Senior Scientist, Retinal Degeneration

Job title: Senior Scientist, Retinal Degeneration

Location: Cambridge, MA

About the job

Are you ready to shape the future of medicine? The race is on to speed up drug discovery and development to find answers for patients and their families. Your skills could be critical in helping our teams accelerate progress.

Position Overview:

Sanofi is seeking a highly motivated translational scientist to spearhead preclinical drug discovery programs for blinding retinal diseases, including age-related macular degeneration and glaucoma. As a Senior Scientist in the Retinal Degeneration group within Ophthalmology Research, you will use innovative experimental approaches and advanced disease models to validate therapeutic strategies and discover promising drug candidates. The successful candidate will work collaboratively in matrixed, cross-functional teams to generate high-quality and comprehensive data packages to nominate and advance therapeutic candidates toward clinical development. This role presents an exciting opportunity to help shape the future of ophthalmology therapeutics and bring transformative vision-preserving treatments to patients around the world.

We are an innovative global healthcare company with one purpose: to chase the miracles of science to improve people’s lives. We’re also a company where you can flourish and grow your career, with countless opportunities to explore, make connections with people, and stretch the limits of what you thought was possible. Ready to get started?

Main Responsibilities:

• Apply scientific expertise and judgement to initiate, design, direct, execute, analyze, and document research studies to translate new targets from discovery to therapeutic disease programs and preclinical development

• Lead research projects in a matrixed team environment to achieve go/no-go decisions

• Design and conduct in vitro and in vivo mechanism-of-action, proof-of-concept, and biomarker studies to validate targets and evaluate therapeutic strategies

• Develop assays and collaborate cross-functionally to screen preclinical candidates of diverse modalities using target- and disease-relevant functional readouts

• Design and conduct in vitro and in vivo studies to evaluate the pharmacology and efficacy of preclinical candidates

• Contribute to interdisciplinary research programs in a highly collaborative manner across internal groups and with external partners.

• Prepare high-quality analyses, interpretation, documentation, and presentations to support project milestones, publications, patent filings, and regulatory (IND/CTA) filings

• Present project data packages at governance meetings

• Communicate findings internally and externally through presentation and publication

About You

Basic Qualifications:

• Earned Ph.D. or equivalent advanced degree in molecular biology, cellular biology, or related discipline PLUS at least 3 years research experience in biopharmaceutical or academic setting

• Experience in ophthalmology research, ocular cell biology (e.g., RPE, RGC), age-related macular degeneration, glaucoma, retinal disease and degeneration, neurodegeneration, and/or neuroprotection

• Experience in translational research or drug development

• Comprehensive experience with molecular, cellular, and biochemical methods, assay development, and in vitro and in vivo disease models

• Experience preparing high-quality documents including experimental protocols, SOPs, technical reports, and presentations

• Track record of significant contribution to research projects and scientific publications

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience in drug development for retinal diseases (glaucoma preferred)

• Experience with cell-based and animal models of retinal disease and degeneration

• Experience conducting in vivo pharmacology and/or biodistribution studies in rodents or NHPs

• Experience drafting regulatory documents to support IND or CTA applications with agencies like the FDA and EMA

• Experience managing studies at CROs

• Experience analyzing data using computational approaches (e.g., R, Python)

• Experience with assays for ocular disease processes, such as cell death, barrier function, metabolic and oxidative stress, lipid metabolism, tissue remodeling, and inflammatory signaling

• Experience in high-throughput assay development

• Experience using automated high-throughput screening platforms and robotics

Skills and competencies:

• Ability to work independently as well as part of cross-functional teams in a highly collaborative and matrixed environment

• Ability to multi-task and adapt to rapidly changing priorities and deadlines

• Excellent critical thinking, analytical, and problem-solving skills

• Excellent written and oral communication skills, with the ability to communicate effectively in a multidisciplinary team

• Strong interpersonal skills, with the ability to build excellent working relationships

• Exceptional organizational and time-management skills, lab notebook practices, and attention to detail

Why Choose Us?

• Bring the miracles of science to life alongside a supportive, future-focused team.​​

• Discover endless opportunities to grow your talent and drive your career, whether it’s through a promotion or lateral move, at home or internationally.​​

• Enjoy a thoughtful, well-crafted rewards package that recognizes your contribution and amplifies your impact.​​

• Take good care of yourself and your family, with a wide range of health and wellbeing benefits including high-quality healthcare, prevention and wellness programs and at least 14 weeks’ gender-neutral parental leave.​

Sanofi Inc. and its U.S. affiliates are Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action employers committed to a culturally diverse workforce. All qualified applicants
will receive consideration for employment without regard to race; color; creed; religion; national origin; age; ancestry; nationality; marital, domestic
partnership or civil union status; sex, gender, gender identity or expression; affectional or sexual orientation; disability; veteran or military status or liability
for military status; domestic violence victim status; atypical cellular or blood trait; genetic information (including the refusal to submit to genetic testing) or
any other characteristic protected by law.

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All compensation will be determined commensurate with demonstrated experience. Employees may be eligible to participate in Company employee benefit programs, and additional benefits information can be found here.