Executive Director, Biostatistics

Cytokinetics is a specialty cardiovascular biopharmaceutical company, building on its over 25 years of pioneering scientific innovations in muscle biology, and advancing a pipeline of potential new medicines for patients suffering from diseases of cardiac muscle dysfunction.

At Cytokinetics, each team member plays an integral part in advancing our mission to improve the lives of patients. We are seeking tenacious, compassionate, and collaborative individuals who are driven to make a positive impact.

The Executive Director of Biostatistics, reporting to the Vice President of Biometrics, is a senior scientific and strategic leader accountable for setting the vision, strategy, and execution of the Biostatistics function across Cytokinetics’ full R&D portfolio. This role serves as the primary internal and external spokesperson for Biostatistics, ensuring the function is strategically positioned as a critical driver of data-driven decision making, evidence generation, regulatory success, and long-term value creation.

The Executive Director provides comprehensive leadership of the Biostatistics organization, including talent strategy, organizational design, succession planning, career development, and performance management, while fostering a culture of scientific rigor, transparency, accountability, and operational excellence. The role is accountable for methodological integrity, quantitative innovation, and analytical quality of statistical contributions across all development stages, ensuring that high-quality data and rigorous analyses are translated into clear, actionable insights that inform program and portfolio decisions.

As a core member of the development leadership team, the Executive Director actively shapes drug development strategy by embedding robust statistical thinking, quantitative risk assessment, and decision frameworks into study design, endpoint selection, and portfolio prioritization. In close partnership with Clinical Development, Regulatory, Data Sciences, and other R&D functions, this leader ensures that decisions at every stage of development are grounded in sound data, appropriate assumptions, and strong technical and regulatory foundations, enabling confident and timely advancement of programs across the pipeline.

With a highly visible and collaborative presence across the organization, this role plays a central part in driving cross-functional alignment, strengthening Cytokinetics’ data-driven culture, and generating compelling scientific evidence to advance the pipeline and deliver meaningful therapies to patients.

Key Responsibilities

• Define and execute the strategic vision for the Biostatistics function across the enterprise

• Lead, develop, and inspire a high-performance biostatistics organization, including talent development, succession planning, and performance management

• Provide enterprise leadership in statistical methodology, quantitative innovation, and scientific rigor across all programs and therapeutic areas

• Embed data-driven decision frameworks into clinical development, portfolio strategy, and governance processes

• Lead statistical strategy for clinical trial design, analysis, and interpretation across all phases of development

• Ensure biostatistics input and accountability for major documents, including clinical development plans, protocols, clinical study reports, and regulatory submission documents and summaries of safety and efficacy

• Provide senior leadership in regulatory interactions with FDA, EMA, and other global health authorities

• Guide the use of epidemiologic, observational, and real-world data methods to strengthen development and submission evidence

• Oversee quantitative methods and analytics platforms with a focus on efficiency, scalability, and innovation

• Serve as a key leader on the Biometrics Leadership Team, shaping functional strategy and driving execution

• Lead sponsor–CRO relationships, vendor partnerships, and escalation management

• Establish and govern SOPs, standards, policies, and operating models that ensure quality, compliance, and inspection readiness

• Represent Cytokinetics externally through scientific leadership in industry, academic, and regulatory forums

Qualifications & Experience

• Ph.D. in Statistics or Biostatistics with at least 15 years of biotech/pharmaceutical industry experience

• Strong expertise in statistical methodology, including best practices and new industry trends

• Demonstrated proficiency in at least one statistical analysis software

• Expert knowledge of ICH and other relevant regulatory development guidelines

• Ability to explain complex statistical concepts and engage in scientific discourse

• Outstanding executive communication and influence skills

• Proven leadership skills and ability to work effectively in a team environment

• Demonstrated success in leading high-performance, cross-functional teams

• Excellent organizational and problem-solving skills

• Proven ability to drive organizational change, alignment, and execution

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Pay Range:

Our employees come from different backgrounds, and we celebrate those differences. We are looking for the best candidates for our open roles, but do not expect applicants to meet every qualification in order to be considered. If you are excited about what you could accomplish at Cytokinetics and believe you can add value to our team, we would love to hear from you.

Please review our General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) policy PRIOR to applying.  

Our passion is anchored in robust scientific thinking, grounded in integrity and critical thinking. We keep the patient front and center in all we do – all actions and decisions are in service of the patient and their caregivers. We champion integrity, ethics, doing the right thing, and being our best selves.

Fraud Warning: How to Identify Impersonated Cytokinetics Job Postings and Offers

Recently, there have been fraudulent employment offers being sent to candidates on behalf of Cytokinetics. Please be advised that all legitimate offers from Cytokinetics will come directly from our official email domain (Cytokinetics.com) and will only be made after completing a formal interview process.

Here are some ways to check for authenticity:

• We do not conduct job interviews through non-standard text messaging applications

• We will never request personal information such as banking details until after an official offer has been accepted and verified

• We will never request that you purchase equipment or other items when interviewing or hiring

• If you are unsure about the authenticity of an offer, or if you receive any suspicious communication, please contact us directly at [email protected]

Please visit our website at: www.cytokinetics.com

Cytokinetics is an Equal Opportunity Employer