Chief Inventor, Drug Discovery & Innovation
Listed on 2026-10-09
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Science
Research Scientist
At Elanco (NYSE: ELAN) – it all starts with animals! As a global leader in animal health, we are dedicated to innovation and delivering products and services to prevent and treat disease in farm animals and pets. At Elanco, we are driven by our vision of Food and Companionship Enriching Life and our purpose – all to Go Beyond for Animals, Customers, Society and Our People.
At Elanco, we pride ourselves on fostering a diverse and inclusive work environment. We believe that diversity is the driving force behind innovation, creativity, and overall business success. Here, you’ll be part of a company that values and champions new ways of thinking, work with dynamic individuals, and acquire new skills and experiences that will propel your career to new heights.
Making animals’ lives better makes life better – join our team today!
As Elanco architects the future of animal health, the Senior Advisor, Chief Inventor – Drug Discovery & Innovation serves as a senior scientific advisor and primary engine for de novo breakthroughs. This top-tier scientific leadership role within the Mechanistic and Translational Biology innovation engine combines enterprise-level scientific influence with a clear mandate to identify, invent, and advance novel concepts that do not yet exist in the current market.
This role is tasked with decoupling discovery from luck by institutionalizing a proactive innovation engine. The Inventor is responsible for securing the foundational IP for high-value assets and defining Elanco’s therapeutic frontier beyond 2030.
Proactively identify and explore revolutionary external and internal scientific opportunities that are 10 years away from current market solutions. This comprehensive scope includes:
- Novel Drug Targets & Pathways:
Architecting first-in‑class biological hypotheses and identifying untapped disease mechanisms. - Innovative Drug Delivery Platforms:
Solving high‑barrier challenges such as oral delivery of large molecules and targeted intracellular delivery. - Next‑Generation Drug Modalities:
Pioneering new therapeutic categories and molecular formats (e.g., protein degraders, advanced biologics). - Advanced Target & Discovery Platforms:
Building proprietary systems and methodologies to institutionalize a proactive discovery engine. - Beyond "Me‑Too" Science:
Move past the adaptation of proven human health targets to engineer original, proprietary veterinary‑specific biological hypotheses that don't yet exist in any market. - Foundational IP:
Secure and engineer proprietary Intellectual Property across all innovative domains by navigating around legacy patents to ensure Elanco owns the foundational IP for every high‑value candidate.
Tackle the most challenging technical hurdles in discovery, such as oral delivery of large molecules or intracellular targeting. Scientific Challenger:
Act as an internal scientific challenger to existing programs, ensuring Elanco pushes the boundaries of what is biologically possible. Biological Firsts:
Establish "biological firsts" that set the standard for the animal health industry.
Ensure a constant state of high‑value pipeline refill by architecting new therapeutic categories. Strategic Modality Optimization:
Optimize known modalities while simultaneously inventing novel delivery platforms and proprietary platform builds. Innovation Strategy:
Transform discovery into a proactive, strategic process that defines the market rather than following it.
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