Associate Director, Device Engineering
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At Kailera, we are bold, authentic and committed to our mission of developing therapies that give people the power to transform their lives and elevate their overall health. Rooted in an entrepreneurial spirit and a team-oriented culture, we are working together to advance Kailera’s mission to advance novel therapies for obesity and related conditions.
We are passionate about creating an inclusive workplace that promotes collaboration, integrity, and excellence. As we expand, we seek the most talented individuals with diverse backgrounds, cultures, perspectives, and experiences to join our team.
What You’ll Do:
We are seeking an experienced Associate Director, Device Engineering, to lead the development and launch of drug-device combination products, with a strong emphasis on autoinjectors, pre-filled syringes, and multidose pens. This role will drive cross-functional collaboration across CMC, quality, regulatory, manufacturing, clinical, and commercial teams to ensure robust product development aligned with meeting patient needs, global standards, and regulatory expectations.
Required location: Waltham, MA (hub-based, onsite 3-4 days per week) OR Remote (home-based, onsite at a hub 1 week every other month).
Responsibilities:
- Lead combination product development projects (prefilled syringes, autoinjectors, and/or multidose pens) from concept through commercialization
- Build and execute project plans with clearly defined risks and milestones
- Develop device and combination product requirements, including user and stakeholder needs and technical requirements, and ensure appropriate engineering translation and subsequent verification and validation of requirements
- Oversee and ensure compliance with design controls per FDA and ISO 13485 requirements
- Manage risk management activities in accordance with ISO 14971, including hazard analysis, FMEA, and risk mitigation strategies
- Drive design verification and validation activities, including test method development, protocol execution, and documentation
- Oversee human factors and usability engineering efforts, ensuring compliance with FDA guidance and IEC 62366
- Facilitate design transfer to manufacturing, ensuring smooth transition and scalability
- Partner cross-functionally with CMC, quality, regulatory, clinical development, commercial/marketing, supply chain, and other key functions to ensure critical inputs are integrated into device development activities
- Author relevant portions of regulatory submissions (INDs, IMPDs, NDAs, BLAs, etc.) for devices and combination product programs
- Manage and collaborate with vendors, including Contract Design and Manufacturing Organizations (CDMOs) and suppliers, to ensure components and products meet quality and technical requirements and to integrate deliverables into the project Design History File at various stages of development and manufacturing
- Manage and collaborate with contract test labs to ensure testing strategy, method validation, and test execution are aligned with relevant standards and quality and technical requirements and integrate testing results into the Design History File
- Ensure product development aligns with relevant standards including ISO 11608-1, ISO 11040, ASTM D4169, ISO 14971, IEC 62366
Required Qualifications:
- Minimum of 10+ years of experience in medical device or combination product development, with at least 3 years in a team leadership role
- Proven experience with autoinjector, pre-filled syringe, or multidose pen development and launch, including authoring clinical and commercial regulatory submissions
- Deep understanding of design controls, design verification, test method development and validation, risk management, human factors, and design transfer
- Strong knowledge of applicable regulatory standards and guidance documents
- Excellent communication, leadership, and cross-functional collaboration skills
Preferred Qualifications:
- Experience working in a regulated pharmaceutical or biotech environment
- Familiarity with combination product regulations (21 CFR Part 4)
- Experience with supplier management of external development, testing, and manufacturing partners
- PMP certification or formal project management training is a plus
Education:
- Bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering, Biomedical Engineering, or related field. Advanced degree preferred.
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Kailera Therapeutics
View Company ProfileKailera Therapeutics is the premier, enterprise-grade clinical-stage biotechnology pioneer, multi-receptor incretin therapy innovator, and metabolic healthcare powerhouse engineered to operate as the definitive, high-velocity developer layer for next-generation obesity and cardiometabolic disease treatments globally. The company completely eliminates the severe systemic friction of modern weight-management therapeutics—where first-generation single-receptor treatments face commercial efficacy ceilings, plateaus in total body weight loss, injection delivery barriers, and challenging gastrointestinal side effects—by deploying an advanced, multi-pronged incretin and small-molecule discovery platform. Moving far beyond traditional, passive disease research models or isolated chemical formulation screening, Kailera natively unifies once-weekly injectable dual-agonist peptides (ribupatide/KAI-9531 targeting GLP-1 and GIP), highly differentiated once-daily oral small-molecule alternatives, and next-generation triple-agonist (triple-G) programs (KAI-4729 targeting GLP-1, GIP, and glucagon receptors) into a unified, high-conviction clinical portfolio. Launched via a record-shattering $625 million initial public offering (IPO) on the Nasdaq Stock Market (NASDAQ: KLRA) that bypassed typical early biotech capital constraints, the firm maintains an expansive financial run-rate to advance its broad global Phase 2b and Phase 3 KaiNETIC clinical development tracks with production-hardened scientific precision. Under the hood, its sophisticated technical practice leverages exclusive ex-China asset licenses from global pharmaceutical giant Jiangsu Hengrui, running automated high-throughput data pipelines, rigorous multi-tenant patient trial monitoring frameworks, and strict FDA and global health authority compliance structures. What sets Kailera Therapeutics apart is its uncompromising dedication to replacing mechanical treatment protocols with absolute therapeutic options and long-term metabolic health momentum; by bridging the gap between performance-intensive big data receptor analytics and convenient, highly tolerable patient-centric treatments, the institution remains the definitive, category-defining cornerstone of modern incremental weight loss and metabolic clinical innovation.
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