Senior Principal Toxicology Scientist

Reporting to the VP DMPK and Safety, you will be an experienced highly motivated toxicologist, joining a small team responsible for leading the safety studies and strategy in support of Benevolent’s drug discovery and development portfolio. You will be skilled in providing clear and constructive guidance based on prior experience to Principal and Senior Scientists. You will have proven ability to positively influence strategy and project direction across the pipeline phases through strong interpersonal skills and clearly presented rationale. With hybrid working from home and our London or Cambridge offices, you will be a core member of drug discovery project teams, working as the safety point of contact to progress programs from early discovery to the clinic.

Responsibilities:

• As the lead toxicologist, you will work within the DMPK and Safety department to define safety and toxicology strategies for the portfolio from TID to the clinic.
• For targets, you will lead, perform and review target safety assessments, and provide mitigation strategies using data from standard toxicological assays, bespoke approaches and in silico tools to elucidate mechanistic understanding.
• Based on the outcomes of target safety assessments, you will develop target de-risking strategies for new projects entering the portfolio.
• You will ensure the appropriate toxicology screening strategies are applied to predict, assess and mitigate target- and drug-related safety risks across the portfolio.
• You will develop and review study protocols and reports in association with CROs, ensuring that all critical studies are completed with quality work and within established timelines, supporting your team in their own study oversight.
• You will be responsible for the analysis, interpretation and presentation of toxicology data to project teams, updating risk assessments and applying knowledge and experience to impact project decisions.
• Able to respond to emerging data in preclinical studies, putting risks in context and providing positioning and mitigation strategies.
• Provide clear and constructive guidance based on prior experience to Principal and Senior Scientists.
• You will use your experience of in vitro toxicology studies to review new and current CROs providing nonclinical study services to BAI.

We are looking for:

• BSc/MSc/PhD in toxicology, pharmacology, biochemistry or a related discipline.
• 10+ years’ experience working in the field of toxicology, with detailed working knowledge across a range of disease areas.
• Extensive experience in successfully leading, managing and developing staff.
• Must have demonstrable experience of hands-on assessment of the safety of targets prior to entry into the portfolio, and in devising screening strategies to predict, assess and mitigate safety risks.
• An understanding of in vitro to in vivo translation of potential toxicities and implications for human safety.
• Ability to positively influence project direction through strong interpersonal skills.
• Someone with excellent communication, collaboration and organisational skills.
• Wide range of experience as a safety lead in multifunction project teams.
• A track record of contributing to successful drug discovery and development programs, ideally across pipeline stages, with experience of late stage regulatory non-clinical safety packages, supporting IB, CTA, Pre IND.
• Experience within silico and in vitro safety assessment leading to an in-depth knowledge of discovery toxicology, and experience designing and critically evaluating results of exploratory toxicology studies.
• Hands-on experience with Lhasa Ltd NEXUS platform.