primary location of CA is $141,500.00 - 262,900.00 USD. Actual pay will be determined based on experience, qualifications, geographic location, and other job-related factors permitted by law. A discretionary annual bonus may be available based on individual and Company performance. This position also qualifies for the benefits detailed at the link provided below.
