Head of External Drug Discovery Operations, London

The role

The Head of External Drug Discovery Operations will lead all externalized drug discovery and preclinical laboratory activities. This role involves designing and scaling a modern CRO infrastructure to support an AI-first drug design platform.

What you will do

• Oversee all external drug discovery and preclinical operations.
• Drive accountability for experimental throughput, data quality control, and turnaround times.
• Partner with Data Engineering and Informatics to mandate AI-first data architecture standards.
• Establish vendor selection criteria, governance tiers, and KPIs.
• Cultivate collaborative relationships with key CROs.
• Partner with London, Boston and Lausanne sites to forecast resourcing demands.
• Scout, assess, and onboard emerging CRO capabilities and specialized experimental platforms.
• Manage the external discovery budget and negotiate MSAs/rate cards.
• Recruit, lead, and develop a team of CRO Scientific Leads, Operations Managers, and Compound Management professionals.

Required qualifications

• Ph.D. or Master’s degree in Chemistry, Biology, Pharmacology, or a related life sciences discipline.
• Substantial industry track record of biopharma R&D leadership, leading external research, discovery CRO management, or externalized discovery programs within biotech or pharma.
• Technical breadth and working knowledge across medicinal/synthetic chemistry, in vitro screening cascades, in vivo pharmacology, and ADMET workflows.
• Data-centric operational delivery experience with structured data collection frameworks, automated QC, and data curation protocols.
• Practical experience deploying modern productivity tools and automated workflow systems.
• Commercial and financial acumen managing £multi-million discovery budgets and negotiating complex vendor agreements.
• Proven track record of team leadership and influencing others in a matrix structure.
• Familiarity with small molecules and complex or emerging modalities.

Nice to have

• AI-first mindset with practical experience structuring chemical and biological data streams for machine learning workflows.
• Exposure to or interest in applying agentic AI solutions to streamline external research operations.
• Experience with biologics workflows.

About the company

Isomorphic Labs (IsoLabs) was launched in 2021 to advance human health by building on and beyond the Nobel-winning AlphaFold system. The company uses AI to model complex biological phenomena to help design novel molecules and develop innovative medicines.