Computational Imaging Lead (Associate Director)

Do you want to be part of an inclusive team that works to develop innovative therapies for patients? Every day, we are driven to develop and deliver innovative and effective new medicines to patients and physicians.  If you want to be part of this exciting work, you belong at Astellas!

Astellas Pharma Inc. is a pharmaceutical company conducting business in more than 70 countries around the world. We are committed to turning innovative science into medical solutions that bring value and hope to patients and their families. Keeping our focus on addressing unmet medical needs and conducting our business with ethics and integrity enables us to improve the health of people throughout the world. For more information on Astellas, please visit our website at www.astellas.com.

This position is based in Northbrook, Illinois. Remote work from certain states may be permitted in accordance with Astellas’ Responsible Flexibility Guidelines. Candidates interested in remote work are encouraged to apply.

Purpose and Scope:

Responsible for providing computational imaging expertise to translational research, patient selection strategy and clinical biomarker and surrogate endpoint analysis for multiple drug discovery and development programs. Develop and execute asset level computational imaging strategy and analysis plans, perform hands-on analyses, and generate reports on internal and external data sets to support asset development. Responsibilities also include establishing new computational imaging capabilities to support new modalities and therapeutic focus areas in ophthalmology, oncology and CNS diseases.

Responsibilities and Accountabilities:

• Leads computational imaging strategy and develop analysis plans to address asset team’s clinical development questions
• Partners with Translational Medicine Lead and Clinical team to embed imaging biomarkers and endpoints into study designs, acquisition protocols, site qualification standards, and QC of data from imaging centers
• Utilizes state-of-the-art computational imaging analysis methods, internal and external data to address translational questions related to patient selection, biomarker identification, proof of mechanisms and surrogate imaging endpoint development
• Supports data ingestion and conducts analysis using translational and biomarker data management platforms
• Contributes to the development of best practice documents
• Develops new analysis tools and databases to meet the current and future portfolio needs
• Identifies and evaluates external resources (CRO/academic collaborator) to complement internal capabilities

Qualifications:

Required

• PhD in Biomedical Engineering, Bioinformatics, Computational Biology, or other biomedical sciences with a minimum of seven years’ experience in applying computational imaging approaches to drug discovery/development, preferably in a biopharma setting
• Strong publication record in peer reviewed journals
• Demonstrated experience in computational analysis of medical images across modalities, with a focus on ophthalmic imaging and/or radiology
• Demonstrated experience in image quality control and computer vision-based analysis of medical images, including segmentation, registration, detection, and quantitative measurements (e.g., area, volume, thickness)
• Demonstrated experience in developing imaging biomarkers, establishing clinically meaningful cutoffs and developing predictive models from medical imaging features
• Experience in applying deep learning to medical imaging to predict disease progression, treatment outcomes or other clinical endpoints
• Excellent programming skills (including Python, MATLAB or R) and deep knowledge for statistical analysis and deep learning (e.g., convolutional neural networks, contrastive learning).
• Experience with highly parallel, clustered, or cloud computing systems.
• Complete independence in providing project level computational imaging support, from planning to execution and reporting
• Strong communication skills and demonstrated ability to influence and lead in a matrix and global R&D environment

Preferred:

• Experience in analyzing ophthalmology images, including SD-OCT, FAF, fundus photography and angiography images, Visual Field and microperimetry data
• Strong understanding of ophthalmic diseases
• Experience in developing deep learning models for image analyses
• Experience in analyzing oncology histopathology images, including H&E, IHC, and multiplex immunofluorescence whole-slide images is a plus

Salary Range

$141,400 - $222,200 (Final compensation will be determined based on a variety of factors, including but not limited to skills, experience and organizational equity considerations)

Benefits:

• Medical, Dental and Vision Insurance
• Generous Paid Time Off options, including Vacation and Sick time, plus national holidays including year-end shut down
• 401(k) match and annual company contribution
• Company paid life insurance
• Annual Corporate Bonus and Quarterly Sales Incentive for eligible positions
• Long Term Incentive Plan for eligible positions
• Company fleet vehicle for eligible positions
• Referral bonus program

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