Executive Director / Vice President, Biology & Translational Pharmacology

Profluent is the frontier AI lab for biology. Profluent builds powerful foundation models for all of life's molecules, unlocking solutions that transform medicine, agriculture, and beyond. Founded in 2022 and headquartered in Emeryville, CA, Profluent is backed by leading investors including Altimeter Capital, Bezos Expeditions, Spark Capital, Insight Partners, Air Street Capital, AIX Ventures, and Convergent Ventures and has raised over $150M to date.

Profluent is seeking an exceptional Executive Director / Vice President, Biology & Translational Pharmacology to lead the scientific strategy and execution of our gene editing therapeutic portfolio. You will help realize the full potential of Profluent’s AI-designed, customized base editors by advancing a defined initial pipeline of genetic medicines for severe inborn metabolic diseases.

Our initial therapeutic focus for this role is liver-directed customized base editing, with future opportunities to expand into additional tissues and therapeutic areas as Profluent’s platform and portfolio grow. You will bring deep expertise in liver biology, metabolic disease, pharmacology, and in vivo disease models, along with the strategic range to help extend Profluent’s therapeutic engine beyond liver over time.

You will directly oversee translational biology and in vivo pharmacology, while also serving as the accountable scientific leader for 2–3 cross-functional therapeutic programs from product concept through development candidate nomination and IND-enabling studies. You will partner closely with teams across protein engineering, genome editing, delivery, computational biology, bioanalytics, CMC, regulatory, and external CROs to generate rigorous, decision-enabling data packages.

The ideal candidate will bring a strong drug-hunter mindset, deep experience in genetic medicines, and demonstrated expertise in connecting human genetics to translational biology. Direct experience with genome editing is valuable but not required.

Responsibilities

Build and oversee a high-performing liver biology and translational pharmacology organization, including direct management of program and in vivo pharmacology leaders

Lead scientific strategy and execution for 2–3 liver-directed genetic medicine programs, translating Profluent’s customized base editor platform into a differentiated portfolio for severe inborn metabolic diseases 

Provide accountable leadership for cross-functional therapeutic program teams, integrating translational biology, genome editing, protein engineering, delivery, pharmacology, bioanalytics, CMC, regulatory, and preclinical development expertise

Partner with functional leaders to define program resourcing, critical-path activities, timelines, risks, and key experiments required to deliver development candidates and IND-ready data packages

Guide in vivo pharmacology strategy across rodent and NHP studies, including model selection, dose strategy, biodistribution, editing activity, durability, target engagement, pharmacodynamic biomarkers, tolerability, and translational relevance

Bring deep liver and metabolic disease expertise to the design of experiments that distinguish mechanism, causality, pharmacology, and therapeutic impact across genetically defined disease contexts

Apply strong scientific judgment to experimental design, data interpretation, and program decision-making, ensuring studies are efficient, well-controlled, and capable of supporting clear go/no-go decisions

Translate Profluent’s established liver portfolio vision into actionable program strategy for selected targets, while contributing to future prioritization of additional genetically defined opportunities in liver and other tissues

Represent program strategy, data, risks, and recommendations to executive leadership, board members, external advisors, potential partners, investors, and collaborators

Cultivate a collaborative, execution-oriented culture that moves quickly while …