Medical Director, Respiratory Translational Medicine

Glaxosmithkline Consumer Healthcare SA; United Kingdom; On-site; GBP 100,000 - 140,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading pharmaceutical company is seeking a Medical Director for Respiratory Translational Medicine at their headquarters in the UK. This role involves leading translational medicine for respiratory projects, collaborating across various departments to shape clinical strategies that bring safe and effective medicines to patients. The right candidate will have a strong background in respiratory medicine and be a skilled communicator, able to mentor teams and ensure rigorous project delivery.

Benefits

Professional growth opportunities

Collaborative work environment

Focus on innovation in healthcare

Qualifications

• Medical degree and board qualification in clinical specialty are required.
• Experience in the pharmaceutical/biotechnology industry in the field of respiratory medicine is essential.
• Familiarity with designing early-phase clinical studies is necessary.

Responsibilities

• Lead translational and early clinical plans for respiratory programmes.
• Provide medical and scientific leadership on project teams.
• Define and oversee biomarker strategies and their implementation.

Skills

Experience in respiratory medicine

Translational medicine

Cross-functional collaboration

Experience with biomarkers

Regulatory interactions

Education

Medical degree

Clinical medical specialty training

Job description

Site Name: UK - Hertfordshire - Stevenage, GSK HQ

GSK is seeking a highly skilled Medical Director, Respiratory Translational Medicine to lead translational medicine for respiratory projects at discovery and early development stages. You will work closely with biology, human genetics & genomics, clinical, regulatory, pharmacovigilance and commercial partners. We value clear scientific judgement, practical clinical experience, and collaborative leadership. You will help shape clinical strategies and evidence generation that speed safe, meaningful medicines to patients. This role offers strong scope for professional growth and the chance to make a real impact while uniting science, technology and talent to get ahead of disease together.

About RIIRU

The Respiratory, Immunology and Inflammation Research Unit (RIIRU) was formed in 2024 to identify and advance novel molecular targets with genetic associations to disease based on the foundational observation that targets with human genetic evidence supporting their causal role in the intended indication improves clinical success by two-fold. The remit of RIIRU is to identify novel targets based on human genetics, develop assets for clinical studies, and perform trials through to submission for approvals. This goal is enabled through strategic external (e.g., Flagship Pioneering, Vesalius, Muna Therapeutics and others) and GSK-internal partnerships (Research Technologies).

• Go Behind the Science with our new article featuring Dr Kaivan Khavandi, as he talks about the importance of our respiratory innovation for COPD patients
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• Read our curtain raiser press release summarizing our key data

Key Responsibilities

• Lead design and delivery of translational and early clinical plans for respiratory programmes, including proof‑of‑mechanism and proof‑of‑concept studies.
• Leverage disease expertise to translate pre‑clinical and human biomarker data into clinical hypotheses, endpoints and go/no‑go decision criteria.
• Provide medical and scientific leadership on cross‑functional project teams and clinical governance forums.
• Define biomarker strategies and oversee their implementation, including sample collection, analysis and interpretation.
• Support regulatory interactions and prepare clinical sections of regulatory documents and briefing materials.
• Mentor and coach colleagues to build capability in translational and clinical development.
• Ensure patient safety through oversight of medical monitoring and alignment with pharmacovigilance.
• Partner with external experts, academic collaborators and clinical sites to accelerate evidence generation.
• Contribute to portfolio prioritisation by evaluating clinical feasibility, risks and potential patient benefit.
• Drive clear, timely communication of translational findings to project teams and stakeholders.

Basic Qualifications

• Medical degree and clinical medical specialty training board qualification/registration.
• Experience in the global pharmaceutical/biotechnology industry in the field of respiratory medicine.
• Experience in translational medicine and clinical development in respiratory or related therapeutic areas.
• Experience designing and delivering early‑phase clinical or experimental medicine studies.
• Experience with biomarkers, sample strategy and interpretation of translational data.
• Cross‑functional collaboration experience working in matrix teams.
• Experience with regulatory interactions for early clinical programmes.

Preferred Qualifications

• Medical degree and clinical medical specialty training board qualification/registration in Pulmonary Medicine/Pulmonary & Critical Care.
• Experience in multimodal data analysis to support deep disease insights.
• Hands‑on experience novel early‑phase study approaches.
• Track record of publications or conference presentations in translational respiratory science.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills for diverse scientific and non‑scientific audiences.
• Experience managing external collaborations with academic or clinical networks.

Please note: This career opportunity requires an on‑site office presence (minimum of two days a week) in one of GSK’s UK sites.

Why GSK?

Uniting science, technology and talent to get ahead of disease together.

GSK is a global biopharma company with a purpose to unite science, technology and talent to get ahead of disease together. We aim to positively impact the health of 2.5 billion people by the end of the decade, as a successful, growing company where people can thrive. We get ahead of disease by preventing and treating it with innovation in specialty medicines and vaccines.

People and patients around the world count on the medicines and vaccines we make, so we’re committed to creating an environment where our people can thrive and focus on what matters most. Our culture of being ambitious for patients, accountable for impact and doing the right thing is the foundation for how, together, we deliver for patients, shareholders and our people.

GSK is an Equal Opportunity Employer. This ensures that all qualified applicants will receive equal consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, gender identity, and sexual orientation), parental status, national origin, age, disability, genetic information (including family medical history), military service or any basis prohibited under federal, state or local law.

We believe in an agile working culture for all our roles. If flexibility is important to you, we encourage you to explore with our hiring team what the opportunities are.

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