Senior Medical Director/Medical Director, Clinical Trial Lead

Kardigan · Princeton, CA

Posted 7/29/2026 · last confirmed live 8/26/2026

About Us   Kardigan is a heart health company working to make cardiovascular disease preventable, curable and no longer the leading cause of death in the world. It is Kardigan’s mission to develop multiple targeted treatments in parallel that bring people with cardiovascular diseases to the cures they deserve.   Led by Tassos Gianakakos, Jay Edelberg, M.D., Ph.D., and Bob McDowell, Ph.D., Kardigan’s co-founders have reunited after leading MyoKardia to discover and develop mavacamten, the first cardiac myosin inhibitor, resulting in an acquisition by Bristol Myers Squibb in 2020.   We have a cutting-edge discovery and translational research platform, a pipeline of late-stage candidates, and an industry-leading team that is driven to improve the lives of patients.   At Kardigan, we are motivated by our values which guide how we work, interact, and achieve our goals. Driven by patients and their families , we are deeply committed to improving the lives of patients and prioritizing their needs above all else. We believe in being authentic —leading with truth to bring out the best in others by creating an environment where every person knows they will be fully accepted. With an eagerness to learn , we encourage the highest levels of curiosity and are open to changing our minds. We are committed to winning as a team with urgency, excellence, and intention, and support each other no matter what role we play or where we sit. Lastly, we strive to enable the impossible because patients are counting on us. We are not afraid to take risks to unlock innovation and advance scientific discoveries.   These values are the foundation of our work, empowering us to make a real difference, every day.     Position Title:     Senior Director / Medical Director – Clinical Trial Lead    Department:     Clinical Development    Reports To:     Vice President, Clinical Development Lead   Location:  South San Francisco, CA or Princeton, NJ – On-site 3-4 days per week      Job Overview     The Senior Director / Medical Director - Clinical Trial Lead will be a physician with extensive drug development expertise who will be expected to lead to the clinical development strategy for the phase 1-3 clinical trials of the program, including the protocol design, operational planning and trial execution, medical and safety monitoring, trial close out, trial results interpretation, and preparation for dissemination of the trial results, working with academic partners.     Essential Duties and Responsibilities     Leads the aforementioned clinical activities for the phase 1-3 trials for the program as a key member of the Clinical Strategy Team, that is embedded within the Global Project Team, including taking primary responsibility for medical monitoring, data monitoring, and safety monitoring for the clinical development function   Provide clinical/scientific knowledge into the development, design, delivery, and communication of the global evidence generation plan, working closely with Medical Affairs colleagues    Support cross-functional and global collaborations to integrate broad medical, scientific, and commercial input into the development program    Takes primary responsibility for the clinical development function, working with statisticians, modelers, and project team-members, for contributing to the creation of trial-specific statistical analysis plans, and for the interpretation, reporting, and dissemination of the final results, working closely with academic partners   Contributes to and provides oversight of the operational aspects of study conduct including site selection and activation, site investigator and staff training, site start up and activation, screening and recruitment of trial participants, and trial close-out activities   Leads the authoring and review of clinical parts of regulatory submissions, regulatory briefing documents, Investigational Brochures, scientific disclosures of trial results, and other relevant documents.     Leads clinical responses to regulatory or IRB/Research Ethics Committee for information requests.    Works with Key Opinion Leaders to incorporate their input into trial protocol designs, clinical development plans, clinical trial site selection, and regulatory interactions   Ensures consistency of clinical content and scientific messages across abstracts, publications, and other external documents   Contributes to the TPP (target product profile) and Global Product Safety (GPS) plans     Give scientific presentations at advisory boards, trial academic committees, key scientific meetings, and other venues     Qualifications and Preferred Skills     MD, or equivalent medical degress is required, and cardiology specialty training and cardiology board certification strongly preferred    Minimum 10 years’ clinical development experience working cross-functionally in the regulated medical products industry is required.    Experience designing and running Phase 1-3 trials, experience with preparation of and submissions of INDs and NDAs also preferred   Leadership: Experience leading and motivating teams in a matrix environment is required. Proven interpersonal skills with ability to influence, resolve conflict and drive decisions among internal cross functional teams, executive management, and external teams.    Strategic Agility: Ability to develop and execute complex strategies.    Collaboration/Relationship Management: Ability to effectively collaborate in and across multiple functions, and with internal and external stakeholders of various backgrounds and skill sets. Skilled in establishing a collaborative and respectful environment.    Influencing: Demonstrated ability to lead a matrixed team through influence. Proven track record of influence strategy, initiative(s) implementation, and decision-making. Proactively influences and motivates others to achieve objectives.    Decision Making: Strong decision-making skills taking multiple perspectives into account and analytical skills are required; exercises sound business judgment that has broad organizational impact.    Communication: Excellent communication skills (both orally and written) is critical to the success of the role.    Business Excellence: Good at developing the processes necessary to get things done, knowing how to organize people and activities, and knowing what to measure and how to measure. Demonstrated ability to interpret data into actionable items    Negotiation: Proven negotiation skills that effectively drive discussions and decisions to desired end results that have broad organizational impact.    Alignment: Proven track record of achieving alignment with internal and external stakeholders      Exact Compensation may vary based on skills, experience and location.   Exact Compensation may vary based on skills, experience and location. Pay range $242,000 — $347,000 USD

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