Vice President/Senior Scientific Officer (Simons Foundation)

This Vice President will oversee a large grant portfolio of autism and neurodevelopmental disorders research which spans a wide range of genetics/genomics, developmental biology, molecular and cell biology, circuit and systems neuroscience, and human subjects research.

As such, this VP/SOO will serve as the scientific lead for our SFARI grants process. Prospective applicants can expect to oversee RFA development, the evaluation of funded grants, scientific review panels, funding recommendations, and analysis of our current portfolio. In addition, this VP/SSO will work to ensure that these SFARI RFAs optimally leverage our SFARI resources, including our cohorts, data, and biospecimens libraries.

This VP will also lead efforts to improve the full grant-making cycle, set strategic planning, and develop scientific priorities while actively managing our portfolio of funded grants. These duties will include working directly with investigators to evaluate their progress and review relevant reporting with the Simons Foundation’s grants team.

Other duties of this position include designing strategies to increase excellence in autism research, identifying opportunities to partner with like organizations to ensure grant synergy, and supporting the Autism BrainNet (ABN) by organizing scientific workshops with the ABN Scientific Advisory Council to set program goals to advance the ABN’s mission.

Lastly, this vice president will be expected to maintain currency in multi-disciplinary, emerging scientific and computational fields that may bring new scientific tools, technologies and approaches to autism research, achieved by reading the relevant scientific literature and attending relevant external scientific seminars and meetings both nationally and abroad. This vice president will be further expected to attend Simons Foundation events, including the Flatiron Institute, and collaborate with the Simon Foundation’s communications team to highlight our science on our website and in our newsletters, contributing content, reviewing draft articles, guiding the team as needed.

Prospective applicants should have a Ph.D. and/or M.D. in a neuroscience-related field, ideally with relevant research experience in the study of autism and related neurodevelopmental disorders. Applicants must have a 10+ years of work experience, including 5+ years of organizational and operational management with a proven track record of leading high-performing teams of experts. As such, a strong scientific background and a broad knowledge of neuroscience will be required to complement our senior team of experts in genomics, molecular and cell biology, neural circuits, and/or human subjects research. A foundational understanding of computational approaches in neuroscience, biology, and/or a related quantitative discipline is highly desirable.

Applicants should be able to recognize high-value theoretical, experimental, and computational neuroscience approaches and have a deep understanding of academic neuroscience research. Experience collaborating with teams of clinicians, neuroscientists, geneticists, and experimental researchers to address scientific questions is strongly encouraged, as is experience with data-sharing and open-science initiatives. Experience serving as a primary investigator of an independent research group is strongly valued.

Strong interpersonal and communication skills, both written and oral, and a general sense of resilience when making tough decisions is required for this position. A collaborative spirit, a commitment to building positive team cultures, and a general flexibility is welcome.