Research Lead, Vaccine Product Development

Research Lead, Vaccine Product Development

Research Lead, Vaccine Product Development

Apply locations London posted on Posted 2 Days Ago job requisition id R-002204

Salary: £82,100

Closing date: Monday 24th February

Contract type: Permanent

The Wellcome Trust is a global charitable foundation. We improve health for everyone by funding science, leading policy and advocacy campaigns, and building partnerships.

The Infectious Disease Solutions Programme (IDSP) is looking for a Research Lead with a background in vaccine product development. We are keen to hear from individuals who have worked in early-stage vaccine development up to and including phase 1/2, and with knowledge of how to embed equitable access considerations into early product development to enable uptake.

This is an exciting time to join Wellcome under new direction of John-Arne Rottingen - who joined as CEO in 2024. The IDSP is a relatively new team and as such an opportune time to join and help sculpt future direction for vaccines R&D. The team focuses on two key drivers of infectious disease - environmental change and antimicrobial resistance.

We are looking for an individual with a passion for global health, to work collaboratively across the IDSP team and Wellcome to address key gaps in the global health field through definition, refinement and delivery of our vaccine product development portfolio for a number of infectious diseases that affect Africa and South Asia.

You will be joining a multidisciplinary, collaborative and enthusiastic team focused on developing impactful vaccines for low-and-middle income countries, gaining a greater understanding of protective immunity and filling key knowledge gaps that inform policymakers on the best use of these vaccines.

In this role you will:

• Support the Vaccine team to convene, fund and share learnings in line with the Vaccine development aspects of Infectious Disease strategy by leading and undertaking key projects and conducting scoping, strategic planning and delivery of activities across the four thematic areas of the Infectious Disease team (Vector borne disease, cholera, TB and AMR).
• Execute, monitor and advance the Vaccine development portfolio, gaining guidance from specialist advisers and commissioning work as appropriate.
• Lead a team as required (through direct line management and matrix management) to achieve the Vaccine development strategic goals.
• Work with the Head of Vaccines to deliver the strategic objectives across the four thematic areas of infectious disease team to define, refine, monitor and advance the vaccine development portfolio. This will involve:
• Identify and devise approaches to capitalise on emerging opportunities within the Vaccine development space (e.g. new preclinical and clinical programmes with line of sight to impact, developing novel strategies etc.).
• Define and critically assess progress of new and ongoing preclinical and clinical projects in Wellcome's portfolio, with a focus on equitable access.
• Identify, build and maintain partnerships with key stakeholders to deliver key elements of the Infectious Disease strategy.
• Contribute to a diverse and inclusive culture across the organisation, collaborating across departments.

To be successful in this role you will have:

• An advanced degree in the life sciences.
• Able to demonstrate a breadth of expertise in the field of Vaccine development (preclinical and early clinical) through relevant work experience in an academic, industrial, funding agency or charity setting. Expertise in affordable and accessible products would be an advantage.
• Experience in managing a product development portfolio.
• Experience of setting up and delivering high profile, strategic research initiatives with multi-disciplinary teams at a variety of scales.

To apply please upload your current CV and complete our short application.

Interview dates: w/c 10 March and 17 March.

You can view the full job description on our website.

Our Hybrid Way of Working

We understand that our colleagues have commitments and personal interests outside of work and we strive to build a flexible working environment, in which people can perform at their best.

At Wellcome we have a hybrid way of working which is 3 days in our Euston Road offices (Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday) with the remaining 2 days working either remotely or in the office.

Diversity and Inclusion is at the heart of everything we do

We are committed to cultivating a fair and inclusive environment, where everyone can be themselves and thrive. We are happy to discuss flexible working options for all roles. We work to ensure that our recruitment processes are as inclusive as possible to everyone.