Associate Director, Translational Research and Non-Clinical Lead

Associate Director, Translational Research and Non-Clinical Lead Translational Sciences

Location:

Branford, CT – Onsite

Join a company where your science will directly shape the future of cancer immunotherapy.

Evolve Immune Therapeutics is a privately‑held, next‑generation immuno‑oncology company pioneering a new class of T cell engager therapies to transform cancer patient outcomes compared to current immunotherapies. Our first‑in‑category biotherapeutic EVOLVE platform utilizes integrated T cell costimulation to directly target tumor cells to deliver durable anti‑tumor adaptive immune responses. Our lead asset, EVOLVE
104, entered clinical trials in late 2025. Additional collaboration pipeline programs (with Abbvie) and wholly owned programs are progressing toward candidate nomination. Evolve Immune’s team consists of ~50 FTEs in R&D, business development, human resources and operations with immediate plans for additional growth. Our newly expanded, state‑of‑the‑art 20,000+ square foot laboratory and office space located in the New Haven, CT biotechnology corridor is convenient to the amenities of the Connecticut shoreline, the city of New Haven and easy travel options throughout the Boston/New York City corridor.

We’re hiring an Associate Director, Translational Research and Non‑Clinical Lead to join our collaborative Translational Sciences team to lead the translational research and non‑clinical development for our rapidly advancing EVOLVE project portfolio. The successful candidate will develop and implement the strategy for translational and non‑clinical safety/pharmacology assessments to support the clinical positioning and IND‑enablement of our development candidates. The successful candidate will work with patient‑derived tissue samples and organoids to generate insights into the differentiation and mode of action of our emerging assets.

The candidate will oversee junior laboratory scientists supporting translational research as well as generation of data for non‑clinical in vitro assays such MABEL and in vitro safety assays. Experience with bioinformatics is a plus. Strong collaboration and communication skills, leadership in supervising and mentoring junior scientists, and a track record of scientific and project achievements in biopharma, are required.

We value curiosity, collaboration, and diverse perspectives—if you’re excited by our mission but unsure if you meet every requirement, we encourage you to apply.

• Establish organoids/primary cell systems to evaluate drug responses in complex human tissues
• Evaluate target expression including development of IHC assay
• Define and execute the non‑clinical safety, pharmacology and toxicology strategy for each program including overseeing dose modeling, establishing exposure response and determining efficacious and FiH doses
• Lead efforts to plan and execute in‑house and external IND enabling studies with adherence to GLP (Good Laboratory Practice) and other regulatory guidelines where appropriate
• Manage CRO partnerships, study design, monitoring, and data reporting
• Partner with the Immunobiology, Biotherapeutics teams to facilitate the progression of programs from discovery to clinical development
• Partner with Regulatory, CMC and Clinical Development teams to support IND
• Prepare documentation for regulatory submissions, including INDs
• Mentor our scientific team and support individual career development for team members
• Contribute to our company’s communication strategy to drive the visibility and recognition of our scientific strategy and company milestones in presentations to our Board of Directors, investors, collaboration partners, and through presentations at external scientific conferences
• Work with project management to develop timelines and budgets, and ensure deliverables are achieved in a timely fashion
• Ensure compliance with all health and safety protocols

• PhD in Immunology or related field with at least 5 years of relevant industry experience
• Experience in working with primary human tissues/model, oncology biologic drug safety, pharmacology and toxicology assessments and successful submissions of…