Vice President - Translational Science, Drug Metabolism and Pharmacokinetics

Overview

About Certara

Certara accelerates the potential of bringing medicines to market and to patients using biosimulation software, technology, and services to transform traditional drug discovery and development. Our clients include more than 2,400 biopharmaceutical companies, academic institutions, and regulatory agencies across 70 countries.

As we continue to evolve our scientific capabilities and technology platforms, we are seeking a Vice President of Translational Science (DMPK) to provide scientific leadership, strategic vision, and innovation across Simcyp’s Translational Science team.

The Vice President of Translational Science (Drug Metabolism and Pharmacokinetics, DMPK) leads Simcyp’s Translational Science organisation, shaping the scientific direction of DMPK‑driven Physiologically Based Pharmacokinetic (PBPK) innovation while partnering closely with clients, key opinion leaders, regulators, and cross‑functional internal teams.

This role combines scientific excellence, executive leadership, strategic decision‑making, and external influence, with a strong focus on delivering high‑impact Model‑Informed Drug Development (MIDD) through the Simcyp platform.

You will champion innovative translational approaches, including the application of AI/ML and advanced data science, to enhance data integration, model translation, predictive performance, and platform evolution.

Responsibilities

Scientific & Strategic Leadership

• Provide scientific leadership and direction for strategic initiatives, setting translational science priorities, making decisions on scientific approaches, and delivering strategic initiatives while balancing scientific ambition with platform feasibility, timelines, and regulatory expectations.
• Oversee, support, and contribute to the design, execution, reporting, and dissemination of scholarly scientific work from the Translational Science in DMPK team.
• Champion innovative translational approaches, including the integration of AI/ML, real‑world data, and advanced analytics to enhance PBPK‑based translation.
• Present Simcyp translational science outputs at national and international conferences, workshops, and scientific forums.

Platform & Technical Oversight

• Hold overall responsibility for scientific regression testing of the Simcyp Simulator, ensuring ongoing rigor, quality, and consistency of platform outputs.
• Apply deep DMPK and translational science expertise when supervising the implementation of new scientific modules and capabilities within the Simcyp platform.
• Work in close partnership with the software development teams to translate scientific requirements into robust, maintainable, and high‑performance software solutions.
• Provide scientific leadership across the full Simcyp platform lifecycle, including prioritisation, development, validation, release, post‑release support, and strategic retirement of capabilities.
• Guide the Translational Science team in creating, maintaining, implementing, and testing scientific modules and platform components.

Stakeholder Engagement

• Oversee the development, communication, and presentation of strategic initiatives, ensuring transparency, scientific clarity, and alignment with long‑term platform and company strategy.
• Support the preparation and delivery of MIDD workshops, focused training sessions, and capability‑building activities related to the Simcyp platform, leading workshops as required.
• Visit client and prospective client organisations to advise on the optimal use of Simcyp, integration of DMPK knowledge, and best practices in translational modelling.
• Engage proactively with regulatory agencies and support platform qualification and regulatory science initiatives.

People & Organizational Leadership

• Lead, manage, and mentor a large, multidisciplinary Translational Science DMPK team (~35 high‑calibre scientists), fostering a culture of scientific excellence, collaboration, innovation, and continuous professional development.
• Set clear priorities, expectations, and development plans aligned with corporate and scientific objectives.

Executive Leadership

• Contributing to operational management decisions, company policies, and long‑term strategy in alignment with Board objectives.
• Act as a key scientific interface with key opinion leaders, ensuring external scientific insight informs internal priorities, platform evolution, and long‑term strategy.
• Hold executive accountability for Translational Science delivery, including prioritisation, resourcing, risk management, and trade‑off decisions impacting the Simcyp platform.

Qualifications

• PhD in Pharmacokinetics, DMPK, Pharmaceutical Sciences, or a related discipline.
• 10+ years of experience in Pharmacokinetics, DMPK or Pharmaceutical Sciences
• Extensive experience in translational science, PBPK modelling, and DMPK, ideally spanning both industry and consultancy environments.
• Demonstrated success leading large, highly skilled scientific teams and complex, multi‑stakeholder programmes.
• Strong record of scientific publications, conference presentations, and external engagement.
• Exceptional communication skills with the presence and credibility to operate effectively at executive, regulatory, and client‑facing levels.
• Experience or strong interest in applying AI/ML and advanced analytics to translational science and model‑informed drug development.

Certara bases all employment-related decision on merit, taking into consideration qualifications, skills, achievement, and performance. We treat all applicants and employees without regard to personal characteristics such as race, color, ethnicity, religion, sex, sexual orientation, age, nationality, marital status, pregnancy, physical or mental condition, genetic information, military service, or other characteristic protected by law.