Chief Science Officer at SereNeuro Therapeutics

About SereNeuro

SereNeuro develops advanced therapies for pain. Our lead program, SN101, is a first-in-class iPSC-derived, pain-sensing neuron therapy delivered by intra-articular injection for chronic osteoarthritis (OA) joint pain. SN101 is a “living, multi-channel pain sponge” that both sequesters inflammatory pain mediators and secretes a reparative secretome (halting cartilage loss and remodeling subchondral bone). SN101 is analgesic and disease-modifying, validated to date in ex vivo human tissue and in murine and large-animal models, with durable, joint localized engraftment.

The Role

We are hiring a founding-team-level translational Chief Scientific Officer to own the scientific direction of the company and be its external scientific face. You will set scientific vision, strategy, and pipeline prioritization; drive SN101 from preclinical proof-of-concept through IND-enabling development to first-in-human; co-lead the Series A as our lead scientific presenter; and build and lead the science organization. You will report to the CEO and work alongside our scientific co-founders/advisors and Senior Principal Scientist (Cell Therapy), who reports to you.

What You'll Lead

Drive preclinical pipeline to IND, partnering with CMC

• Scientific vision, strategy & prioritization across platform and pipeline, including portfolio and stop/go decisions.
• Starting material & line strategy: genomic stability, off-target/edit characterization, immunogenicity, GMP banking, provenance/consent, freedom-to-operate.
• Potency & characterization: define and validate a potency-assay strategy for SN101's dual mechanism (sequestration + reparative secretome)
• Nonclinical package: own the tumorigenicity / residual-undifferentiated-cell / malignant-transformation strategy expected of any pluripotent-derived product; biodistribution; pharmacology; GLP toxicology.
• Regulatory science: co-author INTERACT, pre-IND, and IND strategy; lead the RMAT and accelerated-approval scientific narrative with the CEO.
• External scientific voice: lead the scientific story for investors (co-lead the Series A), pharma partners, conferences, and KOLs/SAB, including our sports-medicine and military-medicine key opinion leaders.
• Team & culture: recruit, mentor, and lead the science team; set scientific standards and rigor.

Required

• PhD and/or MD with deep translational experience in iPSC-derived cell therapy.
• Has personally led at least one program from preclinical through IND, ideally into clinical development.
• Was on the science/leadership team of a company that raised a Series A or later.
• Loves to pitch publicly. Demonstrated excellence and genuine enthusiasm as a scientific presenter to investors, on the conference stage, and with KOLs; comfortable being the company's scientific face.
• Working fluency in cell-therapy CMC and regulatory expectations: potency assays, tumorigenicity/residual pluripotency, genomic stability, comparability, biodistribution, and CBER/Office of Therapeutic Products interactions.
• Track record building and leading scientific teams.

Strongly Preferred

• Prior military service or elite/professional athlete, to anchor credibility, networks, and mission resonance in our pro-athlete and military-medicine beachhead markets.
• Domain depth in pain / sensory neuroscience (DRG, nociceptor biology), osteoarthritis / musculoskeletal & joint biology, and/or immunomodulation / secretome-based therapeutics.
• iPSC differentiation toward neural / sensory lineages.
• Experience with RMAT / accelerated-approval programs.
• Prior CSO or Head/VP-Research scope at a seed- or Series A-stage cell-therapy company, or experience as a scientific co-founder.