Director, Statistical Consulting, Target Sciences

Basic qualifications:
MSc or PhD in statistics or a related field, e.g. bioinformatics with emphasis on statistics

Preferred qualifications:
Extensive experience as a consulting statistician
Knowledge of the drug discovery and development process
Strong oral and written communication skills
Experience developing and managing junior statisticians.
Demonstrated ability to
• Identify existing or develop new statistical methods to improve the design, analysis, and interpretation of scientific studies
• Develop, evaluate, recommend, and implement statistical solutions for addressing scientific problems
• Deliver analytical and consulting support for the design, analysis, and interpretation of studies across multiple scientific disciplines, including diverse areas of preclinical biology
• Take a leadership role in multi-disciplinary teams
• Build and maintain relationships with customer groups
• Drive the adoption of statistical best practice within R&D
• Provide leadership within a statistics team, stimulating, developing, and promoting the scientific and career development of other statisticians

Interest in continually learning and applying new statistical skills
Knowledge of many of the following topics
• In statistics: experimental design, mixed models, Bayesian methods, linear and nonlinear regression, repeated measures, high-dimensional problems such as 'omics analyses.
• In biology: genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, disease biology, cellular and animal models

Details:
Selecting the targets on which to conduct long-term, expensive research is one of the most important decisions in drug discovery. Poor choices are often not realized until years later when programs fail in clinical trials. Recent advances in genetics, genomics, cell biology and informatics have the potential to improve the understanding of target biology dramatically and therefore, to improve target progression decisions. To take advantage of this opportunity, GSK recently formed a new Target Sciences group, bringing together scientists from genetics, bioinformatics, statistics, and cellular and molecular biology. Cross-disciplinary Target Sciences teams will work in close partnership with other GSK drug discovery groups and the academic community, e.g. through the ground-breaking Centre for Therapeutic Target Validation (), to advance the science of target selection and validation. We now have a number of job opportunities in the Target Sciences Statistics team - opportunities to collaborate with other scientists to advance exciting, innovative scientific programs with the potential to improve the lives of millions of people.

The selected Director, Statistical Consulting will
• Use a wide range of statistical methods to address diverse statistical problems in drug discovery
• Influence scientists and managers, including those at senior levels, to use statistical tools and thinking to enhance research productivity
• Identify existing statistical methods or develop new ones to improve the designs, analyses, and interpretations of GSK studies
• Deliver sound statistical solutions to GSK projects and research units
• Provide leadership within the statistics team, including coaching, mentoring, and possibly managing junior statisticians

The position requires good technical and communication skills, continual learning of statistics and biology, and the ability to work with scientists and statisticians from varied backgrounds. Successful consultants are innovative, pragmatic, and flexible, thriving in a dynamic, collegial environment with frequent new challenges.

Closing date for applications: 26th June 2016

When applying for this role, please use the 'cover letter' of the on-line application to describe how you meet the competencies for this role, as outlined in the job requirements above.
The information that you have provided in your cover letter and CV will be used to assess your application

Thank you for your interest in this opportunity.

*LI-GSK

Contact information:
You may apply for this position online by selecting the Apply now button.

Important notice to Employment businesses/ Agencies

GSK does not accept referrals from employment businesses and/or employment agencies in respect of the vacancies posted on this site. All employment businesses/agencies are required to contact GSK's commercial and general procurement/human resources department to obtain prior written authorization before referring any candidates to GSK. The obtaining of prior written authorization is a condition precedent to any agreement (verbal or written) between the employment business/ agency and GSK. In the absence of such written authorization being obtained any actions undertaken by the employment business/agency shall be deemed to have been performed without the consent or contractual agreement of GSK. GSK shall therefore not be liable for any fees arising from such actions or any fees arising from any referrals by employment businesses/agencies in respect of the vacancies posted on this site.

Salary: . Date posted: 24/07/2016