VP of Discovery Biology

The posting, as Gordian Biotechnology wrote it

Come captain a discovery engine built to outrun conventional industry timelines; reporting to the CSO as part of the executive team, you will oversee a discovery platform spanning multiple indications, using in vivo screening to scale causal validation of targets for complex diseases to cover most of the druggable genome.
The Destination:
Gordian Biotechnology is a therapeutics company whose mission is to cure age-related disease and wake up every morning more capable than the day before.
Traditional ex vivo screening methods have failed to produce effective treatments, as age-related diseases have complex causes that include interactions with the living, aged environment.
To address this problem, Gordian’s Mosaic Screening pools interventions in living animals, producing datasets with causal validation for hundreds of targets, in the living context of disease and mapped to human patients. This data lets us make the most informed choices on what new ideas for treating complex disease, and move validated targets into drug development. (more info on our website , and in our preprint ).
We are running this discovery engine in successive indication areas, currently focused on cardiometabolic, to map the in vivo effects of every druggable target across every relevant organ. We then develop drugs and run clinical trials, both internally and in collaboration with multiple partners. And by pooling the data from each program, we can start to identify medicines with broad impact on the multimorbidity and decline caused by aging.
The Journey:
Our mission is audacious, and the path will be full of both challenges and excitement. Two things characterize the Gordian experience: 1) We work as a team, with ownership in our own roles and trust in each other. 2) We strive for extraordinary outcomes, and in doing so grow our skills and capability.
Team – Relying on each other begins with transparency. We set clear goals, visibly connecting individuals and teams to our company objectives. This empowers each of us to make autonomous decisions about our work, knowing how they will affect the bigger picture. Our communication happens out in the open. We give and receive feedback from a perspective of helping each other grow, share mistakes, and ask for help.
Extraordinary – Every day, we ask ourselves, “How could this process or outcome be even better?” Knowing our overall mission, we do what we think will make the most progress, without asking for permission. We don’t shy away from big challenges or unknown territory, we find a way to excel.
Gordian is trying to accomplish something tremendously difficult, and that requires people who care deeply about doing exceptional work. We take ownership of our work, ask every day how we can push our science forward faster, and challenge ourselves, and each other, to continually raise the bar. Holding ourselves and each other to that standard has created an environment where each of us grows into a better version of ourselv
[…]
ing relentless resourcefulness.
You possess broad exposure directing target discovery efforts across two or more therapeutic indications, moving fluidly from in vivo disease physiology and cell biology through computational approaches. Crucially, you have governed the successful transition of multiple novel assets from initial discovery programs into formal drug discovery pipelines, thinking critically about every dimension of new targets’ potential.

You are an exceptional manager of managers, having directly led three or more distinct teams managers reporting to you. You are energized by cultivating scientific talent, a commitment evidenced by the clear growth in capacity of your previous teams and a history of excellent upward reviews from those you have mentored.

You bring a strong conceptual and experiential understanding of modern genomic platforms, including single-cell transcriptomics, RNA sequencing, and pooled perturbation screens. You view target discovery as system to optimize and are eager to deploy advanced analytical and tracking insights to scale our screening engine's throughput and predictive validity.

Ideally, your background includes domain expertise in cardiometabolic or adjacent complex disease indications and sophisticated disease modeling, and/or a robust understanding of small molecule drug discovery and development paradigms, allowing you to seamlessly translate early discovery hits into development-ready candidates.

The Details

Gordian aims to provide everything you need to thrive. Beyond or community and science, you’ll have enough equity to be a true stakeholder in the company, competitive salary, full health/dental/vision/life insurance, 401k with match, onsite lunch paid for 3 days a week, an onsite gym, whatever vacation you need to be at your peak, remote work flexibility, and access to world-class mentors and advisors to support your professional growth. Our building is in the heart of the biotech capital of South San Francisco.