Nastech Pharmaceutical Company Inc.

Project Manager

This position offers you an opportunity to play a high impact and influential role in our organization. You’ll report directly to our CEO and collaborate with VPs and SVPs to drive projects forward. Nastech is committed to employee development and, as you contribute to our growth, you will be well positioned to take advantage of promotional opportunities created by that growth.

As one of three Project Managers you’ll provide cross-functional support for drug development projects and coordinate a wide range of development activities, including API and drug product manufacturing, preclinical studies, and clinical trials. In keeping with our dynamic and growth-oriented culture, Nastech sets aggressive timelines for many projects, and your success in this role will depend upon your ability to motivate internal and external stakeholders to meet targets.

You’ll join a pharmaceutical company developing innovative products based on proprietary chemistry and molecular biology based drug delivery technologies; these products address multiple therapeutic areas including inflammatory conditions, obesity, and osteoporosis. In addition to advancing our existing core technologies and know-how in areas such as tight junction biology, formulation science, and nasal drug delivery, we invest in new technologies to produce safer and more effective pharmaceuticals.

What you’ll bring to the table:

• BS in Biology or a related discipline; advanced degree preferred.
• 5+ years of experience in the pharmaceutical/biotech industry.
• 3+ years of experience in a project management function.
• Expertise in overall drug development with working knowledge of regulatory, manufacturing, process and analytical chemistry, QA, QC, pre-clinical, and clinical requirements, as well as an understanding of the complex interdependencies between and among these disciplines.
• Project management and organizational skills, including the ability to handle multiple responsibilities, priorities, tasks and projects simultaneously.
• Proficiency with MS Excel, Project, Visio, and Power Point.
• Superior interpersonal skills, including the ability to communicate effectively and tactfully, both verbally and in writing.
• Professional integrity and the ability to build trust.
• Ability to influence without formal authority.

What’s in it for you?

High visibility in contrast to comparable roles in large pharmaceutical organizations: You’ll partner with our senior management and the leaders of our external partners.

Career development: Just as Nastech is an evolving company, you’ll have opportunities to grow your role; your success in this position could open up opportunities for you in portfolio management, operations, or other areas of our organization.

Great work environment: By hiring the best and brightest in the industry, Nastech has crafted an environment that fosters creative development and innovative research in an atmosphere of teamwork and dedication.

Pride: We are committed to improving human health through the development of products that solve complex drug delivery problems and provide superior therapeutic options to patients in need.

Beautiful setting: Our corporate headquarters is located adjacent to picturesque North Creek, and many of our employees enjoy taking a lunch-time walk in the natural beauty.

Who We Are:

Nastech Pharmaceutical Company Inc. is dedicated to the development and commercialization of unique products to treat diseases in areas where our innovations will have the greatest impact on improving human health.

Through our proprietary nasal drug delivery and tight junction biology programs, we seek to introduce innovative products and overcome drug delivery barriers that others cannot. Our science and capabilities can provide for the safe, effective, and convenient delivery of a range of compounds, including small molecules, peptides, and complex proteins. Our product pipeline spans a variety of therapeutic areas ranging from obesity to breakthrough cancer pain and demonstrates our commitment to pursue products and diseases where we can offer significant contributions.

Nastech’s research and development programs focus on three primary areas that drive the discovery and development of safe and effective pharmaceuticals. These areas include tight junction modulation science, intracellular RNAi delivery and nasal drug delivery. Each of these areas is a distinct program, but in concert they provide synergies that would otherwise be unavailable.

Founded some 20 years ago, our team is composed of talented, focused individuals who are committed to pursuing products that may offer significant contributions to the future of human health. We offer our team members a competitive salary, benefits, and an equity compensation program. For more information, please visit www.nastech.com.

Your Role:

Reporting directly to our CEO, you’ll be one of three Project Managers and interact extensively with our senior management, particularly with VPs and SVPs of Operations, Regulatory Affairs, and R&D.; Your mission will be to coordinate the resources necessary to move projects to successful outcomes within a timeframe that enables us to maintain our competitive edge.

Coming on board you’ll assume leadership of four to five projects at different stages in the pipeline. You may spend about 80% of your time on two or three projects on aggressive fast tracks and about 20% on one or two projects with more relaxed timelines. Of course, “more relaxed?is a relative concept, and your goal will be to keep all your projects moving forward.

Your specific activities will include:

• Providing cross-functional project management support for your drug development projects.
• Coordinating a wide range of drug development activities, including API and drug product manufacturing, preclinical studies, and clinical trials (Phase I-II and bioequivalence).
• Organizing and facilitating project meetings, including scheduling, setting agendas, ensuring accurate and detailed minutes are recorded, and distributing pre-meeting materials.
• Developing and maintaining plans for projects, including Gantt charts, schedules, budgets, resource plans, planning/briefing documents, etc.
• Communicating plans, progress and critical issues to internal and external stakeholders.
• Building alignment on team priorities and plans and providing input, intervention, and feedback to enhance team effectiveness.
• Tracking, controlling, and reporting progress against plan.
• Identifying, tracking, and leading resolution efforts for all project-related risks and issues, and communicating positive and negative deviations from project plans to senior management.
• Building collaborative teams and promoting a positive team environment and, when necessary, facilitating resolution of conflicts between functional groups while maintaining objectivity.
• A typical project will involve the development of a new chemical entity and start with the identification and evaluation of potential applications and markets. R&D; would then develop the formula for the active drug and the project would move into the process and formulation development. From there the project would advance to pre-clinical trials, IND filing and, upon approval, phase I trials. Of course, many projects will vary from this precise outline.

Keys to success:

To be an outstanding Project Manager, you will flourish in a dynamic culture that is peopled by talented and intelligent professionals who hold themselves accountable to high standards. In order to elicit buy-in from those over whom you have no direct authority, you’ll need to present rational and compelling cases; in addition, you’ll need a certain amount of persuasive charisma and a thick skin to handle the give-and-take of our entrepreneurial environment.

To excel in this role, you will:

• "Manage up,?bringing facts and figures to your interactions with the CEO, as well as the decisiveness and clarity that comes from staying one step ahead on all your projects.
• Leverage your excellent interpersonal skills to communicate effectively with a wide variety of people, from corporate CEOs to regulatory bureaucrats to bench scientists.
• Develop productive relationships based on trust, integrity, and competence.
• Assume ownership of your projects and demonstrate your commitment to our shared vision of improving the quality of life.
• Achieve your goals with a great deal of autonomy and independence.
• Remain flexible at Nastech we pride ourselves on our ability to respond quickly to new discoveries from R&D; as well as market opportunities.

If this sounds like the right mix of challenge and opportunity for you, and you meet the minimum qualifications, we want to hear from you!

Please apply online at: www.nastech.com.

Nastech Pharmaceutical Company Inc. is an Equal Opportunity Employer committed to hiring the best qualified individuals.

Nastech Pharmaceutical Company Inc.

Nastech Pharmaceutical Company Inc. is an Equal Opportunity Employer

Submitted: 03/13/2006