Senior Director, Clinical Pharmacology

About this role

Centessa Pharmaceuticals, a wholly subsidiary of Eli Lilly and Company is advancing a portfolio of high conviction programs with strong biological validation. Our asset-centric model offers a unique R&D logic that has been applied by single asset companies to improve productivity. This operating model has minimal centralized infrastructure, reduced hierarchy, and exclusive focus on data driven capital allocation. Our teams are uniquely incentivized to expeditiously interrogate key scientific hypotheses. We believe the asset-centric model can lead to improved success rates for programs with greater speed and modest costs.

Description of Role

Centessa is seeking an experienced Senior Director, Clinical Pharmacology to provide scientific and strategic leadership for clinical pharmacology across a diverse pipeline spanning early development through late-stage and registrational programs. Reporting to the Executive Director, Clinical Pharmacology, this position is accountable for developing and executing clinical pharmacology strategies that address the unique challenges of neuroscience drug development, including CNS exposure, dose optimization, and translational relevance. The Senior Director partners closely with cross-functional teams and represents clinical pharmacology in regulatory interactions to enable efficient, data-driven advancement of therapies across our neuroscience portfolio.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead clinical pharmacology strategy for CNS and neuroscience programs from first‑in‑human through registrational and post‑marketing stages

• Design, execute, and interpret clinical pharmacology studies, including FIH, multiple‑ascending dose, DDI, biopharmaceutics, and patient studies

• Drive dose selection and optimization by integrating PK, PD, safety, efficacy, and CNS‑specific biomarkers

• Lead model‑informed drug development, including population PK, PK/PD, and exposure–response analyses relevant to CNS targets and clinical safety

• Assess and guide strategies for CNS exposure, brain penetration, target engagement, and translational biomarkers