Sr. Director, Program Team Leader; POLG Program

Boston, MA, USA

HYBRID
EXEMPT
REPORTING TO THE CHIEF DEVELOPMENT OFFICER

Pretzel Therapeutics is a biotechnology company headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, with research facilities in Mölndal at GoCo House, part of GoCo Health Innovation City. Pretzel Therapeutics is dedicated to developing life-changing medicines with a broad pipeline of first-in-class treatments addressing novel targets within the mitochondria. By harnessing cellular energetics to modulate disease processes and improve survival, function and quality of life, we are ushering in a new treatment paradigm for a breadth of conditions spanning neurological, muscle, metabolic and rare diseases.

The Program Team Leader (PTL) is a highly visible, enterprise-level leader responsible for shaping, integrating, and advancing the program strategy for one or more of Pretzel’s priority therapeutic programs from development through potential global commercialization. This individual serves as the strategic and operational leader of the cross-functional Program Team and is accountable for ensuring the team has a clear vision, an aligned development path, disciplined execution plans, and timely decision-making in support of key program and corporate objectives.

The PTL brings deep drug development expertise, strong business judgment, and a global, patient-centered perspective to guide complex decisions across clinical, regulatory, CMC, non-clinical, medical affairs, commercial, and patient access considerations.
Working in close partnership with an experienced Program Manager, functional leaders, senior leadership, and governance bodies, the PTL drives the development of an integrated plan that reflects scientific opportunity, regulatory strategy, development feasibility, resource requirements, risk mitigation, competitive dynamics, and long-term product value. The successful candidate is a collaborative and influential leader who can lead through ambiguity, align stakeholders around the most important priorities, anticipate and resolve issues before they become barriers, and communicate program strategy and progress with clarity and credibility.

This role is central to translating Pretzel’s innovative science into meaningful outcomes for patients while helping the organization make thoughtful, evidence-based choices as programs advance through critical stages of development.

Program Strategy and Integrated Development Leadership:

• Serve as the accountable leader for the overall program strategy, working with cross-functional partners to define the vision, objectives, milestones, critical path, risks, and key decision points
• Establish and maintain an integrated development plan that aligns research, non-clinical, clinical, regulatory, CMC, medical affairs, commercial, and patient access considerations
• Bring a global development and commercialization perspective to program planning, ensuring short-term execution supports long-term product value and patient impact
• Translate evolving scientific, clinical, regulatory, competitive, and patient insights into clear strategic implications for the program

• Lead a high-performing cross-functional Program Team, creating clarity around priorities, deliverables, interdependencies, resources, and decision rights
• Partner with the Program Manager to drive disciplined execution, maintain program documentation, track key decisions, and ensure timely delivery against milestones and timelines /li
• Structure and facilitate critical program decisions, bringing forward relevant perspectives, tradeoffs, recommendations, and risk mitigation options for efficient governance review
• Own program recommendations across stages of development and ensure issues, risks, budget implications, and resource needs are surfaced early and addressed proactively
• Steward the program budget in partnership with Finance and functional leaders, ensuring resources are aligned to program priorities and corporate objectives

• Provide clear, proactive, and balanced communication to senior leadership, governance bodies, and other stakeholders regarding program strategy, status, priorities, risks, and decisions
• Drive preparation and presentation of high-quality materials for Executive Committee, Board of Directors, Scientific Advisory Board, and other senior forums
• Serve as the primary advocate for the program, ensuring program needs are…