Overview

The Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology (IMCB), part of A*STAR, is a leading biomedical research institute focused on advancing discovery in cell and molecular biology. IMCB conducts cutting-edge research to uncover fundamental biological mechanisms and translate these insights toward improving human health, spanning areas such as cancer, neuroscience, metabolic disease, and emerging biomedical technologies.

A*STAR IMCB is seeking a Director, Portfolio Management who will drive the development and management of IMCB’s translational therapeutic portfolio, with an initial focus on ophthalmology and neurology. The role will support IMCB scientific leadership in converting priority scientific opportunities into structured, milestone-driven programmes that are ready for internal investment, grant support, industry partnership, licensing, spinout consideration or further preclinical development in collaboration with other A*STAR biomedical research institutes.

The Director will work closely with scientific leads, PIs, Project Management team, TechBiz team, Strategy team, BMRC, and external advisors to strengthen project discipline, clarify development pathways, identify key risks, and ensure that promising science is advanced through clear evidence packages, stage gates, resourcing plans and decision points including in-house and outsourcing.

Key Responsibilities

1. Translational Portfolio Management

• Build and maintain a clear view of IMCB’s ophthalmology and neurology translational portfolio, covering projects from early discovery and target validation through to preclinical proof of concept and spinout-ready opportunities.
• Classify projects by maturity, strategic relevance, evidence strength, development readiness, risks, resource needs and next decision points.
• Develop leadership-facing portfolio dashboards to support prioritisation, resource allocation and continue, pause, stop, re-scope, accelerate, funding, partnership or spinout decisions.
• Identify common portfolio gaps, including disease models, translational biomarkers, clinical access, pharmacology, CMC, toxicology, regulatory input, computational support and external advisory needs.

2. Project Maturation and PI Enablement

• Work with scientific leads to convert promising scientific ideas into structured translational project charters.
• Help define each project’s scientific premise, therapeutic hypothesis, disease relevance, target validation status, modality options, evidence gaps, milestones, risks, dependencies, budget needs and decision criteria together with scientific leads.
• Support PIs in designing milestone-based workplans that connect experiments to translational decisions, funding opportunities or spinout readiness.
• Act as an enabling partner to PIs by helping unblock dependencies, connect relevant expertise and prepare projects for leadership or external review.

3. Stage-Gate and Decision Frameworks

• Establish and operationalise a practical stage-gate framework for early therapeutic projects in ophthalmology and neurology.
• Define progression criteria across stages such as discovery idea, target validation, translational entry, modality selection, preclinical proof of concept and BD/funding readiness.

6. External Funding or Spinout Readiness

• Prepare selected projects, together with Tech-Biz team, for funding, partnership or spinout action by ensuring that project rationale, data package, development plan and next value-inflection milestone are clearly defined.
• Provide input into grant and funding proposals by ensuring that milestones, workplans, risks, deliverables and decision points are realistic and translationally meaningful.

Requirements

• PhD, MD, PharmD, MBA with minimum 10 to 12 years of relevant experience in biomedical research, biotech/pharma, translational programme management, research commercialisation, R&D strategy, venture building, or innovation operations, with demonstrated experience working across scientific, operational and external-facing stakeholders.
• Strong understanding of the path from discovery biology to translational development.
• Demonstrated ability to structure ambiguous scientific opportunities into clear project plans with milestones, risks, dependencies, decision criteria and resource requirements.
• Experience working with scientists, clinicians, BD teams, project managers, external advisors, funders, industry partners or investors to advance early-stage biomedical opportunities.
• Familiarity with ophthalmology, neurology, neurobiology, retinal biology, neurodegeneration, regenerative biology, sensory systems, ageing biology or adjacent therapeutic areas would be advantageous.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to translate complex scientific and development issues into clear decision-ready materials.