Head of External Drug Discovery Operations, London

About the External Drug Discovery Operations team

We are establishing a new, centralised External Drug Discovery Operations group to serve as the operational engine for all externalised wet-lab research across Isomorphic Labs. Partnering directly with Drug Discovery & Medical Research (DDMR) and Data Generation teams, this centre of excellence orchestrates, oversees, and scales our global Contract Research Organisation (CRO) footprint. Comprising CRO Scientific Leads, CRO Operations Managers, and Compound Managers, the team ensures high-throughput, high-fidelity data generation.

 

Your impact

The Head of External Drug Discovery Operations is a highly impactful role to drive and optimise how we utilise external partners to accelerate our pipeline delivery. You will lead all externalised drug discovery and preclinical laboratory activities, bridging wet-lab execution and enterprise data strategy. You will design, establish, and scale a modern CRO infrastructure tailored for an AI-first drug design platform, ensuring external workflows yield structured metadata, standardised assays, and automated ingestion pipelines across diverse therapeutic modalities. In partnership with DDMR leadership, you will shape long-term external sourcing strategies to maximise operational agility, experimental quality, and cycle time reduction. You will lead a dedicated team of CRO Scientific Leads, CRO Operations Managers, and Compound Managers, fostering a culture of technical and operational excellence, and cross-functional collaboration with our project teams.

 

What you will do

• Lead CRO operational strategy and execution: Oversee all external drug discovery and preclinical operations, driving accountability for experimental throughput, data quality control (QC), and end-to-end turnaround times to feed internal computational pipelines.
• Embed AI-first data architecture: Partner with Data Engineering and Informatics to mandate that external partner deliverables adhere to strict data-generation-by-design standards (standardised schemas, rich metadata capture, machine-readable formats, and direct pipeline integration).
• Strategic partner governance: Establish vendor selection criteria, governance tiers, and rigorous KPIs. Cultivate collaborative, high-trust relationships with key CROs while enforcing deliverables and rapidly resolving scientific or operational bottlenecks.
• Internal stakeholder alignment: Partner across our London, Boston and Lausanne sites with the Heads of Biology, Chemistry, DPC and DMPK/Safety to forecast resourcing demands, balance internal/external capacity, and translate project milestones into actionable external work packages.
• Evaluate novel platforms and technologies: In collaboration with Business Development and Discovery Leadership, scout, assess, and onboard emerging CRO capabilities and specialised experimental platforms.
• Commercial and budget stewardship: Collaborate with Procurement, Legal, and Finance to manage the external discovery budget, negotiate MSAs/rate cards, and streamline SOW generation and invoice reconciliation.
• Build and mentor a talented, motivated team: Recruit, lead, and develop a high-performing team of CRO Scientific Leads, Operations Managers, and Compound Management professionals.

 

Skills and qualifications

Essential:

• 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 externalised 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, with proven experience instituting structured data collection frameworks with external vendors, including automated QC, data curation protocols, and machine-readable data transfers.
• Practical experience of deploying modern productivity tools and automated workflow systems to streamline external research operations.
• Commercial and financial acumen, with demonstrated success managing £multi-million discovery budgets, negotiating complex vendor agreements (MSAs/SOWs), and partnering with corporate Procurement and Legal functions.
• Proven track record of team leadership and influencing others in a matrix structure, including recruiting, mentoring, and organising operational teams while effectively driving alignment across cross-functional matrix leaders.
• 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 and automated DMTA cycles.
• Exposure to or interest in applying agentic AI solutions to streamline external research operations.
• Experience with biologics workflows.