At Gubra, we are entering an exciting new phase with a strengthened strategic focus on early discovery and pipeline innovation. To support this ambition, we are expanding our Drug Discovery Innovation area to accelerate the identification and advancement of novel therapeutic opportunities within cardiometabolic disease, inflammation & immunology, and age-related diseases.
This newly created role offers a unique opportunity to play a central scientific role in shaping discovery strategies, advancing novel target concepts, and influencing future pipeline direction in a highly collaborative and innovation-driven research environment.
Your new department
Drug Discovery Innovation (DDI) is at the forefront of Gubra’s efforts to build the next generation of early therapeutic discovery.
The department combines expertise across disease biology, translational science, computational discovery, and early therapeutic research to identify and advance novel therapeutic opportunities within cardiometabolic disease, inflammation & immunology, and age-related diseases.
As part of Gubra’s strengthened focus on pipeline innovation and early discovery, DDI plays a central role in shaping discovery strategies, driving target identification efforts, and building scalable, data-driven discovery capabilities.
We work in a highly collaborative and interdisciplinary environment where scientific curiosity, translational thinking, and innovation are central to how we discover and advance new therapeutic opportunities.
The role
As Principal Scientist, you will play a key role in shaping and driving early discovery activities across Gubra’s strategic focus areas.
You will contribute deep scientific expertise while helping strengthen scientific direction, prioritization, and execution across discovery activities.
In this role, you will provide scientific leadership across multidisciplinary discovery efforts, helping to coordinate and advance target discovery campaigns from early biological hypotheses to high-value therapeutic opportunities.
Working closely with cross-functional teams, you will integrate biological, translational, and competitive insights to identify novel targets, refine therapeutic hypotheses, and support strategic portfolio decisions.
Your responsibilities
- Drive and shape discovery campaigns aligned with Gubra’s strategic focus areas
- Provide scientific leadership across discovery activities and multidisciplinary project teams
- Lead and coordinate cross-functional discovery efforts to advance novel therapeutic concepts
- Identify and mature novel therapeutic targets and concepts from early hypothesis to pipeline opportunities
- Integrate disease biology, translational insights, and competitive intelligence to strengthen target rationale and value propositions
- Provide clear scientific recommendations to support data-driven portfolio decisions
- Contribute to the evaluation of external innovation opportunities, partnerships, and business development activities
- Collaborate closely across discovery, translational, and computational disciplines
- Mentor and support colleagues across the organization
Your profile
You hold a PhD in life sciences and bring significant experience from biotech and/or pharmaceutical drug discovery environments.
In addition, you will likely:
- Have 7+ years of experience within target identification and early drug discovery
- Bring proven expertise within one or more relevant disease areas, such as cardiometabolic disease, inflammation & immunology, and/or age-related diseases such as sarcopenia
- Have a strong track record of progressing discovery concepts through multidisciplinary collaboration
- Are scientifically curious and strategically minded, with the ability to connect biology to therapeutic opportunity
- Thrive in collaborative environments and communicate effectively across scientific disciplines
- Possess solid analytical and problem-solving capabilities
Experience leveraging human data and translational approaches in target discovery is considered an advantage.
Why join Gubra?
At Gubra, you will join an ambitious and growing discovery organization with a strong scientific foundation and an entrepreneurial mindset.
We offer a highly collaborative and integrated research environment where close interaction across disciplines enables rapid translation of scientific insights into novel therapeutic opportunities.
In this role, you will have the opportunity to directly influence scientific direction, shape discovery strategies, and contribute to building the next generation of innovative therapeutic opportunities with meaningful impact for patients.
Contact and Application
Please apply using the ”Apply” button. The deadline is June 10, 2026. We will hold the first round of interviews during the week commencing June 15, 2026.
If you have questions regarding the role please contact Senior Director DDI, Maja Kirkegaard Jensen, mje@gubra.dk.
We are looking forward to receiving your application.
About Gubra
Gubra is an ambitious contract research organisation (CRO) and biotech company striving for excellence at all levels. We insist on doing things efficiently – and often differently - to reach the results we aim for. Our vision is to become leaders in the fight for a more sustainable and healthier world. We do that by facilitating the discovery of new medicine, and by acting and inspiring others to fight the ongoing climate and biodiversity crises.
Gubra’s activities are focused on the early stages of drug development and are organised in two highly synergistic business areas: CRO Services and Discovery & Partnerships (D&P). We generate our revenue by performing research for life science companies as well as by partnering projects from our discovery and development pipeline.
Our therapeutic focus is within metabolic and fibrotic diseases, and we specialize in in vivo pharmacology, ex vivo assays, drug profiling, histology, stereology and whole brain and organ imaging. In addition, we offer a full palette of advanced transcriptomics. Our ML/AI-driven peptide drug discovery platform streaMLine enables us to rapidly develop a peptide hit into a non-clinical candidate ready for development. Through a constant focus on high quality, scientific excellence, speed, and solid teamwork we have established ourselves as a highly professional and competent partner in the market.
People are our greatest asset, and our team consists of around 300 employees. The mix of people from different cultures and educational backgrounds combined with our entrepreneurial mindset have greatly impacted our working environment, which is characterized by entrepreneurial drive, scientific curiosity, and teamwork – we join forces!
