Head of Technology Development

Head Of Technology Development

Company Overview : St. Jude is where those with a passion for making a difference come to break new ground. Located in Memphis, Tennessee, the mission of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital is to advance cures, and means of prevention, for pediatric catastrophic diseases through research and treatment. We are leading the way the world understands, treats and defeats childhood cancer and other life-threatening diseases.

Position Overview : The Head of Technology Development is an integral member of St. Jude's Commercialization & Industry Engagement Team. The team's purpose is to support St Jude's mission to reduce the burden of catastrophic pediatric diseases by making innovations accessible. All team members are responsible for stewardship of translation of the organization's innovations. The team is responsible for leading the translation of innovations to the market through industry partners, licensees, or other reputable organizations capable of making innovations accessible in a timely, efficient, and reliable manner while leading engagements with industry along the innovation continuum from early scientific research collaborations to later stage transactions. The team is also responsible for assessing the market viability of St Jude's innovation pipeline, prioritizing the translation of innovations that meet the organization's mission, pursuing pathways for translation of innovations that most effectively enable accessibility, and handling the portfolio management and progress monitoring to oversee timely and efficient translation of innovations. The team holds responsibility for tracking metrics to continually improve innovation management and industry engagement processes and education and communication of innovation management and industry engagement. This role requires a dynamic and visionary leader to manage the early stages of identification and development of life sciences innovations with market pathways that advance the organization's mission to reduce the burden of catastrophic pediatric diseases. This role is similar to that of a Vice President of R&D in pharma / biotechnology. It requires a strong background in pharma / biotechnology, a track record of success in drug development, inclusive of the preclinical, clinical, regulatory, and market readiness phases, a proven track record of leadership in the industry, and a passion for advancing healthcare through scientific innovation. The Head of Technology Development is responsible for leading and executing comprehensive strategies to identify, prioritize, and translate innovations that advance the organization's efforts to make technologies, innovations, and science developed at St. Jude broadly accessible. Expertise as an early-stage life sciences leader to oversee translational viability, new product development, cross-functional teams, strategic planning, and partner management will be critical in promoting St. Jude's world-class innovations to a diverse audience. This position may be eligible for the possibility of remote work.

Job Responsibilities

• Define vision and strategy for advancing innovations that reduce the burden of catastrophic pediatric diseases to market pathways, along with the VP Industry Engagement & Transactions.
• Oversee the execution of the strategic plan for the translation of innovations to market pathways, in alignment with the mission, along with the VP Industry Engagement & Transactions.
• Lead and inspire a multidisciplinary team of scientists, researchers, and business professionals to achieve the organization's goals to advance on mission healthcare through the translation of scientific innovation, along with the VP Industry Engagement & Transactions.
• Develop a system to identify innovations with market translation potential and methodologies to determine relative priority for pursuing and developing innovations that meet the organization's mission for market pathways, along with the VP Industry Engagement & Transactions.
• Oversee the identification of innovations and research efforts with potential to reach market pathways, along with the VP Industry Engagement & Transactions.
• Oversee the conduct of due diligence, including development, market, and regulatory assessments, and other required aspects to determine market feasibility of innovations, along with the VP Industry Engagement & Transactions.
• Once market feasibility is reasonably established for on mission innovations, oversee the creation of a translation plan and budget for consideration by an investment committee.
• Oversee the translation of programs selected for funding by an investment committee.
• Establish and maintain functionally integrated program timelines and prepare and manage program budgets in collaboration with the cross functional team.
• Ensure early, close, and continuous collaboration with the organization's Clinical, Regulatory, Manufacturing, Legal, Compliance, and other teams for reporting, awareness, smooth handoffs, co-management, and full engagement to achieve consistency, compliance with organizational policies, industry regulations, and ethical standards.
• Use best-in-class program management support to provide end-to-end oversight of the program management for initiating, planning, executing, controlling, reporting, and terminating the integrated development plan and associated functional plans.
• Engage with and act as the primary point of contact for internal stakeholders, conducting research and making discoveries, to drive the successful identification and development of innovations for translation to market pathways.
• Work closely with the researchers, strategic collaborators, and cross-functional teams to actively facilitate teams in defining program strategy, developing integrated program plans, and implementing the plans to meet defined objectives.
• Build and maintain relationships with internal and external key stakeholders and collaborators, including researchers, scientists, doctors, investors, industry partners, and other institutions to optimize outcomes.
• Oversight of external consultants and services engaged to perform work required to translate innovations.
• Represent the organization at industry conferences, events, and with industry partners, investors and entrepreneurs.
• Monitor industry trends and competitive landscape to identify opportunities for growth and innovation.
• Design new processes and supporting business structures and recommend solutions that drive process standardization and simplification across the department to more effectively translate innovations to market pathways.
• As the department strategy evolves, prepare alternative development and risk management scenarios, program updates and options and recommendations through proactive communication to the teams and senior leaders.
• Drive decision making, facilitate issue resolution, problem-solving, risk management, and contingency planning.
• When and as determined necessary, oversight for the recruitment and establishment of R&D facilities to incubate and accelerate translation of innovations internally.
• Define overall objectives, scope, plans, resource planning and budgeting, and metrics for tracking progress.
• Provide strategic insights to senior leadership around roadmap and management of innovation development and institutional objectives.
• Provide input into overall budget and variance management for programs.
• Build systemic approaches for engagement and governance with external collaborators.
• Recruit, coach and develop individuals and ensure they have rich career experiences and rotational opportunities.
• Perform other duties as assigned to meet the goals and objectives of the department and institution.
• Maintains regular and predictable attendance.

Minimum Education and / or Training

Minimum Experience

Special Skills, Knowledge and Abilities