Senior Associate Scientist, Retina Discovery

Janssen Research & Development is recruiting for a  Senior Associate Scientist, Retinal Discovery located  on the  San Francisco Bay Campus in Brisbane, CA  to support drug discovery of novel therapeutics for retinal disease.

At Janssen, we are working to create a world without disease. Transforming lives by finding new and better ways to prevent, intercept, treat and cure disease inspires us. We bring together the best minds and pursue the most promising science. We collaborate with the world for the health of everyone in it. In the CVMR-PH Therapeutic Area, we are focused on meeting unmet needs in patients, including those suffering from retinal disease and experiencing vision loss.  In the Retinal Discovery team, we are focused on discovering new therapies to address retinal diseases with strong efficacy, good safety, and with reduced treatment burden.

We are seeking a highly motivated and talented lab-based Senior Associate Scientist to join our Retinal Diseases Discovery team located in San Francisco, CA (USA). The successful candidate will join a dynamic, multi-disciplinary team of exploratory scientists and play a key role in the evaluation of new drug concepts using relevant model systems. He/she will use emerging developments in these fields to generate novel target ideas and provide technical and strategic input with the goal of progressing novel drug candidates into translational development. The qualified candidate will work in cross-functional teams, including translational medicine, discovery, biomarker teams, program project teams and disease-specific working groups, to shape a discovery and development strategy for novel drug candidates and will bring forward novel translational animal models and innovative technologies to support the discovery pipeline.

This role is laboratory-based and requires an established background in retinal cell biology, neuroscience, or immunology. Responsibilities include the execution of discovery projects to develop new retinal disease therapies and expand the retina portfolio. The selected candidate will contribute to research programs through validation of new targets and design and execution of team-based research to help drive project advancements.

The candidate will join a drug discovery team to support the development of a combination of cutting-edge drug modality platforms, in vitro and in vivo techniques for the treatment of retinal diseases.  S/he will work in an exciting/stimulating environment across the different stages of preclinical drug discovery (from target ID to preclinical candidate). The position will be primarily focused on in vitro assay development and evaluating and conducting in vivo efficacy of drug targets in in vivo models of retinal diseases. Moreover, projects will also include validation of new targets, characterization of therapeutic agents, and translational research. The candidate will be strongly motivated and dedicated, will show initiative and work independently. Troubleshooting skills are essential. S/he will demonstrate urgency, be organized, have the ability to work well in a team setting, show leadership and be sensitive to timelines. The scientist will effectively and frequently collaborate with stakeholders from all relevant functions, as well as present scientific results to multidisciplinary teams.

Key/Main responsibilities include:

• Design, Perform, interpret, troubleshoot, and report experimental data from in vitro and in vivo studies.
• Perform, interpret, troubleshoot, and report experimental data.
• Manage multiple experiments/projects simultaneously.
• Contribute to projects within the team and collaborate with stakeholders from all relevant functions.
• Keep up-to-date with relevant  literature and  technical advances
• Clear and professional verbal and written communication with excellent presentation skills