Director, Cancer Biology - Sage Bionetworks

At Sage Bionetworks, we believe that we can learn more by engaging and collaborating with people from a diversity of experiences, backgrounds and identities. We develop and apply open practices to data-driven research for the advancement of human health. We are working to establish actionable biomedical observations through the reliable analysis and responsible sharing of representative data. By improving the way scientists collaborate and by increasing the reliability of research, we will improve human health.

We are seeking an experienced scientist and leader who has built and run successful teams and deep expertise in Cancer Biology to join Sage’s science teams - including Cancer Biology, Alzheimer’s, Immunology, Rare Disease, etc. The cancer team works directly with other cross-functional teams - Technology, Data Governance, Team Science etc., and reports to Sage’s Chief Data Officer. Within this multidisciplinary group, our science leads focus on advancing biomedical research using team-based, open scientific approaches. Our scientific coordination efforts focus on the management of complex research projects across distributed teams and leading cross-consortium working groups. Our scientific and resource coordination efforts are focused on working collaboratively & strategically with funders & partners and academic & non-academic research communities, establishing and implementing standards for large-scale multi-site data deposition, and distributing data through public facing data sharing portals, including the Human Tumor Atlas Network portal (https://humantumoratlas.org/) and Cancer Complexity Knowledge Portal (https://cancercomplexity.synapse.org/). We support external researchers to leverage the data collections to help them further develop and apply novel analytical approaches to better understand the biological underpinnings of health and disease.

Sage’s current cancer biology portfolio encompasses projects that are focused on organizing and disseminating multi-omic cell atlases, tumor profiling, systems biology, and related clinical data from multiple caner-focused projects, with funding from the National Institute of Health (NIH), National Cancer Institute (NCI) Division of Cancer Biology and private foundations. We are looking for an ambitious leader who will support these ongoing projects and strategically expand our research portfolio and collaborations in the area of cancer.

Do you have a commitment to open and collaborative research practices, and an understanding of where these approaches can advance hard problems in computational cancer research? Do you have the ability to design and perform the analysis of large molecular data-sets and interpret results? Do you want to lead a multidisciplinary team that includes computational biologists, research ethicists, software engineers, biomedical data managers, and functional genomics experts? Are you passionate about leading team science endeavors?

What you’ll be doing:

• Developing scientific strategy for collaborative research and responsible data sharing in cancer biology

• Growing the cancer biology science and data coordination portfolio through initiating and securing funding through grants and/or contracts

• Building external partnerships with funders, data contributors and academic/industry researchers that align with Sage’s mission

• Directing a team of biomedical data managers, data scientists, project managers, and engineers in meeting project goals across programs

• Developing and applying innovative approaches to reproducible research as applied to cancer biology

• Evangelizing and communicating about research within Sage’s portfolio and more broadly about Sage’s mission

• Attending relevant meetings and preparing scientific manuscripts

• Working with the leadership team at Sage to align practices across research domains and to guide roadmaps for core services shared across those domains

We’d love to hear from you if you:

• Are passionate about open science and collaboration

• Have a PhD or other scientific degree with commensurate experience of at least 4 years

• Have at least 5 years of experience in cancer related research or relevant experience in computational biology, systems biology, cell atlases, or bioinformatics

• Have at least 5 years of experience acting as principal investigator or group lead for a scientific program

• Demonstrated evidence of leadership in large collaborative research projects

• Demonstrable experience of project/program management including personnel/task/budget management.

• Have contributed to the procurement of funded research grants and/or contracts

Essential Job Functions

The cognitive and physical activities described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform these functions.

• Prolonged periods of sitting at a desk and working on a computer.

• Repetitive motion and substantial movements (motions) of the wrists, hands, and/or fingers.

• Close visual acuity to perform an activity such as: preparing and analyzing data and figures; transcribing; viewing a computer terminal; extensive reading.

• Exerting up to 10 pounds of force occasionally and/or negligible amount of force frequently or constantly to lift, carry, push, pull or otherwise move objects.

• May require travel dependent on company needs.

• Can work under deadlines.

About Sage Bionetworks

Sage Bionetworks is a nonprofit biomedical research and technology development organization that was founded in Seattle in 2009. Our focus is to develop and apply open practices to data-driven research for the advancement of human health. Data-driven research has become an important component of biomedicine, but it’s not always easy to understand how to apply computational approaches appropriately or how to interpret their results. Sage believes open practices can help. Our interdisciplinary team of scientists and engineers work together to provide researchers access to technology tools and scientific approaches to share data, benchmark methods, and explore collective insights, all backed by Sage’s gold-standard governance protocols and commitment to user-centered design. Sage is supported through a portfolio of competitive research grants, commercial partnerships, and philanthropic contributions.

At Sage, we have a distributed workforce and support remote and/or on-site hybrid work arrangements within the United States. All interviews will be conducted virtually unless otherwise communicated.

Sage Bionetworks is pleased to offer a comprehensive benefit package, competitive to both commercial and not-for-profit life science organizations. The plan includes: health, dental, vision, life, AD&D and long term disability benefits; paid time off; a retirement plan; flexible spending accounts; a shared incentives plan, voluntary long term care insurance, and other voluntary products. Additional information can found here: Benefits – Sage Bionetworks

At Sage, we engage equitable workplace strategies to ensure fair compensation. Actual compensation is dependent upon current market data, experience, and pay parity within our organization. This is a Director level position with a compensation range of $134,300 - $201,100.