Pillar Therapeutics- Director, Oligonucleotide and Conjugation Chemistry

Pillar Therapeutics - Director, Oligonucleotide and Conjugation Chemistry

Boston, MA, USA

Pillar Therapeutics (Pillar) is a pioneering biotechnology company focused on next generation oligo-based modalities targeting tissues beyond the liver, muscle, and kidney. We are building a platform to deliver oligos with high precision to previously untargeted cells, while focused on "undruggable" genes, alone or in combination with previously validated targets. Many of our targets carry 'pipeline-in-a-drug' potential: a single gene or protein with meaningful biological effects across multiple disease areas.

Headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Pillar was incubated in RA Capital’s venture group (Raven) and is led by an experienced CEO. After a robust incubation and vetting process, Pillar was launched and funded by RA Capital.

Pillar’s therapeutic areas of interest lie outside commonly targeted cells and tissues, and represent multi-billion-dollar markets that are continuing to grow as the population ages. Our initial focus is creating transformational therapies to treat diseases, but given the platform potential, we have longer‑term ambitions to address healthy aging. These targets are backed by strong biological and genetic evidence but have historically resisted small molecule and biologic approaches.

Pillar, operating in stealth mode, is moving quickly to address multiple disease indications at scale and with significant market potential.

Pillar is in the discovery stage and will invest heavily in its emerging platform for oligonucleotide delivery. Our disease focus offers strong translatability from animal models to humans, which provides a potentially rapid and efficient path to the clinic. Given our recent funding and commitment to building a first‑in‑class platform with clear therapeutic targets and indications, we are recruiting a Director, Oligonucleotide and Conjugation Chemistry.

This individual will be responsible for implementing chemical technologies to develop oligonucleotides and conjugates for our targeted delivery platform.

The Director, Oligonucleotide and Conjugation Chemistry will report directly to the VP of Delivery and will interface frequently with company leadership and cross‑functional teams to advance oligonucleotide therapeutic programs. This individual will contribute to the strategy and execution of discovering novel delivery systems and will manage chemistry resources to prepare oligonucleotide conjugates. This individual will be expected to interact frequently with external CROs as well as recruit, mentor, and manage a skilled scientific team under their leadership.

• Oversee chemistry aspects of the development of oligonucleotide conjugates for biological evaluation in our targeted delivery platform
• Manage external chemical synthesis activities which may include oligonucleotide synthesis; small‑molecule, lipid, and peptide ligand synthesis; linker synthesis; and oligonucleotide‑conjugate synthesis
• Build internal lab capabilities and lead a team of conjugation and analytical scientists to prepare, purify, and analytically characterize oligonucleotide conjugates, particularly antibody‑oligonucleotide conjugates
• Work cross‑functionally with protein engineers and biologists to ensure timely and adequate preparation of oligonucleotide conjugates for biological evaluation as well as to contribute to the design of in vitro and in vivo studies
• Contribute to intellectual property around the design of oligonucleotides and oligonucleotide conjugates for the company
• Work closely with company leadership, contributing to scientific strategy and assisting in preparing materials (data reviews, presentation decks) for internal and external constituents; participate in external discussions, as directed
• Stay current with emerging oligonucleotide and delivery fields for translation into platform‑relevant hypotheses

The Director, Oligonucleotide and Conjugation Chemistry should be a doer with a 'roll up their sleeves' mentality while having the ability to manage people and interpret complex scientific data efficiently and effectively.…