Director Science & Technology - Scientific Office DS

Job Description Summary

Location: Basel, Switzerland #onsite
Additional locations - Menges, Slovenia and Schaftenau, Austria

Role Purpose:
As a Scientific Project Consultant (SPC) within TRD Biologics & CGT, you will strengthen scientific rigor and help ensure success across the early development portfolio. You will provide end-to-end scientific leadership, structured problem solving, and strategic guidance. As a trusted scientific advisor in a highly matrixed environment, you will connect research decisions with process development needs, improve the quality and speed of decision-making at key gates, and enable knowledge flow and learning across projects and functions.

 

Job Description

Key Responsibilities

• Provide early scientific and technical input to research teams—offering leadership and guidance on candidate selection, raising safety, efficacy, and developability concerns, and ensuring research decisions account for development needs to reduce risk and delays prior hand‑over to development.

• Enable portfolio oversight and cross-project knowledge flow by connecting learnings, identifying platform-level issues, and facilitating scientific exchange across projects and functions (drug substance, drug product and analytical development).

• Apply structured scientific thinking to critical technical questions (including root-cause analyses); define options and trade-offs, and provide clear recommendations to drive timely conclusions.

• Strengthen governance and decision-making at key development gates by applying scientific rigor, enterprise thinking, and a holistic portfolio perspective.

• Influence across Novartis and across sites to align diverse stakeholders (e.g., research, development, technical operations, regulatory, quality) and enable execution of the agreed scientific strategy.

• Coach and mentor teams and individuals by sharing experience and best practices, helping them build scientific capability and embed a consultative, collaborative way of working.

• Enable innovation for novel and complex modalities (e.g., conjugates/AOCs, bispecific antibodies, therapeutic proteins) by initiating early scientific exchange, benchmarking external advances, and translating insights into actionable guidance.

• Assess, escalate, and communicate critical risks with urgency, proposing mitigations and driving alignment while upholding scientific rigor and balanced judgment to influence outcomes and support implementation.

• Partner with SMEs to capture prior knowledge in referenceable documents that support risk assessments and improve the quality of regulatory submissions.

• Ensure that upcoming new formats or technology platforms from research are established timely in development to be ready for transfer and scaling of the technologies

What You’ll Bring to the Role

• Advanced degree (PhD preferred) in a relevant scientific discipline (e.g., biochemistry, chemistry, bioengineering, pharmaceutical sciences) with strong scientific credibility.

• Extensive experience (15 years desirable) across the full development spectrum—from early research‑originated projects to late development—enabling end‑to‑end thinking and risk‑based guidance.

• Cross-disciplinary breadth with deep expertise in at least one area; ability to connect analytical, drug substance, and drug product considerations.

• Strong internal and external network, with demonstrated ability to influence across a complex matrix with resilience and perseverance.

• Excellent communication, facilitation, and stakeholder management skills; able to coach and mentor across levels and functions.

• Sound judgment and a strong sense of urgency for critical risks; able to escalate appropriately and drive balanced mitigations.

• Fluent English (written and spoken).

Desirable Requirements

• Experience with biologics, cell and gene therapies (CGT), and/or complex modalities (e.g., conjugates/AOCs), with ability to translate innovation into practical development choices.

• Demonstrated ability to drive execution through others—moving from recommendation to implementation in a matrix organization.

• Comfort working across multiple projects and competing priorities, with a consultative mindset and a focus on scientific rigor and quality.

• The position may be appointed at either the Director or Associate Director level, depending on the candidate’s experience and seniority.

Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion: Novartis is committed to building an outstanding, inclusive work environment and diverse teams' representative of the patients and communities we serve.

Accessibility and accommodation
Novartis is committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodation to all individuals. If, because of a medical condition or disability, you need a reasonable accommodation for any part of the recruitment process, or in order to receive more detailed information about the essential functions of a position, please send an e-mail to inclusion.switzerland@novartis.com and let us know the nature of your request and your contact information. Please include the job requisition number in your message.

In accordance with Austrian law, we are obliged to disclose the minimum salary as stated in the collective bargaining agreement. For this position the minimum salary is €85,704.64 EUR/year (on a full time basis). The actual salary will be significantly higher, as we strive to maintain a competitive position in the market and consider your previous experience, qualifications and individual competencies

 

Skills Desired