Director, Project Management

Who We Are: MapLight Therapeutics is a clinical stage biotech company that focuses on drug discovery for central nervous system disorders. We combine cutting-edge technologies including optogenetics, in vivo physiology, and spatial transcriptomics to identify novel drug targets and develop effective therapies to address psychiatric symptoms.

What You'll Do: MapLight Therapeutics is looking for a Project Manager to help drive the program level development of assets from ensuring IND readiness through NDA submission. This position is a critical leadership role of the Program Team and will be required to work across functional departments to provide and execute a cohesive development plan. Reporting to the VP of Clinical Operations, this position will have the opportunity to oversee a Project Management team as the company grows.

Responsibilities:

• In partnership with the Program Lead, coordinate cross functional team members to successfully meet program milestones and goals, as well as assist the Program Team in mitigating program level challenges and risks to timelines across the development lifecycle.
• Develop and maintain comprehensive project plans (inclusive of timelines), schedules, and resource tracking for assigned projects to meet business and departmental objectives. Ensure timely and effective stakeholder communication and alignment on progress and potential issues.

• Establish and maintain a productive program team environment that facilitates effective communication between team members and ensures cohesive and coordinated efforts amongst team members

• In collaboration with Program Lead, drive strategic discussion across functions that impact timelines, resources and budget.
• Assist the Finance department in overall project costs as needed.
• Identify risks and ensure key risks are mitigated; work with departmental leadership to determine if additional resources are needed to ensure successful project execution if applicable.
• Work with core Program Team to develop and maintain an Integrated Development Plan, inclusive of a Clinical Development Plan.
• Monitor and ensure compliance with applicable company policies and procedures.
• Develop and maintain appropriate tools for communicating and tracking project and deliverable status and ensuring accountability. Prepare Program Team meeting agendas and summarizations.
• Manage team of PMs and create consistent ways of working across programs.

Education and Experience:

• Bachelor's Degree; Advanced degree in a scientific field is a plus
• PMP certification preferred but not required
• 10+ years in a pharmaceutical or biotech development department
• 5+ years of experience working with and managing projects in the biotechnology or pharmaceutical industry to include processes of scope development, assist with cost estimating, scheduling, quality control, risk management, and reporting. Experience with Phase 1-3 clinical development is required.
• Preferred experience with managing timelines through NDA submission

• Demonstrated ability to lead and work across several functions including (but not limited to) Clinical, Clinical Operations, Regulatory, Pre-clinical, CMC, Quality and Drug Discovery for the purposes of managing processes in the bullet above.
• Proficiency with one or more project management scheduling tools (specifically Smartsheet) and collaboration tools such as Sharepoint.

• Experience with leading teams in all phases of the development process from IND enabling workstreams through NDA submission planning.
• Ability to engage and influence cross-functional colleagues without direct reporting relationships.
• Strong organizational, planning and follow-up skills and ability to hold others accountable.
• Demonstrated experience with people management or mentoring.

Travel:

• Ability to travel as needed (up to 20%) for corporate and department-wide meetings.

MapLight is an equal opportunity employer, and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability status, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.